Topics include:
- Station Approach
- Station Area Parking
- New Tory ‘Tip Tax’
- Our crossing campaigns
- The local vote to ‘remain’
- Air Quality
- Grammar Schools
- Safer Routes to School
Category: Station Approach
This followed a letter from the Hampshire Chambers of Commerce which totally missed the point of what was discussed by the council…
Sir,
Nobody opposed the scheme for station approach because they opposed having new offices in the city. Councillors opposed it because it was a poor design that was slammed by the independent jury, crammed far too much onto the site, was set to create disastrous congestion and air pollution, and would ruin the appearance of the town for people arriving in Winchester.
The argument put forward by Stephen Gates on behalf of the Hampshire Chambers of Commerce last week is the same one that made the Brooks happen. Something needs to be done. This is something. Therefore it should happen.
The problem with that argument is that it sets absolutely no standards at all for the quality of design and impact on the area.
Let’s not forget how mediocre the scores given to this design by the independent and expert design jury appointed by the council actually were. Nothing about the scheme was scored as excellent. Nothing about the scheme was even scored as good. And several aspects of the scheme were marked as less than satisfactory.
And that’s on top of the scheme’s failure to take even the slightest notice of concerns raised by local residents about congestion, traffic and pollution.
As others have noted, the Conservative party’s disastrous policy allowing offices to be converted into housing at will is hitting the city hard. We do need more modern office space. But that doesn’t mean that councillors should approve the first scheme to come along – no matter how bad it is.
This followed a letter in the Hampshire Chronicle attacking council offers for recent failures at the council.
Cllr Gottlieb is wrong to blame all the ills of the council on the council’s senior management team.The people that authorised the Station Approach Planning Brief and the Highcliffe Consultation – and who agreed to continuing the Station Approach development despite three out of five architects dropping out – and who are also legally accountable for most decisions of the council – are the Council’s Leader and Cabinet.  And for all of the last 5 years – and for all the decisions Cllr Gottlieb mentions – the Council Leader and Cabinet have been Conservative.While opposition Liberal Democrat and Labour councillors – and, on occasion, even some Conservative Councillors – have been able to put up proposals for reform and arguments against the proposals put forward by the Conservative administration – and have done so in all the cases he mentions, in almost all cases the Conservative Cabinet have ignored them or the Conservative majority have voted them down.If Councillor Gottlieb wants to know what it will take to change the council and change the priorities of council officers, the answer is simple. The Conservatives need to be voted out.