TrustNews Dec 20

The Water Garden - latest episode

This could be called a Chronicle of a Planning Application Foretold. When the Water Garden by the cathedral wall was put up for sale at the very end of 2017, the details from the estate agent said: "There may be future development potential....If the future owner of the 'Water Garden' obtains planning permission for residential development, then 30% of the uplift between the current garden value and the then development value, will be paid to the current vendor of their successors in title."

At an asking price of 100,000 pounds for 0.1 acres of land, designed to be open to the public gaze and with an implied responsibility for maintenance, it was pretty obvious that the new owner, possibly with a little pressure from the previous one, with the overage clause, would apply for development sooner or later. In fact, the new owner told one of the Hampshire Gardens Trust team that he realised he'd paid over the odds, and therefore the garden would have to earn its keep.

When the City of Winchester Trust and the Hampshire Gardens Trust became aware that the garden was to be sold, they organised a joint meeting, on 4th January 2018, with the aim of persuading Winchester City Council to acquire it. In fact it was already rumoured that it had been sold, but the representative from WCC said then that the council would do all it could to protect it. In June 2018 they agreed to a request from the Gardens Trust for a Tree Protection Order on the two magnolias, and fought off an appeal against the decision by the new owner.

The Trust was alerted to the new threat, to build a house on the northern half of the garden, on 22nd October, by Janet Hurrell of HGT who had in turn been told by the owner of the adjacent house. The two trusts swung into action, with the result that the number of objections may well be a record. Not all of them are from our members, of course - in fact they‘ve come from across the world, from people who know and love the city and remember the Water Garden. At the time of writing, there are well over 600 objections.

The Trust's approach has not been to criticise the proposed house, tempting though that is, but to say that the garden should be protected from all development. There are plenty of legal as well as emotional reasons for that protection. Anything else risks leaving the door open for a better plan by a better architect.

The last date for comments to Winchester City Council was 11th November. Thank you to those members who have already written, and thank you to everyone who just breathes a little deeper, and feels a little more expansive and appreciative when confronted with beauty. Above all, thank you to Sir Peter Smithers, who designed the garden in the 1950s for public benefit. And what a shame anyone should try to turn that to private profit.

 

Judith Martin

 

After this article was written, the planning application to develop the Water Garden was refused by the City Council. There were more than 1,000 objections. [Ed.]