Winchester Local Plan Presentation - TrustNews December 14
Keith Leaman’s gave an address on 11 November at the Winchester Local Plan Presentation
I have been impressed by the simple, clear aspirations of the Winchester Town Local Plan part 2. I think we are fortunate in having Steve Opacic as a strategic planner. Much of the result of Steve's deliberations concerning Winchester, are wholeheartedly supported by the Trust.
It is interesting to note that there has been a fair amount of interest in Cathedral cities recently. English Heritage for example have set out a report ‘The sustainable growth of Cathedral Cities and Historic Towns‘, and the Daily Telegraph published an article called ‘A prayer for Cathedral Cities’ There has been the Government sponsored Farrell report. And there is also a recently issued supplementary planning document entitled High Quality Spaces prepared by the city planning department, which is well worth looking at.
However, it is one thing to provide a strategic framework, and quite another to implement it. We already have some examples underway. Consider the Station Approach: a good brief was prepared by our local authority, a planning firm was then appointed, yet they produced a preliminary report that was unconvincing and weak in content. Lets hope the next stage is an improvement.
Barton Farm: what an opportunity for some fresh original thought! So what have we got - a fairly low-density scheme soaking up valuable land, as well as being vehicle-dominated, all reminiscent of a 1960s housing layout. Then Bushfield Camp: here we have an extraordinary policy for a commercial development. A leading landscape architect has called this area one of the keys to Winchesters setting; we consider the proposal for such commercial development to be questionable and potentially damaging. I do not think that any of these schemes give confidence in an ability to deliver the directives contained in this excellent local plan document.
The phrase ‘high design quality’ permeates throughout the local plan. What does it mean and how do you deliver it? Design is obviously not just the buildings; it is a whole list of considerations, the spaces, hard and soft landscape, materials, movement throughout the layout, the relationship to the setting and attention to detail. Only then is it possible to achieve a high design quality fit for Winchester.
To get to the ”fit for Winchester” stage you require a first-class team including a strategic thinking developer and imaginative planners. They are both rare!
So you can see how difficult it is to achieve good development. Nevertheless, Winchester should aspire to nothing less, and this Winchester Town Local Plan document is a good, well-considered start.