Planning Applications

Some of the most important and influential work of the Trust is in its appraisal of planning applications. The Trust makes carefully considered comments on planning applications taking into account the Planning Policies, the context of the proposal and the effect on its surroundings. To review Planning Applications, the Trust has three Viewing Panels, each with a lay chairman, an architect (normally retired) and two further lay members. The Viewing Panels have written guidelines.

One of the Panels meets each week in the City Planning Office to consider the Planning Applications within the wards of Winchester City and the Panel may also make site visits. The full list of planning applications and the decisions made by the Planning Department are on the Winchester City Council's Website.

Until recently, the Trust Viewing Panels saw between 50 and 80 applications per month, but due to the credit crunch the number has dropped to around 30, the majority of which are for shop signs, small extensions, conservatories and the like, on which we make no comment. Where we think improvements could be made to the scheme, or it might possibly have a detrimental effect on neighbouring properties, we suggest what might be done to improve it - again, these are usually small relatively uncontroversial proposals. We comment in more detail on the remaining applications, which we feel would have an effect, good or bad, on the immediate area or Winchester as a whole. It is a sad reflection on the standard of design that very few schemes deserve unqualified praise, and consequently most of the applications listed are those to which we have made an objection. The Chairman of the Planning Appraisal Group, Shione Carden, reports the comments, including any formal objections, to the City Council and, each month to the CWT Council. The monthly reports produced are posted on this website.

The date associated with the applications in the lists on this web site are the dates of the weekly report in which the application was initially published by Winchester Council Planning Department. The reference number defines the actual building or location and the case number is the reference to the application. Several of the monthly Planning Reports presented to the Trust Council are shown below.

• 4th May 2010 Planning Report
• Overview
  During April we commented on 29 applications, objecting to 8, commenting on 10 and making no comment on 11.
• Update
• New Applications
• Appeal & Presentation News
• 
  
• 1st Jun 2010 Planning Report
• Overview
  During May we commented on a total of 39 applications, objecting to 9, commenting (one favourably) on 15 and making no comment on 15.
• Update
• New Applications
• Appeal & Presentation News
• 
  
• 6th Jul 2010 Planning Report
• Overview
  It would be good to be able to report that some of the problems reported previously no longer exist, but sadly this is not the case. Although one list had no less than 15 applications duplicated from previous weeks, quite a few applications still fail to appear on the lists, and consequently we and other members of the public have been unable to comment on them, something that is not helped by the fact that the orange signs for some sites (not necessarily the unlisted ones) often are not displayed. I understand from Simon Finch that WCC usually exceeds the minimum legal requirement by sending letters to neighbours as well as asking applicants to post signs on site, but it would appear that stricter checking systems are needed for the processes of both listing applications and installing orange notices.
  Various problems become evident when frequently accessing the WCC website, and it is very much appreciated that those I regularly bombard with queries remain unfailingly helpful and courteous. There are still wrongly-allocated W numbers, some of which are for Listed Buildings in the Central Conservation Area that are likely to have had previous applications and therefore should not have a new W number. Hard copies of the Trust’s comments used to be delivered to the Colebrook St offices, but now they have to be entered onto the website, a process that sometimes causes problems. The system has an automatic ‘bounce-back’ acknowledgement and print-out of the comments, but sometimes when entering our weekly comments (which can number as many as 20), this does not happen (although recently one was acknowledged twice, which was inexplicable to both me and the person dealing with it at WCC!) and then it is necessary to check whether or not they have got into the system.
  A busy month: during June we commented on 63 applications, objecting to 8, commenting on 28 (one favourably) and making no comment on 27.
• Update
• New Applications
• Appeal & Presentation News
•