TrustNews Mar 22

Regenerating the Central Winchester Area

Richard Baker reports

 

 

Last December the City Council produced a 255 page report setting out the Outline Business Case for Central Winchester Regeneration (CWR). The Trust examined this report and emailed members of the Council's Scrutiny Committee a letter to express many concerns about the procurement process being proposed to regenerate the Central Area.

 

The chief concern of the Trust was that the report proposed a procurement process to select a single development partner to carry out the regeneration of the area. This approach is not consistent with the guidance contained in the Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) produced by John Thompson and Partners (JTP) that was adopted in 2018. The guidance envisaged that development would be carried out by multiple developers with multiple architectural practices. The Trust has consistently argued that to implement this approach, the Council would need to commission a masterplan, subject to public consultation and adopted. This masterplan would resolve a number of outstanding issues, and along with the SPD, would give the Council, as the major landowner and planning authority, good control over the development.

 

The Trust in its emailed letter also highlighted the outstanding matters. The resolution of issues surrounding archaeology, the Movement Strategy, the use of land on other city centre sites, the type and tenure of housing, the type and size of cultural building required, car parking, the use of the Broadway, use of the site in Middle Brook Street, if the bus station is to go elsewhere or not be required, are all outstanding. The Trust argued that these need to be resolved and embedded in an adopted masterplan before embarking on a procurement process.

 

The report to the Scrutiny Committee went on to Cabinet and finally full Council on 12 January 2022, with the Recommendation that a procurement process for the selection of a development partner for the CWR project be initiated and conducted. Twenty-one members voted for the recommendation, thirteen voted against and six abstained.

 

The proposed timetable for the procurement process is:

• February 2022    lssue contract notice

• March 2022    Stage 1 selection

• March 2022    Short list of bidders

• April to October 2022    Period of dialogue with bidders

• November 2022    Submission of final tenders

• December/January 2022    Evaluation official bids

• Spring 2023    Appointment of development partner

 

 

I ended a statement to the City Council Cabinet in September 2018 with a 'Twitter' message dated 16 July 2028:

 

"Yesterday I walked around the new 21th century quarter of Winchester. Its civic quality, architecture and public spaces are delightful. It is quite on a par with walking around the Cathedral and the College."