Profile: Development Control - TrustNews Summer 1993
In this and subsequent issues of the Newsletter, we shall highlight the work done by the various committees of Trust. In this issue Shione Carden. Chairwoman, describes the work of the Development Control Committee.
Did you know that every Tuesday morning a panel meets to examine the weeks' planning applications?
Yes it's true, on Tuesday mornings four Trust members can be seen poring over a pile of plans in one of the interview rooms in the Planning Offices at Avalon House in Chesil Street. They will spend anything between one and three hours examining the week's planning applications of schemes proposed for wards of Winchester where there are no parish council representatives. These are in the central area of the city and extend to include the northern half of Olivers Battery, part of Harestock, the Hyde Conservation, northwards to the boundaries of Headbourne Worthy and Kings Worthy, and to the boundaries of the parishes of Easton and Chilcomb to the east and of Compton and Twyford to the South.
Past local government reorganisations have meant that those living within the boundaries of the City of Winchester have lost a level of representation: although they still have City councillors to look after their personal problems they have no parish councillors to act as an additional check when events intrude into a particular neighbourhood. The Trust does not presume or aim to replace a parish council's role in dealing with general problems, but does feel it has a part to play in commenting on changes that will affect the City's character and built environment. The main aim of the Trusts Development Control Committee is therefore to monitor the effect a scheme will have on the character and visual properties of the local neighbourhood as a whole: the disadvantages it may have on an immediate neighbour is of secondary importance (although they are bound to be taken in to account to some extent). since this can be better dealt with by the councillor representing the ward.
Two alternating panels check the applications every week; when a scheme is likely to have a major effect on the environs of Winchester, both panels examine the applications and their comments after consultations with the Landscape Committee where this is appropriate, are combined to make a consensus opinion - not always an easy task when the panels have different views! The Trust's weekly comments are sent to the City's Planning Department, and when there is an objection to a scheme, these comments are also sent to the Chairman of the Planning Committee. If a scheme has especially wide-ranging effects, such as Tesco's proposed supermarket at Bar End or the development of Peninsula Barracks, the matter will be referred back to the Council of the Trust or the architects may be asked to make a presentation of the scheme to panel members and sometimes also the Trust's Council. An amalgam of the opinions expressed after such events are then presented to the City as the Trust's comments, which is even more difficult to do than combining the differing comments of two panels!
Some members of the Development Control Committee
examining plans at the City Council Offices
A team of regular members makes up each panel and there is a reserve of other Trust members who fill in when a regular panellist is unable to attend. These reservists are especially valuable during the holiday season, and it is virtually impossible to have too many of them. So if anyone would like to help with this interesting aspect of the Trust's activities and is free on Tuesday mornings, please let me know.
Besides this regular weekly activity, letters may also be written to the Department of the Environment when an application goes to appeal after it has been refused by the City. Since any favourable comments we may have made will be part of the evidence presented on appeal, we usually only write when our views coincide with the City that the scheme should be resisted. We then give them strong support, although our reasoning and arguments may sometimes differ from theirs.
We keep in touch with the Planning Officers, especially the City's Conservation Officer, with whom we and our Listed Building expert often confer. We also liaise closely with the Trust's Landscape Committee, whose activities overlap to some extent with our own because of the joint effect that the built and natural components of a scheme can have on the general character of Winchester, especially when it takes place in a Conservation Area.