Winchester Movement Strategy Workshop, 9th July - TrustNews Sep 18
The Movement Strategy exercise is a joint initiative of Hampshire County Council and Winchester City Council. An introduction and background was given by Councillors Rob Humby, HCC executive member for environment and transport, and Jan Warwick, WCC portfolio holder for environment and transport.
Cath Hughes, Principal Officer, gave a summary of developments following the November Workshop in 2017, emphasising the public consultation conducted between 30th October and 8th December 2017 with responses from individuals, businesses and organizations. Council perspectives from these looked at 1) achieving the right balance 2) improving air quality 3) supporting growth and economic vibrancy.
The main issues to emerge were:
- Reducing city centre traffic by enabling better public transport and Park & Ride, provision of alternative routes and restricted access;>/li>
- Supporting healthier lifestyle choices by promoting cycling and walking;
- Improving traffic flow by radial routes, reviewing the one-way system, delivery restrictions, new routes and speed-limits;
- Harnessing technology.
Frank Baxter, Strategic Traffic Manager, reiterated the Atkins Survey 2011 census and gave updates on commuting, i.e. threefold growth by train and car into Winchester, that Park & Ride was increasing though bus connections needed improvement to combat delays inbound and outbound, that car parks had 81-85% occupancy with difficulties finding spaces, that there are the dilemmas of ‘what happens first’ and ‘who pays for it‘. One important point made was that it was impossible to bid for funding until there is a plan in place.
Sam Clark, Transport Officer, presented the 50 ideas/suggestions taken from the consultation responses for our workshop deliberations. We were then to tabulate these into the category of Enabler or Enabling as deliverable notions by rating action by affordability, public acceptability and feasibility. For example, some of the more adventurous ideas such as trams would fail the affordability test even if in the long run they might have benefits, whereas restricting city centre car parking further might be affordable but not publicly acceptable. The four group tables were then to choose those 3 measures considered
The following are the Enabling Priorities since collated from this exercise (in no particular order):
- Bus priority and bus gates (to make bus travel more advantageous), expanded P&R, reduced city centre parking combined as a single package;
- Bus gate proposals should include Stockbridge Road so that all key radials are covered (HCC apparently thinks Winchester should make much more use of buses);
- lmprove cycling and walking routes;
- Improve key junctions including one-way system;
- Restricting deliveries/collections (delivery hubs and better management of things that happen in town to control traffic ?ow);
- Reduce traffic in city centre;
- Improve air quality;
- Enhance economic viability of the city;
- A healthier lifestyle (improved walking and cycling, access and movement);
- A more pleasant city streetscape for residents, workers and visitors.
A short technical report of the workshop and the views expressed has yet to be circulated by WCC. Hopefully, this will make clearer the objectives of this Movement Strategy and indicate the development of a plan for implementation and its possible date.