‘We can’t protect all sites from housing’

From the archive, first published Wednesday 25th Apr 2007.

WINCHESTER'S civic supremo has warned that the city will probably have to allow controversial development on the edge to meet its housing crisis.

Simon Eden, chief executive of Winchester City Council, said it was unsustainable for campaigners to try to protect every site.

Mr Eden was speaking at a City of Winchester Trust meeting last Thursday to discuss the future of the city and its setting, attended by around 100 people.

It is highly unusual for senior council officers such as Mr Eden to make so clear a contribution to so controversial a debate.

The trust is concerned Winchester's unique identity could be jeopardised by pressure for growth including transport and from commuters.

The future of Winchester is highly contentious with campaigners fighting to preserve the city's edges from developers. The biggest scheme is for 2,000 homes at Barton Farm.

Mr Eden said: "Council leader George Beckett has talked about the need to expand the girdle, and we will probably have to do that if we are going to get meaningful amounts of housing and affordable housing."

Of the 2,000 homes at Barton Farm, 800 would be affordable, said Mr Eden, who is a former deputy chief executive at Southampton City Council.

Housing in Winchester has always been expensive, but it is now out of reach to all but the highest-paid first-time buyers.

Michael Carden, speaking for the trust, wants Winchester to strive for a heritage town status' to offer greater protection and save it "from the non-entity of clone town Britain".

Mr Carden said: "Winchester is one of the few remaining timeless small towns of England, and, unlike other places, has not been spoilt by its suburbs."

Mr Eden was supported by Tommy Geddes, of Winchester University, although speaking in a private capacity, and Neil Hopkins, principal of Peter Symonds College.

Mr Geddes said there was a choice between providing more housing, or Winchester becoming "a mausoleum".

"There are two options: either make it affordable to live in Winchester, with more and cheaper housing, or we make it easier to travel to Winchester, with wider roads, more buses and park and ride," he said.

Mr Hopkins said the future of Winchester was being threatened by the lack of affordable housing that was forcing the young out of the city.

None of his three children in their 20s could afford to live in Winchester, he said.

Mr Eden said he was unconvinced by heritage town status.' "Personally I don't think we should worry about the concept of heritage town status.

"It will get captured by planning professionals regionally or nationally, and end up being something I don't think we want."

He said he preferred a looser conceptual framework' "about us being in charge and shaping that destiny".

Winchester, he said, was unusual in the high level of commuting. There were 40,000 jobs in the city with fewer than half filled by people living in the Winchester district. Half the population work elsewhere.

Gavin Blackman, chairman of the Save Barton Farm Group, said preservation and social and economic needs had to be balanced, and that the sacrifice of some greenfields might be justified.

Colin Stansfield-Smith, former chief county architect, said the relationship between the city and county councils was crucial in shaping the future.

Ian Kingdon, a trust member, said it was vital that the city's businesses remained profitable otherwise the city would wither into being a dormitory town.