Winchester City Borough Council Cabinet Committee: Regeneration Meeting

Apologies were received as noted above.

Councillor Tod declared a personal (but not prejudicial) interest due to his role as a County Councillor.

There were no questions asked or statements made.

RESOLVED:

          That the minutes of the previous meeting held on 9 March 2023 be agreed as a correct record.

Councillor Tod had no announcements to make.

Councillor Tod introduced the report which concluded that there were various opportunities to bring forward a potentially viable scheme.  Subject to the committee’s decision today, the Strategic Outline Business Case would be considered at Cabinet on 18 July 2023.

Hugo Braddick from Haworth Tomkins Architects who had been commissioned to undertake the capacity study report was present at the meeting and gave a presentation on its findings.  The presentation was available on the council’s website here.

At the invitation of the Leader, Councillor Wallace addressed the meeting as summarised briefly below.

He stated his excitement about the project and the opportunity to accelerate the transformation of Winchester into an environmental city.  However, he expressed concern that the report appeared to adopt business as usual and did not prioritise the reduction of traffic and the importance of the station as a central travel hub for alternative transport.  He also emphasised the importance of ensuring that the layout and orientation of buildings to reduce energy usage was considered at an early stage.

Councillor Tod together with the Project Lead agreed these points were important but environmental matters would be considered in relation to the master planning process which would form the next stage of the process following the capacity study.  The comments also related to the development of the Winchester Movement Strategy and it was confirmed that the County Council was a member of the Station Approach Project Board.  The Strategic Director also confirmed that the requirement to ensure that the council’s environmental objectives were achieved had been factored into the viability assessment as part of the capacity study.

Mr Braddick, the Project Lead and the Strategic Director responded to members’ questions in relation to the following:

a)    The methodology and tolerances used in calculating viability, including external advice from JLL and Lambert Smith Hampton.

b)    The different stages of the process including the concept masterplan and the outline business case.

c)    The current position regarding the sites owned by Network Rail.

d)    Confirmation that matters such as design of buildings and public realm would be considered at a later stage.

e)    Confirmation that exempt appendix 3 (the IKON Viability Appraisal Report prepared by Lambert Smith Hampton) contained information on an assessment of values which had been used in the capacity study.

Councillor Tod thanked Mr Braddick for all the work undertaken on the capacity study.

Cabinet agreed to the following for the reasons set out in the report and outlined above.

RESOLVED:

1.             That the outcome of the capacity study indicating that there are currently opportunities to bring forward a potentially viable scheme be noted.

2.             That a further report be submitted to a future Cabinet later this year incorporating the conclusions of the capacity study and other technical works undertaken into a Strategic Outline Case setting out options for how this project may be progressed.

The Strategic Director together with John Nordon (Jigsaw) gave a presentation providing an update on the CWR project.  The presentation was available on the council’s website here.

The Strategic Director advised that the council’s development partner, Jigsaw, consisted of four very experienced development partners.  It was anticipated that the draft development agreement would be finalised and signed by all parties by the end of July 2023.  He outlined a number of activities and projects that were underway in the CWR area in the meantime.

John Nordon provided additional details regarding the informal consultation and meetings carried out to date with different organisations and partners, together with the engagement strategy planned.  This included the creation of a digital platform titled “Commonplace”, drop ins for the public, stakeholder workshops and establishment of a youth and futures groups. It was intended this work would lead to the creation of the Development Delivery Plan which would be brought to a meeting of this Committee on 31 January 2024.

At the invitation of the Leader, Councillor Wallace addressed the Committee as summarised briefly below.

He highlighted that environmental issues were one of the three overarching objectives in achieving sustainable development and sought assurances about how this would be addressed.

Mr Nordon confirmed that considering environmental issues would be an important element of the process and would form one of the four themed stakeholder workshops.

Mr Nordon and the Strategic Director responded to members’ questions in relation to the following:

a)    Confirming that both the University of Winchester and Southampton University were included in the list of stakeholders.  Mr Nordon offered to share the list with the committee to check if any omissions.

b)    Further detail regarding the process for finalising and signing the development agreement and the proposed timing for the first board meeting.  The Strategic Director and Monitoring Officer advised that although there was always a presumption in favour of openness and transparency, there might be elements of commercial sensitivity that would prevent the contents of the development agreement being shared with all members.

c)    Providing further information regarding the proposed involvement of the wider district in the engagement process.

d)    The importance of connecting with the wider proposals for the Winchester Movement Strategy was acknowledged and as lead Cabinet Member in this area, Councillor Learney agreed to provide verbal updates to future meetings of the committee as appropriate.

e)    Providing further clarification about how the engagement outputs and project brief evaluation would be shared and the process leading up to final sign off by this committee.

f)      Confirmation that the next Archaeology Advisory Panel would be held before the end of July.

The Leader thanked the Strategic Director and John Nordon for their update and work on the project to date.

RESOLVED:

          That the contents of the presentation be noted.

The Strategic Director together with John Nordon (Jigsaw) gave a presentation providing an update on the CWR project.  The presentation was available on the council’s website here.

The Strategic Director advised that the council’s development partner, Jigsaw, consisted of four very experienced development partners.  It was anticipated that the draft development agreement would be finalised and signed by all parties by the end of July 2023.  He outlined a number of activities and projects that were underway in the CWR area in the meantime.

John Nordon provided additional details regarding the informal consultation and meetings carried out to date with different organisations and partners, together with the engagement strategy planned.  This included the creation of a digital platform titled “Commonplace”, drop ins for the public, stakeholder workshops and establishment of a youth and futures groups. It was intended this work would lead to the creation of the Development Delivery Plan which would be brought to a meeting of this Committee on 31 January 2024.

At the invitation of the Leader, Councillor Wallace addressed the Committee as summarised briefly below.

He highlighted that environmental issues were one of the three overarching objectives in achieving sustainable development and sought assurances about how this would be addressed.

Mr Nordon confirmed that considering environmental issues would be an important element of the process and would form one of the four themed stakeholder workshops.

Mr Nordon and the Strategic Director responded to members’ questions in relation to the following:

a)    Confirming that both the University of Winchester and Southampton University were included in the list of stakeholders.  Mr Nordon offered to share the list with the committee to check if any omissions.

b)    Further detail regarding the process for finalising and signing the development agreement and the proposed timing for the first board meeting.  The Strategic Director and Monitoring Officer advised that although there was always a presumption in favour of openness and transparency, there might be elements of commercial sensitivity that would prevent the contents of the development agreement being shared with all members.

c)    Providing further information regarding the proposed involvement of the wider district in the engagement process.

d)    The importance of connecting with the wider proposals for the Winchester Movement Strategy was acknowledged and as lead Cabinet Member in this area, Councillor Learney agreed to provide verbal updates to future meetings of the committee as appropriate.

e)    Providing further clarification about how the engagement outputs and project brief evaluation would be shared and the process leading up to final sign off by this committee.

f)      Confirmation that the next Archaeology Advisory Panel would be held before the end of July.

The Leader thanked the Strategic Director and John Nordon for their update and work on the project to date.

RESOLVED:

          That the contents of the presentation be noted.

RESOLVED:

1.       That in all the circumstances, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

2.       That the public be excluded from the meeting during the consideration of the following items of business because it is likely that, if members of the public were present, there would be disclosure to them of ‘exempt information’ as defined by Section 100I and Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972.