50 signatures reached
To: The leader of Winchester City Council - Cllr Caroline Horrill
Build Social Housing on the site of St Peters car park
Please redevelop the land that is currently used as St. Peters Car Park to increase the availability of social housing in the Winchester district. The removal of this car park, which was only made available on a temporary basis while the Brook Centre was being built, would support local housing needs, encourage less traffic in the city centre and in turn improve air quality and would provide a alternative to building social housing on precious open space.
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Why is this important?
1. SOCIAL HOUSING NEED:
Winchester has become an increasingly unaffordable place to live, especially for those on whom the everyday functioning of the City depends. The City Council had a good record of council house building until the Right to Buy and deliberate central government policy to deter investment in social housing. The replacement policy of building property for rent as part of commercial development processes, was based on the notion of ‘affordable’ house provision. In a place like Winchester the criterion for affordable property, that it should be leased at 80% of commercial rent, meant that it was not affordable at all for those most in need. Central government has, moreover, reduced the availability of ‘affordable housing’ through its concessions to the dubious ‘viability’ claims of the developers.
A well known local architect has produced a capacity study which shows that the site could accommodate 14 x 2-bedroom units and 11 x 1-bedroom units on the space currently allocated for car parking. These type plans are based on ones devised by Peter Barber Architects which are built & occupied on 2 London sites.
2. Use of 'Brownfield' to PRESERVE GREEN OPEN SPACE:
Recently, WCC has invested in a limited amount of new social housing, but it has so far achieved this at the expense of important urban open space (at Hillier Way in Abbotts Barton and expected in the Valley at Stanmore). ‘Brownfield’ is supposed to be the land of first choice for development and St Peter’s car park is an appropriate area.
3. St. Peter’s Car Park was ONLY ever intended to be TEMPORARY:
It was built on the site of St Peter’s Primary School in the mid 1980s. St Peter’s School was demolished and turned into a temporary car park while the Brooks Development car park was being constructed. WCC always asserted that it would close once the Brooks opened. That promise is 30 years old. At each new provision of Park and Ride car park capacity WCC undertook to the Department for Transport and the Highways Agency, to remove an equivalent amount of central car parking capacity. Of the 1654 spaces thus promised for closure only 178 have gone, through the forced demolition of the ageing Friarsgate multistorey. The Winchester Town Access Plan (WTAP) 2011 promised an initial removal of 500 spaces. It is time to keep promises.
4. There is a PRECEDENT for this kind of conversion with the loss of car parking in Chesil Street to housing.
5. AIR POLLUTION would be REDUCED:
Both Councils recognise that Winchester remains significantly in breach of air quality legislation and this is indeed one of the reasons for the Movement Strategy proposing traffic reduction. St Peter’s Car Park is on the central circulation system and is thus a traffic attractor to the centre. It is, moreover, immediately adjacent to St Bede’s Primary School and worrying air pollution levels have been demonstrated there.
WHY NOW?
(a) the need for more social housing is URGENT
(b) WINCHESTER MOVEMENT STRATEGY:
Winchester City Council (WCC) and Hampshire County Council (HCC) have published a draft Movement Strategy for Winchester which explicitly recognises the need to reduce traffic in the City and points to the need to remove central car parking. These proposals have received widespread support during public consultation. The Movement Strategy needs to be activated or it is in danger of fading away like previous plans (e.g. the WTAP) but is not so far displaying any sense of urgency and hesitates over uncertainty of funding. Since there is adequate Park and Ride capacity available now and underused edge-of-centre car parking capacity, there is no particular funding difficulty in relation to transport budgets.
(c) FAILURE TO MEET AIR POLLUTION LEGISLATION:
WCC has an urgent need to address its legal failure to meet air pollution legislation. It has been in an illegal state for more than 9 years and last year’s High Court and Supreme Court rulings were that authorities should meet their obligations in the shortest possible time, stressing that that meant no excuses of convenience or cost.
You can find more info about this campaign with many more photos on our website here: https://winchester.greenparty.org.uk/social-housing.html
Or on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/winchestergreenparty/
