About the project
The Silver Hill area of Winchester City Centre (also sometimes known as Broadway Friarsgate) has been earmarked for regeneration for several years
The site includes the bus station, Wool Staplers warehouse, the medical buildings on Friarsgate and Tanner Street, Kings Walk, The Post Office, Friarsgate multi storey car park and properties fronting Silver Hill, including the Sainsburys supermarket. After six years of dialogue, in December 2004 Winchester City Council entered into a development agreement with Thornfield Properties plc to bring forward the redevelopment of this part of the City Centre, in accordance with the adopted Broadway Friarsgate planning brief.
Council's requirement for the site
The Council’s requirements for the site as set out in the planning brief and the development agreement with Thornfield include:
- Minimum of 90,000sq ft of retail and food and drink space
- 364 residential units – 35% of which are to be affordable
- Minimum 279 public car parking spaces
- A new bus station with ancillary facilities
- A new civic square
- Premises for a relocated closed circuit television (CCTV) control room and parking office
- New premises for Shop Mobility and Dial a Ride
- Provision for public art
- An area for the relocation of the weekly and the Farmer's Markets
- Relocation of the two existing surgeries as well as the Primary Care Trust (PCT).
The site at present
The Silver Hill site in Winchester City Centre includes the bus station, Wool Staplers warehouse, the medical buildings on Friarsgate and Tanner Street, Kings Walk, The Post Office, Friarsgate multi storey car park and properties fronting Silver Hill, including the Sainsburys supermarket.
The majority of the existing buildings in the Silver Hill area are run down, unattractive and the site is clearly in need of regeneration.
Development Context
Winchester City Council first considered the planning and transportation future of the Silver Hill area in 1995 as a reaction to its run down condition and concerns that the bus station might close.
After a series of local design workshops, Llewelyn Davies was appointed (1997) to prepare an urban design and transportation study of the area. They consulted widely with local interest groups, owners and occupiers and, after an all councillor seminar, an early draft of the Planning Brief was approved for public consultation in June 1999.
Meanwhile, the first meeting with Thornfield was held in the summer of 1998. Thornfield had been introduced to the site by Stagecoach, with whom they have a number of similar joint venture relationships. The Council was also approached by a small number of developers, but only Thornfield followed up its initial approach.
In September 2000 Winchester City Council appointed Decherts and Drivers Jonas as legal advisors and property consultants respectively. Both firms are highly respected and experienced to consult the public sector in development work. Their instructions were to advise the Council’s position relative to the emerging interest from the Thornfield/Stagecoach partnership. The consultants produced a Strategic Review of the Council’s position during 2001.
The review concluded that it was legally acceptable for the Council to deal with Thornfield. The Council decided that this option would allow it to encourage the redevelopment of the site whilst maintaining significant control of the processes of development, whilst avoiding the risks and costs of doing all the preparations alone.
In early 2003 the Local Plan Committee considered a revised draft Planning Brief, which envisioned the development resolving a number of long standing problems in the area and providing new and upgraded facilities to improve the appearance and vibrancy of the town’s central area. This went out to public consultation and following receipt of comments the brief was adopted with some modifications as a background document to the Revised Deposit Winchester Local Plan at full Council in June 2003.
In April 2003, in accordance with its consultants’ advice, the Council’s released a developer brief to Thornfield, which set out the Council’s requirements as landowner separately to any planning requirements. Thornfield’s initial response and proposals to that brief was reported to the Cabinet and a further period of discussion and negotiation took place.
In February 2004 an acceptable revised proposal had been negotiated and this was presented to Principal Scrutiny Committee and Cabinet and agreed at full Council. A development agreement was agreed at full Council on 3 November 2004 and completed on 22 December 2004.
Public Consultation
Introduction
Extensive public consultation was undertaken about the future of the Silver Hill area in Winchester by the City Council during the process of preparing a planning brief for the site.
Thornfield Properties also consulted widely with key local community and stakeholder groups as well as a panel of Council and local stakeholder representatives prior to making the choice of Allies & Morrison as project architects for the scheme.
Both Thornfield Properties and Winchester City Council were committed to ensuring that the local community had a real opportunity to influence and participate in the creation of detailed designs for this development.
An extensive programme of pre-application public consultation was designed to ensure that local views and ideas are listened to and, wherever possible, incorporated into the final designs for the development.
The consultation process was influenced by the following principles
- Notify people so that they are aware they are being consulted
- Inform people about the development and site constraints
- Consult the public and key stakeholder groups
- Measure and analyse results
- Report back to the community on what they said
- Publish the final scheme and how the community has influenced it.
The consultation included newsletters, a project website, public exhibitions, a community snapshot, focus groups, a workshop and meetings with local stakeholder groups.
Efforts were also made to engage with younger people and other groups within the community who don’t normally get involved in the planning process. These include holding a dedicated focus group for younger people, encouraging local schools and colleges to undertake projects on the Silver Hill redevelopment and appointing a local artist to undertake a Community Snapshot to see the site through the eyes of existing and potential users.
The planning application was submitted in May 2006 and exhibitions were held to display the final design on 8, 9 and 10 July 2006 in the Undercroft of Winchester Cathedral.
Following the submission of the planning application, as part of Thornfield's ongoing commitment to public engagement, further consultation was carried out which resulted in amendments to the scheme being unveiled in February 2007. This amended scheme was subsequently ‘minded to grant’ by Winchester City Council in March 2007 subject to Section 106 agreements and referral to Government Office for the South East.
Copies of the consultation material is available to view in the planning archive.
Town forum minutes
The principle of redevelopment and the mix of uses for the Silver Hill Renaissance have largely been fixed through the Council's adopted planning brief but the detailed designs for the scheme have been subject to extensive consultation through the planning process, which included public exhibitions, newsletters, focus groups and newsletters.
Appendix 1 - Minutes of Winchester Town Forum Meeting, 28th February 2005 and Silver Hill Renaissance - Public Consultation
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Comments from questionnaires
The principle of redevelopment and the mix of uses for the Silver Hill Renaissance have largely been fixed through the Council's adopted planning brief but the detailed designs for the scheme have been subject to extensive consultation through the planning process, which included public exhibitions, newsletters, focus groups and newsletters
Appendix 3 - Comments from questionnaires