Message from the Chairman - TrustNews Spring 1995
The Star that is Winchester
In the small Trust office in the Heritage Centre is a modest sheaf of documents held together by an elastic band, a large cardboard box stuffed full of papers, plans and bound reports, and a very large cardboard box stuffed even fuller with many more papers, plans and bound reports. These three collections are respectively the Winchester Area Plan of the 1970's, the Winchester Area Local Plan of the 1980's and the still-to-be - completed Winchester District Local Plan of the 1990's.
How come? From time to time the Government issues broad guidance on the basic strategy, together with the policy for countryside, heritage, environment, housing, employment, transport etc, for each region of England -in our case the South East Region. About every ten years this is refined by Hampshire County Council in what is called the Hampshire County Structure Plan, and then refined again in great detail by the Winchester District Council. This includes the uses to which every parcel of land can be put (housing, industrial, shopping, farmland, recreation etc). The whole process takes so long that it is virtually a continuously rolling programme, and although it has its peaks as now, and its troughs immediately after publication, there is always someone in the City Council working on some aspect of a future Plan.
The Trust has been monitoring the Winchester District Local Plan (WDLP) for at least three years; in fact my predecessor gave me this task some six months before I became your Chairman!
We have now got to the stage where the final draft, or "Deposit" version as it is known, has been circulated, and the objectors and the public have put their comments down in writing. The final stage is a Public Inquiry when the Council and the objectors can present their cases in person. This will take place in Colden Common, starting in April 1995, and probably going on for two months.
Diagram of Winchester's built up area showing deep rural inroads
Although the Trust has been making comments on various subjects throughout the past three years, the one major issue upon which the Trust has felt very strongly concerns the basic geography of Winchester, constrained as it is by its hills, its river and the outline shape of the built-up area that has developed since Roman times. This progressive development has resulted in one of Winchester's most special features, and that is the way that it appears as an irregular "star", with development in the centre and in the points of the star, but with deep rural inroads in between. How many times have we heard comments that when approaching Winchester one quickly travels from open countryside to the very centre of the City - or alternatively how it is such a short distance from the centre to the peace and quiet of the farmland alongside the Andover Road, The Winnall Watermeadows, the St Cross Watermeadows, Bushfield Camp, Pitt or Teg Down.
The Trust has never turned its back on the measured development of housing in Winchester, which primarily extends the developed points of the star. However, by doing so we must not deprive Winchester of the very features that make Winchester the special place that it is; we do not wish to emulate a Basingstoke or an Andover.
The Trust will do its utmost to oppose any development schemes that reduce the depth and width of the rural inroads into the City. A serious example of this is the action of Winchester College as landowner and Cala Homes as developer, who wish to overturn the District Plan concerning land at Barton Farm. This land is classified as "Countryside", and therefore not available for development. Barton Farm lies at the closest point to the centre of the City on the Andover Road, which is one of the most important rural inroads right alongside an important approach road into the City, and a popular place for strollers and dog-walkers.
To quote the City Council's submission to the April Public Inquiry, rejecting the Winchester College proposal: "Barton Farm contributes significantly to the attractive rural approach to Winchester along the Andover Road, and provides a strong boundary to the settlement in this location. Development of this site would represent a very intrusive extension of the settlement into an area of attractive undeveloped countryside which is important to the setting of the town".
We must support our City Council!
Peninsula Barracks
It is important to have an outstanding major landscape statement made in the heart of the City on the Upper Barracks Parade Ground, but would we have been able to live with what had been proposed? If Long Block and the other Upper Barracks buildings were still a palace, or a place largely visited by tourists for a quick photograph and then catch-the-coach, then a very open and relatively barren parterre scheme might have been alright. But it is to be the centre of a residential complex and a space where those who live and work in Winchester can relax. The need is more for a garden where people can walk through, or linger, or play with their children, or enjoy the view, or simply enjoy the sunlight and shade, water and gravel, paths and lawns, whilst at the same time be aware that they are in the midst of a place with a unique historic past.
The Trust project team pored over the plans and documents for many, many weeks and days, for which they deserve our sincere thanks. Our admiration for the architect, Huw Thomas, remains undiminished for his vision and perseverance, but there are many complex issues which we believe need to be resolved before his dream can be realised. Above all, we need to see a landscape scheme which is user-friendly as well as being worthy of its important setting.
Edmonds Lodge, Christchurch Road
Included in my remarks in the 1994 Annual Report was a reference to our campaign to prevent the demolition of a large Victorian house in the Christchurch Road Conservation Area. Its replacement was to be a bulky conglomeration of four integrated houses, with garages for twelve cars in the garden. Trust action in alerting councillors and public undoubtedly led to the matter going to Appeal. The Trust financed a structural survey of the existing building and represented the case against demolition at the Public Inquiry in December 1994. Sadly we have heard that the Appeal was successful and Edmonds Lodge is to be demolished.
The Trust must now ensure that our City Council learns lessons from this experience, and does not allow the recurrence of certain failures in their procedures. These are primarily that no Councillor, including the Ward Councillors, and the Chairman of the Planning Committee, knew anything about discussions going on between City Officers and the developer for over a year. By this time, the developer had been given the firm impression that demolition would be acceptable. Secondly, at the Inquiry the representatives of the City Council were relying on a long-outdated planning policy for the Christchurch Road area dated 1971, reprinted in 1980.
There is strong demand in Winchester for large family houses. The Trust must remain alert to prevent their demolition.