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TrustNews Jun 22

Chairman's Jottings

Winchester High Street, early 19th century
Winchester High Street, early 19th century (Photo City of Winchester Trust)


 

I expect many of you will have seen the article on Jack Thompson in the Hampshire Chronicle a few weeks ago. I thought it would be interesting to consider how Winchester and District's planning issues were addressed at the time that Jack was Director of Planning, that is from 1974-1990, and compare them to planning procedures today. Much of the article (which you can find on page 10) is based on my memory as an architect who started an office at roughly the same time as Jack arrived to take up the Winchester City planning directorship, so the memory cells may be found wanting from time to time! If so, l invite others to write in and correct me, or add their consideration on the subject.

 

Apart from two headline proposals that the department inherited, I do recall during Jack's tenure that there were a fair number of housing estate planning applications arriving on Winchester's planning desks, most of which, if not all, the planning department wrestled with in order to try and improve the layouts, materials etc. A struggle then with volume developers, which is replicated today, so this leads on to my next subject: has volume housing improved?

 

Despite the government and local authorities making efforts to improve the way housing estates are delivered, they, in my opinion, still generally fail to deliver a place that is a pleasure to visit, a place that provides a community spirit which can be enjoyed by the inhabitants.

 

Volume builders are not particularly interested in context, place-making or community health; they are only interested in delivering an estate using a standard formula which obeys all the basic rules set out by the various authorities. They therefore end up churning out similar estates all over the country, and we are left with developments where the vehicle is the most important requirement and everything else, including people, comes second. In fact, land use take up for vehicle requirements is roughly 50%, with the other 50% for houses and gardens. Builders also consider that potential purchasers prefer detached houses set a metre or so apart, which does not result in a sense of place but does tend to project an unfriendly, regimented ribbon development.

 

In a recent White Paper on estate planning, the Government uses the word 'well designed' many times, but there is no explanation as to what good design means. I am certain that if you asked ten people to describe the phrase, you would receive ten very different answers to the problem of what constitutes good design.

 

Keith Leaman