The Cabinet of Winchester City Council voted on July 18, on the basis of the Strategic Outline Case, to proceed to the next stage of the Station Approach development.

The Strategic Outline Case includes the following statement. “Whilst a number of options have a positive residual land value (RLV), none is sufficient to generate a capital receipt that would fully offset the lost income. It is likely therefore that significant savings would need to be made elsewhere should the development ultimately go ahead.”

The nature of those “savings” to be made “elsewhere” is not specified, but if they involve cuts to existing public services, I imagine they will not improve the popularity of the scheme.

READ MORE HERE: Civic chiefs approve work on drawing up masterplan for Station Approach

So what are the compelling reasons why the project needs to go ahead, even if it has to be partially financed by savings elsewhere in the Council’s budget? The main reasons that emerged from the discussion were 1) the Movement Strategy will require car parks on the edge of the City Centre, such as the Cattlemarket and Gladstone Street, to be closed, 2) there are firms who are keen to move to Winchester, but they require “high quality office space” that cannot be provided by upgrading the several empty office blocks within five minutes’ walk of the station, and 3) the area is a bit run down and could do with a facelift.

The Strategic Outline Case includes several aims and aspirations concerning affordable housing, sustainable travel, job creation and improvement of the public realm with which few would disagree.

The alternative to proceeding with the development is presented as “do nothing”. Could not these aims be pursued as a series of smaller, more manageable and controllable projects? I can see the attraction of one big scheme that ticks all the boxes, but that must also bring increased risks.

Nick Dennis,

Worthy Lane,

Hyde,

Winchester