Development Control Committee - TrustNews Summer 1994
A lot can happen in six months.
At the beginning of the year we were expecting a battle with Tesco to prevent their setting up shop at Bar End. Their appeal has been withdrawn, for their operations are now to be based at Winnall (together with a large DIY outlet), and the city centre may have cause to regret the additional traffic that will be generated as a result. There also remains the time-bomb of what use will be proposed for the Bar End land purchased by Tesco; because of its cost it seems unlikely that it will be allowed to remain as a playing field, and consequently this approach into Winchester may still be at risk.
Six months ago permission had recently been given for a high-density development on the lower Peninsula Barracks site, and an attractive lower-density scheme for both the upper and lower barracks sites had just been proposed. The Trust supported the latter scheme, both verbally and financially, but who would then have thought that the low-density scheme treating the upper and lower barracks as a single entity (something that originally everyone wanted) would now be the accepted proposal?
We were then also facing up to an influx of building societies into the High Street; they have now settled in, for better or for worse, and we are adjusting to the visual and commercial change they have brought to the city centre.
Other large schemes that could affect Winchester's future, especially as regards traffic generation, were also in the offing. These included several housing schemes: on Romsey Road at the entrance to King's School, which is now completed; at West Downs School, where no building work has yet taken place and the main activity has been provided by the staff of the County Hospital using part of the grounds for parking while improved facilities for parking their cars are made in the hospital grounds. Here the construction of the multi-storey car park progresses by leaps and bounds, as do the repairs of the listed Butterfield Block.
Also in the pipeline were housing developments at Upper Brook Street and Airlie Road; works at the former site are largely completed and those at the latter are still in progress.
Carlisle House and Lee House in St Thomas Street
Although most of the applications made during the past six months have on the whole been less momentous for the future of Winchester than those discussed in our last Newsletter, it is good to know that the Trust has been able to influence the outcome of some of these proposals. One such was an application by the new owner of the Southgate Hotel, who approached us at the beginning of the planning process because he wanted to remove any avoidable delays from the planning procedures. We were unhappy about the changes proposed for the roof of the building, since they would have involved removing part of the pitched roof to install a large square water tank, and after discussion it has been agreed that special tanks can be fitted within the existing roof structure so that the roofscape of this Listed Building can remain intact.
The Trust is also concerned about the future of Carlisle House and the adjoining Lee House in St Thomas Street. Carlisle House is currently under consideration for use for Night shelter, a very beneficial use on social grounds. It is however less desirable within the remit of the Trust's raison d'être, which is to preserve the character of the city of Winchester. Carlisle House is a Listed Building of some size and importance and it was feared that, unless 24-hour supervision can be guaranteed, the fabric of the building might be damaged, or at worst, be destroyed by fire. The Trust therefore objected to this proposed use of Carlisle House.
Six months ago we were commiserating with the planners over their lack of legal control over activities in Conservation Areas; now we are taking them to task for not making the best use of those controls that they still possess.
Edmond's Lodge, 86 Christchurch Road
The trigger that roused us to action was an application to demolish Edmond's Lodge, 86 Christchurch Road, the claim being that the structure was not worth saving because of its bad condition. The building is a typical component of a part of the Conservation Area that largely consists of Victorian houses; it also happens to be one of a row of three similar houses and because of this its loss would be especially damaging to the character of the road. This part of the city's Conservation Area has already suffered considerable damage from planning permissions given in the '60s and '70s that are now considered as mistaken (to put it leniently), and indeed on one side of Edmond's Lodge there is what can only be called an aberration of planning consent from that period. Although the bulk and mass of the proposed three-storey building would be similar tom that of the present two-storey house, and its detailing aims to copy that of its older neighbours; on a three-storey building the features appropriate for a substantial two-storey house seem out of scale and the Trust objected on the grounds that the new building would be detrimental to the Conservation Area.
It then became apparent that the City officers would be recommending the scheme for approval to the Planning Committee, on the grounds that the cost of repairs and renovation would be too expensive to be economically viable. We felt very strongly that to give this consent would set a very dangerous precedent for the future of Winchester's Conservation Areas, because no use had been made of a relevant paragraph in the Winchester Area Local Plan. This stated that consent to demolish a building (whether listed or not) in a Conservation area would not normally be granted unless it could be shown that the building was wholly beyond repair or incapable of reasonable beneficial use. The Trust was not convinced that this was so in this instance and indicated that it was prepared to back this opinion by offering to pay for a survey of the building by an independent expert. We are now waiting to hear whether this offer will be accepted, before deciding our future action.
We intend to continue questioning the Planning Department's present policy on Conservation Areas, which seems primarily to be based on the expediency of being sure that an appeal against a refusal will not be upheld. If Conservation Areas are worth having we should be prepared to protect them, even if on occasions this might seem to be tilting at windmills. This is especially so now that there are signs of a more sympathetic attitude toward Conservation Areas coming from central government.
An application for a development on the site at the junction of Union Street and North Walls with Durngate for the care of the elderly mentally infirm is currently in the pipeline, and the Trust has recently had a presentation of the scheme.
The Development Control Committee is glad to report that each viewing panel now has a qualified architect as one of its members, and a professional opinion is therefore part of our weekly comments.
Members of the Trust wishing to participate in the protection of the environment of their city will be interested to know that in the Council is encouraging comments from members of the public during the fifteen minutes before the formal business of the monthly meetings of the Planning Committee. A team of planning officers has also been set up to monitor breaches of planning control and to enforce the decisions reached by our planning representatives. The enforcement team would be glad to hear about any undesirable events that you may notice: they can be reached at the Planning Office on Winchester 848177.