Policy Group Report - TrustNews March 08
The Trust policy group has responsibility for looking at new policy documents and proposals which affect the City. Several Trust Council members meet to prepare responses to consultations from the City Council. Most recently we attended the workshop in the Guildhall on 17 January about the new-style development plan for Winchester over the next 20 years. We have just put together a Trust response dealing mainly with the vision and strategic objectives for the City, transport issues, how to provide affordable housing and the right mix of new housing. This exercise was fraught with difficulty where we were faced with questions which could not be given simple yes/no answers. We felt that some aspects of the environment must be made sacrosanct and that we should acknowledge the conflict but seek a commitment to evaluate priorities in the later stages of the plan.
The Policy Group has also considered several aspects of sustainability. The Trust has joined the Winchester Action on Climate Change Group and we attend its steering group. We have been pressing the City Council and the developers of the Silver Hill scheme to ensure as far as possible that the development will have "flagship" credentials for sustainability. We have contributed to and endorsed the response which the Winchester Climate Change Group put forward pressing for, among other things, the highest standards for carbon reduction in new development.
We also considered the Inspectors' Report on the South East Plan which is now being considered by Government. We were encouraged by the plan's original statement about the unique character of Winchester, but were then alarmed by the Inspectors' downplaying the historic and conservation issues. The next stage will be a response from Government, probably in early summer, and we have already given some thought to a further Trust response.
We have been talking to the City Council about the way in which their 2007 document "Vision for Winchester" will be taken forward and the City is also forming a Futures Group which we hope will be looking into the Trust's idea of a conceptual framework for development. The Trust is keen to play an important, perhaps critical, role in these two pieces of work and we wait to see what happens next.
We do know that there will be a public consultation in March on the Winchester Town Access Plan. This will set out proposals to reduce demand for car-based travel, traffic management issues and "new solutions". The policy group will be actively involved on behalf of the Trust.