The future of Winchester Town is the subject of a new report from WCC but it's obscured by housing targets says Brine.
The future of Winchester Town is the subject of the latest Local Development Framework Report. The Report considers how the district can meet its housing requirements over the next twenty years, and how to ensure that we retain and diversify jobs, allowing local people to live and work in Winchester.
Four sites have been examined in detail to find the most sustainable solution. Councillors will be asked to consider this approach at the LDF Cabinet meeting on 28 January.
The Report concludes that to create a balance of employment and housing, parts of two sites on the edge of the town, being the area previously occupied by the army on Bushfield Camp, and part of Barton Farm, should be allocated for development. These options will form part of a district wide set of Preferred Options for a revised planning framework for the district, which will be subject to public consultation in May/June 2009.
Land to the south of Well House Lane on Barton Farm is proposed as the most sustainable option to accommodate 2000 of the homes that the City Council is required to find sites for by the South East Plan. The report concludes that land to the north of Well House Lane should not be developed.
Government Inspectors have twice accepted Barton Farm is a suitable site for development, and have only refused permission because its new homes were not required to address housing need at that time. Now the Council’s targets have changed, we are required by law to show where new housing can be accommodated. The Government requires the district to plan for new development; if the City Council fails to allocate development space then we risk losing control over where development can happen. A free-for-all for developers would see numerous less suitable areas coming forward, without infrastructure, and without the planning policies to control them.
Commenting on the publication of the Local Development Framework by Winchester City Council and the inclusion of Barton Farm, Steve Brine (Prospective Conservative MP for Winchester) said;
“I understand entirely the position Winchester City Council finds itself in; they have a legal duty to provide a plan and they have to do it in the context of centrally imposed housing targets from this wretched government. Anyone who pretends otherwise is playing political games with the future of our city and they know it.
“The LDF is a detailed considered piece of work but it always had as its starting point the need to meet the targets. My view has always been that Winchester cannot take 2,000 new houses on Barton Farm and if it does it is far from clear they will provide affordable homes for local families and young people in need of a home. We are heading into what could be a deep recession this year and given there has to be a General Election by the Spring of 2010, I will be pressing my colleagues in the Shadow Cabinet hard to ensure councils such as Winchester are able to revise their planning blueprints in the absence of regional targets at the earliest possible opportunity if they form the next Government.”
To ensure that Winchester’s economy is diverse, dynamic and sustainable long term, the Report also recommends that a previously occupied piece of land at Bushfield Camp be the preferred site for a purpose built Knowledge / Science Park to support the creative and knowledge based industries. The feasibility of such a site will be explored as part of planned consultation on the Council’s Core Strategy.
Pictured; Barton Farm (Park Road end) at present.
Elsewhere on this website …
David Cameron came to Winchester and pledged he will abolish centrally imposed housing targets if he becomes Prime Minister; see David Cameron LIVE in Winchester.