News about council house development plans for Abbotts Barton

Have you seen the latest post about the Local Development Framework part 2 briefing on the Abbotts Barton Community Group website? Please read: Abbotts Barton housing development plans almost back to square one!

It seems the Council Leader's announcement from 11 September 2013 is worth nothing after only one year: "Councillor Wood stated that when more funds became available from 2016 onwards, schemes in Westman Road, Weeke; Wilberforce Close and Somers Close, Stanmore; and Hillier Way and two garage sites at Chaundlers Road and Hussey Close, Abbotts Barton would be developed. He stated that there were no plans to develop Dyson Drive or Charles Close in Abbotts Barton in the foreseeable future."

It is good news that the main stretch along Charles Close seems to have been removed from new development plans as the community made it very clear that it would not like houses there at all. And WCC promised in today's press release that "plans also feature improved open space, recreation and community facilities, possibly including a new community building on waste land at the bottom of Hillier Way."

The land surrounding the Symonds Court buildings at Hillier Way is still the priority number one for the Council to build on.

However, instead of the two garage sites there is talk again about building on Dyson Drive green (despite a yet to be decided village green application) and (at least only) at the very end of Charles Close. Colbourne Court has been dismissed due to problems with ownership, and the garage sites have been described as too difficult to deal with. While all of us can have different opinions on whether there should be houses on any of these areas, it is undeniable that there seems to be something like a U-turn here!

There will be a consultation stage again - we are hoping that Abbotts Barton's residents will attend in even bigger numbers this time and use this opportunity again to have their say!

Have your say - Winchester City Council is developing its Local Plan Part 2

For the St Bartholomew Ward there will be a meeting on Saturday 1 March at 1 pm, at Winchester Discovery Centre (drop-in session). 

Winchester City Council issued this information (and more) on 11 February via a press release "Planning for the future of Winchester town":

"Winchester City Council is developing its Local Plan Part 2, which will include detailed planning policies for the next 15-20 years.
The Council is launching a series of events to discuss future planning issues which will be open to anyone interested in the future of the city.
The purpose of the events is to set out the planning issues currently facing Winchester town and to give people opportunity to discuss these.
Officers will give an update on the current planning situation in the local area and outline the next steps in preparing the Local Plan Part 2. This will provide an opportunity to discuss local needs and future planning issues in the area, particularly those that can be addressed through the Local Plan."

There is also a link to a Winchester Town page (within the framework of the Local plan pages) which has links to these documents:

Assessment of Windfall Trends and Potential in Winchester
Open Space Assessment

The second document underlines the lack of open space in regards to "Equipped Children’s and Young People’s Play Space", "Informal Green Space", and "Parks and Recreation Grounds" that we have been talking about all of last year. At the same time the document states that there are sufficient "Sports Grounds" - however the areas that are listed are quite different in regards to how they are available to the public (just compare North Walls Recreation Ground with a school playing field).

If you are interested at all in the Council's plans for Winchester please consider going to the meeting on 1 March!

The Leisure Centre project - have you responded to the council?

Time is running out to respond to the council on the Leisure Centre project consultation, the deadline is midnight on Monday 2 December.

Did you go to the open meeting organised by the Save the Rec group last Monday? If so, you will know that people who attended agreed that the best answer would be to tell the council that none of the presented options is acceptable, due to lack of information presented with them.

Whatever your opinion is, please let the council know:

Leisure Centre project online with link to online survey

Here are some recent reports:

Hampshire Chronicle: Winchester meeting hears leisure centre options withheld from public consultation
Winchester Today: Winchester RPLC plans “like GCSE project”
WINOL (video): Hundreds gather for 'Save the Rec' meeting
Abbotts Barton Community Group blog: The council's Leisure Centre consultation and the Save the Rec meeting

And of course the Save the Rec website.

Another green area to be built on - save our recreation ground!

As published by the Abbotts Barton Community Group:

Whether or not you are using the leisure centre and the recreation grounds at North Walls for sports, the plans of the Council to build a new centre on one of the North Walls recreation grounds should be looked at by all of us as they will affect most of us in many ways.

If you are not familiar yet with the Council's proposal please read the information provided via the Save The Rec website. There is also a link to the full Council proposal.

Most importantly: there is some chance that Councillor Keith Woods will bring his proposal to a vote at the council meeting on 6 November. If you want to write to councillors on this issue (the more the better), aim to do it before then.

On Friday (11 October) Radio Solent had a feature about the campaign in the Julian Clegg show, starting at 1:09. If you are interested, the show can be listened to for another five days.

The October edition of winchestertoday had a great editorial on the same subject:

By the way, the Save The Rec group are now also using Twitter and Facebook which for most of us are easier to follow than a website:

Twitter - Save The Rec
Facebook - Save The Rec

If you are concerned about the Council's plans please follow/like (or sign up with your email on their website) to show the group your support AND write to the Council!

The Council Leader's announcement from 11 September

Here is the actual announcement as per the 11 September Cabinet meeting notes (emphasis done by us):

Councillor Wood gave an announcement on the latest situation regarding the new homes building programme. In summary, the first priority would be the three schemes already on site which were due for completion in March 2014: Dever Close, Micheldever; Bourne Close, Otterbourne; and Station Close, Itchen Abbas. Over the next three years, it was proposed to take forward another three major schemes: The Queens Head, Stanmore; Victoria House, Winchester; and an “Extra Care” housing scheme for elderly people. If additional funds became available, small sites in Alresford, Colden Common, Otterbourne and Swanmore would be considered. Councillor Wood stated that when more funds became available from 2016 onwards, schemes in Westman Road, Weeke; Wilberforce Close and Somers Close, Stanmore; and Hillier Way and two garage sites at Chaundlers Road and Hussey Close, Abbotts Barton would be developed. He stated that there were no plans to develop Dyson Drive or Charles Close in Abbotts Barton in the foreseeable future.

Can you hear the sigh of relief coming from the community? :)

Save The Rec and Save The Parks / the Council's plan for the Leisure Centre

As today's leading article in the Hampshire Chronicle confused our campaign with the newly set up Save The Rec group here are few items to help you along:

• The article itself: Anger growing over leisure centre plans at River Park in Winchester 
• The Save The Rec website is here: http://savetherec.weebly.com/ 
• Also later today there will be a meeting held by the Council: Meeting about future of River Park Leisure Centre. (Please note that you will have to register your interest and reserve a seat to take part in the meeting. This wasn't very clear from the press release. Apparently members of the Leisure Centre have been invited - however in our household we never got an invite despite my son having a swimming membership. This should really be an open meeting as the plans affect far more people than just those with a membership at the Leisure Centre.)

There are a number of concerns about the Council's plans:

Loss of open space
During the Save The Parks campaign a number of residents of Abbotts Barton have been told by city officers that the parkland in Abbotts Barton is not that important to keep intact as there is always North Walls Recreation Ground. Needless to say, we disagree with that completely: a) North Walls is not in view by houses in Abbotts Barton (important when you have children), and b) always very busy, you can't just go there and do a community event on the weekend without colliding with many other people and groups. And now a big part of it is supposed to be built on? If the councillors keep coming up with more ideas for the destruction of green spaces in Winchester, soon all of Winchester will have to make do with whatever little space is left at North Walls! Great prospect.

Yes, we do understand that the Leisure Centre can't go on for much longer in its current state and we also understand that it needs to cater for more people than just Winchester residents -  and we also love that it's close to us. But maybe there is another way, for example splitting it up into two, with possibly a swimming pool at Bar End and an update to what exists currently?

Traffic
Also a new improved Leisure Centre as per the current plans of the Council would create quite a lot more traffic into the dead end system of Gorden Road, right past a busy school, St. Bede's. This of course is troubling parents who want to make sure they and their children can walk to school safely. And of course it would also affect the people living along those roads.

Even if the traffic flow would be changed to a one way system (in at Gordon Road, out via Park Avenue) this would not be great as there are currently a play area and a skate park which would then possibly be right next to the road, or even worse divided by it.

Equally, the path along the field in question is already very busy as it is not only one of the main walking routes to school and into town but also used a lot by cyclists (it is a shared path). Careful planning would have to be done here to make this safer for both parties, pedestrians and cyclists!


The main thing to remember is that once open space is gone, it's gone forever!

If these plans trouble you, we can only recommend for you to write to Winchester City Council once again.

Winchester City Council has removed the Abbotts Barton parks from its current council house building programme!

At last week's Cabinet meeting Council Leader Keith Wood made an announcement about an update to Winchester's council house programme. He detailed which local housing schemes will be going through and which won't be due to limited finances.
 
Over the next three years Winchester Council will not be building any new houses in Abbotts Barton! However  - when more resources will become available again -, Hillier Way and the two garage sites (also Westman Road in Weeke) are still supposed to be developed, probably within five years.

The main park in Abbotts Barton and Dyson Drive green which we were fighting for to be kept as they are (clear of houses) were not mentioned at all, so for now these should be safe. What a shift in focus by the Council!

Of course this is great news for the Abbotts Barton community and Winchester in general, and we are very happy that going forward we will be able to use our parks as we used to!

Many thanks to everybody who supported our campaign in so many different ways:

• Preparing and handing in an application for a village green status for Dyson Drive green.
• Writing petitions and spending hours going from house to house to get signatures.
• Researching numbers, laws, and maps to help with the campaign.
• Reading through Council meeting papers and reports to find information and report that back to the group.
• Attending and speaking at Council meetings on behalf of the community.
• Writing letters and emails to councillors and city officials.
• Engaging in regular conversations with councillors about what is going on.
• Engaging with the media in various ways to get our campaign out into the public.
• Running a website and Twitter account to keep everybody informed.

We are also very grateful to have received so many messages of support via our petition website!

How to stay connected
We are planning to keep an eye on Council's development plans for Abbotts Barton. If you would like to stay up-to-date over the coming years, you have a several options to do so. Using these automated options saves you from having to come back to our website manually every so often to catch news:

• Sign up with your email address to our website (this will ensure that you will get an email every time we post something here which most likely won't be very often).  
• Follow the Save The Parks Twitter account.

Alternatively you can stay in touch with what is happening via the Abbotts Barton Community Group:

• Sign up with your email address to the Abbotts Barton Community Group website (again this will ensure you will get an email every time something will be posted, this will probably be once a week on average).
• Follow the Abbotts Barton Community Group Twitter account
• Like the Abbotts Barton Community Group Facebook page.