TrustNews Dec 22

Central Winchester Regeneration

Richard Baker reports on some recent developments.

 

While the Council continues its year-long exercise to find a development partner to regenerate the Area, the Trust has objected to two planning applications lodged within the Area.

 

 

An application (22/01961) for the redevelopment of the site of the RAOB building at the northern end of Cross Keys Passage, for commercial/retail use on the ground floor and a residential block, was supported in principle by the Trust. Objection was made to the proposed height of the five storey, flat roof residential block. The height of the block would be higher than the Woolstaplers Hall to the east. The Trust suggested the block be reduced to four storeys, with the top storey being accommodated within a pitched roof.

 

The second application (22/01882), made by the Council, was for consent to demolish the Friarsgate Medical Centre and for the site to be made available for temporary use as a 'meanwhile pocket park'. The Trust objected on the grounds that the application does not comply with the Council's own policy DM28, which requires that consent to demolish a building in a conservation area needs to be supported by an approved proposal for replacement development, and not a temporary use.

 

The Central Area is one of 11 sites, both carried forward and new, allocated for development in the draft Local Plan. It confirms that planning applications for all or part of the site should demonstrate compliance with the adopted Supplementary Planning Document (2018). It makes no reference to the need to prepare a masterplan for the Area or the need to comply with the context of a Movement Strategy.