Chairman's Message - TrustNews Summer 1999
Our periodic Newsletters are opportunities to update you on the activities of the Trust. But I have a plea to make to the Membership. Communication should not be all one way. So please if you have views and concerns please write and let us know of them. That is very important.
Mrs. Margaret Salmon
It is with regret that I have to report the death of Margaret Salmon, who used to work in the Heritage Centre. Her obituary may be found in this Newsletter.
Resignation from the Council of the Trust
Antony Feltham-King has tendered his resignation from the Council of the Trust, and this I have reluctantly accepted. His practice is expanding and he found that his work load was preventing him from giving the amount of time to the Trust that he thought was needed. He has for sometime been an excellent and energetic Chairman of the Projects Committee and as such will be sadly missed. On your behalf I have thanked him for all his work for the Trust and for his wise counsel in our deliberations. He will continue to be a valued member of the Trust and we will welcome his renewed and active participation in our affairs when he is able to afford the time.
The Heritage Centre
The building work is nearly complete and we are planning to move the office back to 32 Upper Brook Street in the month of June. Hopefully the flats will be ready for letting then. We will have an office for the Trust of which we can be proud, and two flats which will produce an income for our work.
I am very grateful to the Treasurer and his long-suffering wife for allowing the Trust's Office to operate from their spare bedroom during the building work. Without their help we would have found it very difficult to run the day-to-day business of the Trust and its administration.
Morn Hill
Sadly the City Council saw fit to give consent to the application for the NTL teleport and the INTECH buildings. In spite of representations to the Minister and to the Government Office for the South East, the City Councils decision was upheld. Work on the site will continue well into 2001. The Trust's views on this are known to you. The Council see it as a statement of Winchester in the new millennium. So be it, and we can only hope that the development of this prominent site on the perimeter of Winchester will not become a 'wart on the face of an old friend'.
White's Field, St.Cross
Planning consent has now been given for the development of Worthy House for Prince's Mead School. This, for the moment, takes the pressure off the possible development of White's Field. We will be watching to see what will now happen to this piece of land on the edge of the water meadows.
Broadway & Friarsgate Development
Canon Street, 1999
The over-riding concern of the Trust is that the development, its architecture, the urban plan and the detailing of the open spaces should all be of the highest quality. Developers, in particular, are not known for employing good architects and planners, and when they do, design often becomes suppressed by other priorities. The Trust therefore believes that the Planning Department should have officers who have a high level of understanding of design and be able to bring forward solutions compatible with the character of the city and be able to confidently advise the Planning Committee. The Chief Planning Officer does not agree and considers that voluntary bodies such as the Architects Panel and the Preservation Trust should fulfil these roles.
However, the Trust is in a continuing dialogue with the Planning Department in an effort to persuade it to recommend the employment of a powerful design consultant to mastermind this development. The Trust is very apprehensive that the lack of such expertise will result in another 'Brooks Centre' or something much worse.
The Future of Winchester Study
The Trust is also very unhappy with the way in which the questionnaire, sent out with the 'Update' document, was framed. The City Council is to be praised for forward planning and for involving the residents and the introductory text is wise and even¬handed, but the questions seem simplistic and are incapable of being answered without qualification.
The Trust has had published a letter in the Hampshire Chronicle (16.4.99) on the subject. A letter has also been sent to the Chief Planning Officer, with copies to all Councillors.
The fear is that there may be a hidden agenda, and that the Council and the Planning Officers have already decided the basic policy and hope to get the answers they want by asking leading questions. We hope that this is not so. The document also gives the impression that if the city does not expand, it will die; but no proof is offered for this hypothesis. The Trust is confident that the citizens of Winchester do not want their historic and unique city to become another Basingstoke. Big city facilities, for those who want them, are already available a short journey away.
We await a reply from the Planning Department in this matter. In the meantime we would ask the Membership to voice their views and concerns to their Ward and County Councillors and to air them in our local papers. This and the Broadway & Friarsgate development are so important. If the wrong turnings are taken, the character of our city may be damaged beyond repair.
'Winchester City and its Setting'
The consultants report on 'Winchester City and its Setting' has now been published. The report was commissioned by Hampshire County Council, Winchester City Council, The Hampshire Gardens Trust, The Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust and the Winchester Preservation Trust. All these organisations were funding partners, but the main source of finance was The Countryside Commission. It is a most interesting and readable document and its findings will be of great value to planners for years to come.
It is available for inspection at the Local Studies Section at the Lending Library in Jewry Street Library. Two copies are available for borrowing from The Heritage Centre. A few copies are also available for sale at the price of £20.00: postage & packing extra; the cost will depend on destination.
STOP PRESS
PLEASE NOTE
our change of address:
32 Upper Brook Street
Summer walks
The programme was published in the last edition of the Newsletter. This year we have decided to increase the events 10 to 12 due to great popularity.
The Presidents Garden
Our President and Lady Ramsbotham have kindly agreed to open their garden to Members on Friday 3rd September;5.30pm to 8.00pm.
AGM
Monday 1st November; time and place to be confirmed. Sir Richard Rogers will give a talk on urban space
I hope to meet many of you at these events and on other occasions during the year.