Local Planning 1957-2017 - TrustNews July 17
Winchester has had the good fortune to escape the impact of the industrial revolution and damage in the Second World War. Before the War the 1980 Town Planning Scheme for Winchester created the basis for planning in the City for the next 40 years. Emphasis was on the curtailment of ‘ribbon development’, the need to remove through traffic with a proposal for a Winchester by-pass, built in 1933, and the allocation of land at Winnall for industry. Immediately after the War, the town planner, Patrick Abercrombie, produced a plan for the improvement of the Guildhall and Cathedral Area, which recommended much redevelopment, including the Guildhall itself. These improvements’ were to survive only in archive form.
Ten years before the Trust was formed, the 1947 Town and Country Planning Act came into operation. The Act laid the foundation for present day planning. It introduced the idea of development plans and the process for making and determining planning applications. At that time Winchester Council was responsible just for the City. The areas beyond the City were in the charge of Winchester Rural District Council, whose headquarters were at 45 Romsey Road. The rural area extended from Micheldever in the north to the coast at Hamble in the south.
Hampshire County Council had a County Planning Officer to produce development plans on behalf of the district councils As a precursor to the production of a City of Winchester Town Map 1955, the County produced a Comprehensive Development Area Programme and Designation Map for the Brooks area that was approved by the MOHLG (Minister of Housing and Local Government) in 1955. This programme called for the widening of St George’s Street, the construction of a Central Car Park and the clearance of unfit houses in the area between Upper Brook Street and the River ltchen.
Sir Patrick Abercrombie was commissioned to survey the area and plan its future development. This resulted in the present-day housing east of Lower Brook Street and north of Friarsgate and the demolition of parts of Colebrook Street to make way for the building of the Wessex Hotel.
The Winchester Town Centre Map 1955, and its subsequent 1966 Amendment, provided for substantial expansion of the town in the north (Abbotts Barton), west (Harestock and Teg Down), and south-west (Olivers Battery and Badger Farm).
A ten-year action plan was formulated in 1965 and formed the basis for major highway proposals to be incorporated into the 1968 Town Centre Map. In 1966 the King’s Worthy link was constructed, and removed the need for traffic on the A34 from having to go through the city. This was followed by road proposals for a three-quarter ring road around the west, north and eastern sides of the central area. Proposals were also being prepared for a traffic management scheme for the town centre (1970), providing for the pedestrianisation of part of the High Street and the introduction of a one-way system. In 1970 the Westgate Study represented the last thoughts, at that time of large-scale comprehensive redevelopment of a major part of the town centre.
The 1960's had seen an emerging realisation for historic towns, that new development and highway proposals should be restrained in the interests of conservation. In 1962 the Garton Report identified areas of architectural Interest in Winchester. In 1967 the Civic Amenities Act introduced the concept of conservation areas, to protect and enhance areas of historic and architectural interest. Like Abercrombie’s plan for the Guildhall, the three-quarter ring road proposals and the Westgate Study were consigned to the archives.
In 1974 local government was reorganised. Winchester City Council expanded to cover the City and the rural areas previously part of Winchester Rural District Council, except for the southern area between Fair Oak and Hamble, which became part of Eastleigh Borough Council.
The new Winchester District Council became a Local Planning Authority, responsible for development plans, conservation areas and development control under a City Planning Officer, Jack Thompson. The County Council was responsible for the production of Structure Plans which had been introduced in 1968. As they evolved they had to comply with Regional Planning Guidance in the mid 1980's. The town centre was covered by the Mid-Hampshire Structure Plan. Structure Plans were abolished in 2004, followed by Regional Plans in 2009.
In 1979, the draft Winchester Town Centre Plan was produced. This Plan recognised that the Town Maps produced by the County had served their purpose. The City Traffic Plan had been reviewed and the three-quarter ring road had been reduced or abandoned. Failures in redevelopment proposals contained in the Westgate Study were acknowledged, and attitudes towards conservation were recognised. This resulted in the rejection of the comprehensive development proposals of the 1950’s and 1960's, in favour of gradual renewal. There was evidence that roads in Winchester were operating near their capacity and that provision of public car parking was not adequate. The Carfax site next to Winchester railway station was allocated primarily for office development, the Central car park for major shopping development and a permanent market. 25 small sites were identified for development or redevelopment for housing. The Easton Lane Link Road was scheduled for construction in 1979-80 and improvements to the A33 by-pass were proposed, to materialise in the extension of the M3 motorway through Twyford Down.
The Town Centre Plan was incorporated into the Winchester Area Plan, adopted in 1987, which covered the City and the District. This set out a strategy to contain the growth of the City and protect the distinctive landscape and townscape qualities of the town. The Plan made proposals for the redevelopment of Peninsula Barracks, the Carfax site and the Central car park.
In 1998 the Winchester District Local Plan continued the allocation of land at Peninsula Barracks for comprehensive development, land at West Downs School, Romsey Road and land at the former YMCA site in Dean Lane for housing. The plan promoted retail warehousing at the junction of Easton Lane and Moorside Road, and the use of Bushfield Camp for recreational facilities.
The 1998 Plan was superseded by the Winchester District Local Plan review in 2006. This review imposed a requirement from the last County Structure Plan Review, for a reserve Major Development Area at Winchester City North (Barton Farm). It proposed a mixed-use development for 2 hectares of land between the Broadway and Friarsgate. It identified a shortfall of recreation space and proposed Bushfield Camp as the most appropriate location for playing fields. Park and Ride car parks were promoted in and around Winchester together with a policy that no permissions be given for additional car parks in the town centre.
The current local plan for Winchester is the adopted Winchester District Local Plan 2017. With the demise of Regional and Structure Plans this is a ‘bottom up‘ plan identifying the land use needs for Winchester and the District. The Plan sets out policies for the development of sites at ‘Silver Hill’, Station Approach and Bushfield Camp to meet employment and retail needs. The implementation of planning permissions for 2000 houses at Barton Farm, 208 houses on the Police Headquarters site in Romsey Road, and 200 houses at Pitt Manor along with allocations on small housing and ‘windfall’ sites meant that no further allocation of land for housing was required to meet the foreseeable needs of the town.
The process of reviewing the Plan will begin next year. Hopefully this exercise will be informed by a Transport Strategy for Winchester currently being prepared by Hampshire County Council and progress on development proposals for the perennial sites, Central Regeneration Area (Silver Hill), Station Approach and Bushfield Camp. Other emerging issues will be policies in the Local Plan to be produced by the South Downs National Park Authority, the expansion plans of the University of Winchester and the future of sites at River Park and 83 hectares of land at Flowerdown Barracks to be vacated by the Army in 2021.