Chairman's Message - TrustNews Spring 1997
This year we will be celebrating 40 years since the founding of the Trust in 1957. Little has radically changed since then in either the Trust's basic aims or in the fundamental methods of its operation.
For those of you reading this newsletter who were not able to be present at the Annual General Meeting held in November 1996, I would very much like to repeat here what I said about these fundamental principles under which the Trust must operate if it is to succeed in achieving its declared primary objective. This is to preserve the character of our City, whilst ensuring that it runs reasonably efficiently and is a pleasant place in which to live.
In October 1996 the Trust hosted the annual meeting of "Southern Comfort", which is a gathering of over 20 broadly similar societies, geographically placed between Dorchester and Weymouth in the west, and Chichester and Horsham in the east. The venue for the meeting was Peninsula Barracks, where the rehabilitation as housing has been of great interest to the Trust for many years.
It was very apparent both at the gathering itself and in the subsequent mailbag, every society agreed that in order to succeed, it has to influence the decision-makers - in particular the local City, District and County Councils.
The days of ill-considered, confrontational and often rude letters are no longer (or perhaps have never been) effective. There was a short period about 25 years ago when the Trust fell into this trap, and temporarily lost the respect of the City Council, and was rarely listened to.
The reality today is that life is more complicated, and pressures on everybody are greater. It is therefore absolutely essential that an organisation with the aims of the Trust must:
- be expert. It must have on tap its dedicated architects, planners, landscapers and the like, whether retired or active, balanced by similarly interested and dedicated lay people.
- fully understand the planning system, and how to work it to the best advantage in order to achieve the Trust's objectives.
- recognise who carries weight in the Councils, who people listen to, and who are ineffective windbags or who say nothing. Those who carry weight must be - yes - lobbied and influenced to put forward and support the Trust's opinions.
In order to carry out our business, about twenty people are elected to sit on the Council of the Trust. The Council in turn elects people to sit on various specialist committees and panels to study on-going matters on a continuous basis, or to consider specific projects within a limited time scale.
The twenty people on the Council of the Trust (about 50% experts and 50% lay people) are individuals with their own opinions, and like members of any formalised committee, they have the opportunity to seek opinions from other Trust members, to say their piece in the Trust Council, and when it comes to decision-making time they can nod their heads from side to side or up and down, or, on the relatively rare occasions when a formal vote is taken, to vote according to their own individual decision.
WHITHER THE WINCHESTER HERITAGE CENTRE?
After receiving full moral and financial support in its setting up from the City and County Councils, the Heritage Centre ran from 1983 until 1995 within the bounds of the financial limits set by the Trust, and assisted by a grant from the City Council which covered the rent payable on the building. Thereafter, the calendar of events ran as follows:
- March 1995. The sudden loss of the grant from the City Council
- May 1995. The adventurous and imaginative decision to take out a long lease on the building and the adjacent land at the back, in order to build a purpose-designed viewing arena for Roger Brown's model of the City, and to refurbish the existing Heritage Centre. Our objective was to make a significant addition to the City's bank of educational and tourist activities, and also to increase our income, and so make the Heritage Centre self-supporting
- May 1996. The submission of the highly-commended application to the Heritage Lottery Fund to make it all possible, provided that we could raise the necessary partnership funding.
- January 1997. The decision of the Lottery Fund to reject us.
The reasons for rejection were that firstly that the scheme was not sufficiently identified as a "tangible heritage asset", and secondly that the project lacked the wholehearted support of the City Council, who had in fact precipitated the Trust's action by withdrawing their grant.
Since a re submission to the Lottery Fund, or any attempt to raise the necessary funds by ourselves seemed unlikely to succeed, we have decided to investigate immediately the financial viability of putting the Heritage Centre activity into cold storage and asking the City for a long lease on the Heritage Centre building alone. Provided that we can obtain the necessary planning consent for change of use, we would then convert the first floor into a headquarters for the Trust, and sub-let the ground floor in order to obtain an income.
This is indeed a sad time for Chris Webb, his management team, and all the stewards and helpers who have worked so hard over the years with such enthusiasm. We thank them, and hope that at some time in the future a magic wand will be waved and the Heritage Centre activity can start again.
TRAFFIC
The Trust has continued to support the application for the completion of the extension to the Bar End Park and Ride, for the Winchester-wide reasons given in the Trust's policy document on the subject.
Following its previous approval by the City Council, the application was approved by the County Council in December 1996, and is now with the Secretary of State for Environment for his decision.
We continue to support strong measures to reduce the traffic in Gamier Road, which we believe to be generated primarily by traffic going between the M3 and Winchester south of the High Street, and only marginally affected by the Park and Ride at Bar End.
Finally, the Trust supports the construction of the second Park and Ride site in the Bushfield area, and has recently formed a small committee to investigate the future and conflicting uses for the sites in the area; these include the possibility of open space, recreation and sports facilities, and the Park and Ride site. The primary owners of the Bushfield Camp site, the Church Commissioners, are pressing for some housing in the area, but it is very unlikely that this would receive Trust support.