Cittaslow - TrustNews Jun 06
It is now about 18 months since the City of Winchester Trust took an interest in pressing for our city to become part of the Cittaslow movement. In that time there have been three public presentations and discussions, all of which have demonstrated a groundswell of support for this movement. There have been two visits to Ludlow, which was the first Cittaslow town in UK and is therefore the UK convenor. One visit was by a group from the CWT but included a member of Winchester City’s staff. The second visit was by Winchester Town Forum members. There have also been three papers put to Town Forum members meetings and an impressive presentation to those members by the Mayor of Ludlow, Graeme Kidd.
Winchester City Council: disappointing
After all this it is disappointing that Winchester City Council seem fixated on a possible conflict between Cittaslow membership and their “Winchester Community Strategy” document. This document will remain a paper exercise (like so many) unless there are action points, public support and a steering philosophy linking the many pious aims.
For example, one of the aims is to reduce the use of fossil fuels and CO2 emissions. In this respect Woking Borough Council have shown the way with a good-practice guide for all developers, offering the incentive of more economical running costs to stimulate investment in energy-saving measures. And they have set an example by cutting their own CO2 emissions, already 77% down by 2004 from 1990 levels. Woking has done this by setting up two Combined Heat and Power generation schemes, one of which provides heat and power to their leisure centre (the excess of heat in summer being used for cooling) and exports surplus electricity to other council owned sites, mainly residential. When combined with cooling, as in this case, CHP can achieve an emissions saving of up to 80%.
Helping to save the planet
Apart from helping to save the planet, this is saving the Borough and their tenants a fortune in fuel bills. It has just been announced that average gas prices are set to increase nationally by another 25% on top of the rises seen over the past year and electricity prices will also be affected. British Gas say that rises in wholesale prices are to blame. This is just an early sign of fossil fuel scarcity.
Worthy objectives, however, such as the ones set out in the Community Strategy, remain toothless injunctions in the absence of real planning demands placed on developers.
The Mayor of London is now making such demands, leading with London’s “Climate Change Agency”. And Winchester is just as desirable a location for developers as many of the more prosperous parts of London. The difference at present is that Winchester is reactive, not proactive. Cittaslow embraces environmental, social and economic strategies. It encourages local initiatives in a virtuous circle to maximise self-sufficiency, thereby reducing transportation.
Winchester District seems still to be hooked on the idea that it is in competition with Basingstoke and Southampton to attract investment from multinational corporations. This is exactly the route to the cloned High Street that Cittaslow seeks to resist. If that is the intention of the Community Strategy, there is indeed a conflict. The City should engage with the Citizens to find out which route they would prefer.