Our Ref
Enq to: Stuart Dunbar-Dempsey
Ext No: 2425
Email:
Direct No: 01962 848425
DX No:120400 Winchester 5
19 March 2015
Dear Resident
RE: Abbotts Walk open spaces – consultation letter
This letter is intended to explain the situation with regard to the open spaces on the Abbotts Walk development and to invite residents to communicate to the City Council how they see them being managed and maintained in future.
Please take the time to write or email me with your thoughts.
So far, there has not been any formal consultation with residents. This is because the land is still the property of Redrow Homes and the s106 monies have not yet been passed over to the Council. The City Council would prefer to formally consult with residents once we are in control of the land and the s.106 monies.
1.Background:
It had originally been envisaged and agreed between Winchester City Council and Redrow Homes that the 2.17 hectares (about 5 acres) of open green space on the site, i.e., the Meadow, the central greens and the wooded perimeter belts, should be transferred from Redrow to Winchester City Council on completion of the house building.
The planning reference numbers should you need to refer to the legal agreements are 08/01937/FUL and 11/01798/FUL (amended).
However, there have been delays with this process. Largely due to a re-organisation of Redrow offices and personnel.
Redrow have now appointed adoption consultants, Technical & Development Services (Southern) Limited (TDS), to liaise with the City Council and move the transfer forward and to ensure that anything that needs to be performed on site to bring the green spaces up to an adoptable standard will be actioned and that outstanding s.106 monies are paid to the City Council.
The site is unusual however in that it is adjacent to a sensitive wildlife area. The ‘Winnall Moors Nature Reserve’ is designated as a ‘Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and includes a section of the River Itchen SSSI and Special Area of Conservation (SAC); it is also within the South Downs National Park. The northern part of the Reserve, next to the Abbotts Walk site, is the most ecologically sensitive and subject to restricted access.
Due to the sensitivity of the Reserve, the Wildlife Trust originally objected to the Redrow development, unless a projected pedestrian link from the site, on to the Nuns Walk footpath, was omitted from the plans. The Trust were concerned that access on to the footpath posed ‘an unacceptable risk of increased disturbance to the sensitive nature reserve’.
The City Council Planning Committee agreed to this change at their meeting of the 23 April 2009.
Access to the Nun’s Walk footpath had been proposed in order to provide residents of Abbotts Walk (and others) with a car-free pedestrian or cycle route in to the centre of Winchester - and access to the countryside.
2. Issue 1- the boundary between the Meadow and the Nuns Walk footpath:
The Wildlife Trust are concerned that people are getting through this boundary and on to the Nuns Walk footpath, despite the presence of a post and wire fence and intermittent hedge, and despite Redrow having planted trees and shrubs to bolster the boundary, and despite the Trust having erected notices asking people not to access the footpath from the Abbotts Walk Meadow.
Some hedge-laying has been done by the Wildlife Trust as an emergency measure but the Wildlife Trust wants a longer term solution.
One solution to this problem, proposed by the Wildlife Trust, is for a new fence to be erected along the boundary. However, a number of residents have queried this. Many residents were told by the Redrow sales office that there was access on to the Nuns Walk footpath and several residents enjoy having good access to the countryside and do not understand why the access is being blocked-off.
Some residents have suggested that a stile be incorporated in to any new fence.
On the other hand, it has been suggested by TDS that whilst there might be some inconvenience, blocking off the access worked in the resident’s favour. It created a secure green space which could be safely used by children from the development without the threat of ‘stranger danger’ from the public footpath. It would also make the Abbotts Walk development as a whole more secure.
What is your view? Please write or email and tell us.
3. Issue 2 – the future of the 4 Acre Abbotts Walk Meadow:
Instead of the Meadow being transferred to Winchester City Council, it has been suggested by the Wildlife Trust that it be transferred to them, either on a leased basis or a freehold transfer. This would enable the Trust to manage the land in a way more sympathetic to its position adjacent to the nature reserve, rather than the Meadow becoming, as they see it, ‘just another sterile municipal green space’.
However, while this seems to the Wildlife Trust a desirable arrangement, the City Council need to listen to what Abbotts Walk residents think, before going down this route, because the Meadow and the other open spaces on the site are intended to serve them and remain accessible.
In view of this, the City Council are suggesting that it would be more appropriate for Redrow to transfer the open spaces and the Meadow direct to the City Council in the first place and for the City Council to consult with residents before making any decision on future access, ownership and maintenance.
What is your view? Please write or email and tell us.
4. Issue 3 – the children’s play area
A play area was shown on the original layout plans, but it was decided, in consultation with existing residents in 2012, that this should be omitted from the plans and that the City Council should take a sum in lieu from Redrow and consult with the new residents after they had moved in, as to what form children’s play provision should take. Redrow have promised a sum of £65,859 for this purpose.
When existing local residents met with Redrow, Council officers, the Wildlife Trust and `local Councillors Dominic Hiscock and James Maynard on the 20th March 2012 at the rugby club, it was unanimously agreed that, because there was already an equipped play facility nearby at Chaundler Road, it would be inappropriate to duplicate this provision and for there to be another brightly coloured play area on the Meadow.
Something ‘more natural’ was preferred and a sum was agreed to be made available instead. This sum was therefore made subject to an amendment of the legal agreement, which required Redrow to pay this sum to the Council ‘on or before the date of the transfer of the open space’ to enable the Council to consult with the new residents to see what they wanted. As the ‘date for transfer’ has not yet arrived, the £65,859 is still awaiting payment to the City Council.
What is your view? What should this sum be spent on and where should it be located? Please write or email and tell us.
`
5. Issue 4 – further work needed to the Meadow
The Meadow does still require some further work before it is transferred:
(i) stone picking and/or stone burying as there are some particularly nasty sharp flints on the surface; (ii) removal of the dog bin; (iii) weeding to remove the significant thistle outbreak; (iv) grass seed to the area of grasscrete.
TDS have agreed to action these works as a matter of priority.
6. Issue 5 – arrangements for the future maintenance of the remaining areas of open space, i.e., the southern perimeter belt, the western perimeter belt, the northern perimeter belt and the two central greens.
At the site meeting of Friday 20th February 2015, at the suggestion of the City Council grounds maintenance officer, the proposal to transfer the inner greens and perimeter greens to the City Council was reviewed, because they are clearly not public spaces but semi-private or communal spaces enjoyed by the residents and which residents should pay for, rather than the public purse. The monies from Redrow for the future maintenance of these areas would instead go to the management company which may or may not result in a small uplift to the service charge.
The legal agreement permits this variation, but I stress that the final decision on this will not be taken until we have heard what residents have to say on the matter. The choice will be yours: Either a fortnightly council mowing regime or a higher quality service more in keeping with the quality of the development. Please however bear in mind that the high standard of grass maintenance which is currently in operation would not be sustained if the areas were the responsibility of WCC.
Notwithstanding the above, it is the City Council’s intention to take transfer of ALL the Open Space Areas to begin with, if only just to get the whole process moving forward swiftly. If after the consultation with residents it is felt that these green spaces would be better managed by a resident management company then they can be transferred to it.
What is your view? Please write or email and tell us.
7. Issue 6 – the pond
As part of the ‘sustainable drainage system’ (SUDs) for the Abbotts Walk site, a pond has been installed on the Meadow. This takes the water from the site’s roads and rooftops and temporarily holds it up, rather than it going straight into the River. This is intended to reduce flooding further downstream. The pond has been designed to hold-up storm water for about 20 hours and accommodate a worst case, 1in 100 years, storm event with a 30% allowance for climate change.
Following complaints that it was not emptying properly or quickly enough it was inspected by Redrow engineers in 2014 and was found to be functioning correctly - holding a small amount of water following wet weather. This was corroborated by an inspection by the City Council’s drainage engineer. The Pond would come with the Meadow in any transfer.
What is your view? Please write or email and tell us.
8. Conclusion
I would hope that the information I have supplied here clears up any misunderstanding or misinterpretation and provides you with some of the missing details in order for you to tell us what you think.
It’s the City Council’s intention to arrange a resident meeting. However, because of the local government elections on May 7th I am required to avoid arranging any public meeting until after this date. I am suggesting therfore an evening meeting when the land has been transferred to the City Council and when the evenings are a bit lighter would be more suitable.
Mondays, Tuesdays or Thursdays would suit me best.
Yours sincerely,
Stuart Dunbar-Dempsey
Open Space Project Officer
Landscape and Open Spaces Team
Winchester City Council
Colebrook Street
Winchester SO23 9LJ
Email:
Tel: 01962 848 425
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