Development Control Committee - TrustNews Spring 1996
The new British Home Stores at the Brooks Shopping Centre was discussed in the Spring 1995 Newsletter, in which it was noted that the store had been putting pressure on the City to make a quick decision because of the desire to get started on the alterations without delay it was not until the start of this year that boarding screened the BHS section of the Brooks Centre and work began on internal alterations.
In contrast to these slow starters the new Tesco at Winnall, which was given planning permission at the end of May last year, is now fast nearing completion.
As all this shows, until a proposed scheme is actually built, it is never possible to give a sigh of relief and assume that all the problems have been finally resolved, as the Planning Officers are all too well aware! Sites and premises get sold on, and the new owners present applications that often contain many of the previously disputed aspects that had been ruled out because they were contrary to the aims and objectives of the local area plans. As the Trust has been asking for some years, "Why don't our Planners follow the practice of some other Local Planning Authorities of keeping a list of what is acceptable in the City's conservation areas and what information is expected in such applications and those for listed buildings?"
The threatened cottage in Tower Street
The time taken up considering the various signs proposed in the City's central conservation area seems disproportionate to the end result: would it not be more productive for all concerned to give all applicants in the City's conservation areas a guideline to the rules prevailing in their area? There is a constant flow of applications for premises in the High Street to have illuminated fascia signs and projecting or hanging signs that merely repeat the details already shown on the fascia; as a matter of policy all these are considered unacceptable in the central conservation area of Winchester and will therefore get an almost automatic refusal. There are also many applications for alterations to listed buildings that do not give either a photograph or drawing of the existing building, something that is supposedly essential for such cases and is in fact desirable for all applications, whether the building is listed or not.
If such a policy were adopted by our Planning Department much time - and possibly money - would be saved by everyone involved, and because the number of staff processing-hours would be reduced this might well offset any loss in the fees that would have been paid by the applicants, and would certainly free busy members of the Planning Department for other activities.
Plans are afoot for a housing development on land at 56 Tower Street; this involves demolishing the white cottage at the north end of the street because of its bad condition and building in its garden. The cottage is an interesting remnant of Winchester's historic past and acts as an attractive visual stop when looking towards the north, and both the Planners and the Trust would have liked to have seen it retained. However, a careful examination of the building showed that it was indeed in poor structural shape, with the east end of the cottage about to disappear down the hill onto the Scats' building below. The site is long and narrow, and the first proposal to build a terrace of six houses resulted in a three-storey building of uncertain architectural style that was much too bulky and tall for either of its immediate neighbours. The Trust therefore objected to the number of dwellings proposed because of the detrimental effect there would be on the character of that part of the conservation area, and suggested that a good modern design with proportions appropriate to the other houses on the same side of the street would be better than a building incorporating a variety of period details. We are now waiting to see what the amended scheme will be like.
A view which will be lost if the Bowls Club is built
The end of 1995 saw an application for the construction of an Indoor Bowls Club on land east of the Recreation Centre, North Walls, apparently the only location available for the site of this enormously long building that is much the same length as the Great Hall; it is not the site the Trust would have chosen for this single-storey structure because of the impact it will have on this pleasant route from the city to Hyde and to the Recreation Ground. The first scheme proposed a building more suited for a development at Winnall, so sited that it would require the felling of several of the willows (much needed for screening!) that are so characteristic of this part of the Recreation Ground. The appearance and siting of the club has been found unacceptable by the Planning Committee and the development is to be considered by a working party, which will be attended by members of the Trust. As has been shown by the recently-built Stanmore Carroll Youth Centre, there is no reaŽson why a low-cost recreational building has to look like an escapee from an industrial estate, and it is hoped that the design which evolves from these deliberations will be worthy of the attractive surroundings into which it is to be placed.
This is a sensitive position for such a large building, the location of which appears to have been decided for reasons of expediency rather than consideration of the local landscape. The Trust is very concerned at the environmental damage that the building will cause to this part of the North Walls Recreation Ground, which has already suffered as the result of previous ad hoc developments such as the skateboard area. The Trust most strongly urges the City Council to commission a detailed study of the area, so that an overall plan for its future can be drawn up and further incremental damage to this valuable green space can be avoided.