Good afternoon everybody can please can I welcome everyone to this meeting of the cabinet committee for regeneration on Thursday the 8th of February from the Walton Suite Winchester Guild Hall the time is uh one minute past two my name is councelor Martin Todd chairperson of the cabinet and Cabinet member for Asset
Management this meeting is uh being live streamed from the council’s YouTube channel and the recording will also be available after the meeting subtitles can be switched on and advice on how to turn these on is set out on our website can everyone ensure that mobile phones are either on silent or Switched
Off and can I remind members to use their microphon so they can be heard on YouTube in the unlikely event that is necessary to evacuate the building the fire alarm will sound please follow all the instructions given to you by our team can I welcome members of the public
To the meeting um this morning uh we will invite you forward when it is time for you to make your contribution um turning to the agenda the first item of business is apologies for absence I don’t believe I have any apologies for absence um the second item
Is disclosures of Interest I need to declare a personal but non-prejudicial interest as um a member of the County Council um uh are there any other interests that need to be declared um I had a request from councelor Lee to speak on items seven and eight um but unfortunately he is
Unable to attend he has raised some issues uh and I will uh seek to ensure that they are touched on um during the meeting uh as appropriate Um but I also have a uh a piece of public participation um where we have Mr Baker here from the city of Winchester trust who I believe wishes to speak on item eight which is Central winest regeneration is that correct yeah well we’ll call you forward when we get to
That particular uh agenda item unless you want to speak now no okay um the next item of business is approval of the minutes of the previous meeting held on the 4th of October 2023 um can I ask uh fell cabinet members if you agree those minutes as a correct
Record um the next item after that is chair’s announcements I I have no announcements I think everything I might want to say is covered in the presentation coming up and so item seven um is the uh station approach project update um the presentation on pages 9 to 30 of
Um uh of the uh document pack but uh Mr bakey would you like to take us through this presentation thank you chair um people remember the last time the committee met we were in the middle of a procurement exercise for a design team to undertake concept master plan for the station
Approach site um we had 16 teams bid for it and in place say design engine were then appointed um they are looking at the sites that are on the plan number one to five as I’m sure everybody remembers and also importantly looking at the green areas on that plan the spaces between
The actual sites themselves so that was a slight update from previous work that’s been done since design engine have been appointed they produced a baseline um analysis which was then presented to the project board two weeks ago um The Next Step the next steps are looking at some
Of the options and engaging in a series of stakeholder workshops in the early part of March leading into a wider public engagement plan for early summer 2024 this is just to remind people of the Journey we’ve been on um and where we are now in terms of moving into spring summer
24 we will do some um member engagement post elections there’s an all member briefing being set up for the 22nd of May on station approach to give an indication to members of some of the options for the sites and also a lead into to their actual public um participation
Work in it’s currently scheduled in late June I’d like to hand over to Richard jobson and Oliver M from design engine they have produced a presentation um for you to introduce their wider team because it’s w there’s more Consultants than just design engine they will give
You an update on who the rest of the their team is but also an indication of the work that they’ve done historically in Winchester City thank you Ken um my name is Richard jobson founding director of design engine Architects and I’m here with my colleague Oliver Moore who’s obviously
Um helping um with this particular project as Ken said we’re supported by um a strong team of other Consultants which we’ve worked with previously before on other developments around the region of Hampshire and beyond that includes new Master planning Urban movement who dealing with transport and active travel arups Who dealing with
Sustainability transport Etc and also step B Heritage and planning and olle will give a little bit more background to them later on in the presentation in terms of the practice um design engine started in 2000 um I was previously a director with another fellow director Richard R casemore for
Another Winchester practice um called plinking Li and Browning or now called architecture plb um we have currently have a practice of about 35 people um in Winchester London and in exitor um we’re very proud of the awards that we won over the last 20 years in excess of 60 20 RBA Awards and
Civic Civic trust Awards um sorry that plan’s quite faint faint on the the projection here but this is a plan of Winchester um and it just highlights the projects that myself has been involved in over the last nearly 30 odd years um I actually came to Winchester in 1988 as a young
Architect and we worked on numerous projects which I thought would be helpful just for the panel to see in terms of the sort of breth of our work um starting with the work that we did at the School of Art campus for Southampton University was actually an independent
Art school back when we actually developed the campus there I was a director at plb when I developed these these buildings um with Richard R Cas at the time back in the early 90s um and hopefully that kind of has it’s been an interesting place to watch over the
Years and there’s obviously still potential there to be developed as well and understand South Hampton are currently looking to develop that further into the future um I was also involved as a young architect with the development PL concept work for the cathedral Visitor Center it’s always
Quite nice to go and see how popular that project is and how uh it’s been a great asset to the Cathedral of Winchester um and really supports obviously both local and tourism in the in the region um and at a much smaller scale and actually more pertinent in many ways to
What we might be looking at in terms of the development of the station approach project is more integrated Urban um schemes that we’ve done within the city itself um this is the project that I was I led on as a project architect for which was called walkot Chambers which
Was the Redevelopment of what was at the time a private house was the last Garden actually on the Central High Street in Winchester in the late 80s and we developed the we developed the building itself um and the the sort of smaller which now is um sort
Of the fabric shop and the larger office building to the rear um and actually one of the proudest elements of that is non-architectural is actually the planting of the large plain tree which we planted in 1990 it’s quite a small tree at the time um but it’s obviously a
Magnificent specimen as you walk up the high Stree today so it’s actually something be really proud of um more currently um we’re just finishing off a long project for Winchester College which has been a very significant building for them it’s fact it’s the largest building that they’ve
Ever built as a school even since their Inception um it’s a project that’s uh due to complete this summer um it’s for new sports facilities uh including swimming pools um f courts um so massive asset to the college itself but also will be used by the community as well so
Something that again hopefully people will start to see eventually the Holdings coming down in the next few months and then even more recently completed um for those people that drive up and down romsey Road they’ll have noticed a large new university project that’s been completed there a project
That took nearly nine years in development with the university um it was something that they were very keen to deliver on a very sensitive and difficult site a project they really wanted to invest in something which celebrated education in the in the city and actually really celebrate the value
Of the university and Winchester University in particular and therefore the building was very much directed about the idea of trying to celebr at those elements but also pick materiality and elements within Winchester City itself so sort of dragging the values of the city up the sort of Hill at romsey
Road um which we thought was very successful um connected with that project was a sort of a a real passion of the company which is about sustainability and trying to improve obviously um places that we live and uh and uh work in uh and therefore in the center of this building something that
You’re not wear of when you drive past it or walk past it is a Central Water Garden which supports a real diversity of biodiversity elements within it and then also for the University of Winchester some other projects down on their main their site itself which is The King Alfred campus which involved
Works from existing buildings 1960s buildings that we work with to renovate and this particular image actually shows us an Alish project which is a new teaching building which actually saved the 1960s building on its right and also we were commissioned for the artwork work as well so it’s about sort of art
And architecture sort of coming together to create a new campus and something which I think again was celebration of the uh values of the university and saw the university transform from effectively a teaching college into a full-blown University the more sensitive level we’ve also worked on Winchester the
Winton Chapel which is a conversion of their very tired Victorian building which actually completely in internal re internalize the space to make it a a a sort of a place that was s celebration of of religion um and it was again something that was very passionate to both the university and
Ourselves and then finally um chz Lodge which is on chz Street significant large building Extra Care um we worked as the planning Architects for this and to try and produce a building which we felt would be sensitive to chz Street itself but also obviously meet the requirements of the brief and again now
That that building settling in with a landscape we think it’s been a very successful addition to the to the entrance to the city if I’m just going to hand over now to Oliver Moore who’s just going to talk you through the Consultants that we’re working with and obviously their qualities thank
You thanks Richard um so my name is Oliver I’m going to uh introduce and touch on some of the collaborations with our other partners who make up this team for station approach and I pick a couple of projects here that we shared in the interview process which uh shows some of
The projects that we’ve worked on and tasks that we’ve tackled in an urban sense which I think will be relevant to the station approach and project so this is Handover master plan on which we collaborated with new master planning there based in Bournemouth so another uh
Local um team we worked with them and with Urban movement on the next slide as well to for test valley B Council between 2021 and 2023 um the master plan for that was the city center regeneration those elements of um public space Roots permeability mixed uses all around the um the uh Town
Center retail and Leisure areas and there was also an education College there uh the master plan was endorsed in 2022 and is now being delivered through some early projects that coming forward um in Andover through leveling up funding that’s been approved for the theater there in some public Realm
Projects that are happening on the ground um this next slide Urban movement is um oh sorry back one um they came on board uh through that Master Plan process and they actually delivered some uh detailed studies looking at the reallocation and redesign of public realm space and the different ways that
Uh different transport modes can be supported and uh transport in particular car traffic can be um maneuvered around Andover City Center to provide a better place for walking cycling and spaces for uh the public to sit and dwell um I think elements that will be important in
The in the station approach and creating a better sense and identity of place within the cities and the next slide is is uh Arab I mean they’re a a national internationally known um engineering firm they have excellent um experience across a a number of sites for rail station and transport infrastructure and
Also expertise in sustainability modeling and design and that they’ll be supporting us on those elements and the last slide for our our team Stephen B um he’s a practitioner who has a a long history in Winchester um specialist in now a specialist in historic building and Heritage character
Um assessment in in townscape terms uh he’s formerly uh Winchester um director of planning and development at Winchester City Council also an ex uh board member of English Heritage so excellent credentials in terms of commenting on the historic landscape and townscape so to the site itself this is
One of our just schematic sketches if you like of the uh the elements that make up the station approach site which includes if I can get the closer to work here we’ve got the station itself in in orange and yellow there we’ve got the Carfax site here with the Records Office
The most prominent building on it uh around the Carfax Junction we’ve got the cattle market area here with the conservative club and it’s predominantly a car park and then there’s car Parks related to the station itself both on the west and on the East um are joining the new student residences that were
Built as on uh just a couple of years ago and there’s also a site here it’s worth mentioning Falls within the remit scheme which is the um known as the DI uh site which is part of this scheme um so what have we been doing we were uh appointed in November and up
Until now we’ve been surveying the site we’ve been walking the ground um incidentally our office is only just at the top of this screen here so we’re very very local um we use the site uh myself and the rest of the practice members on on an almost daily basis
Moving through and to work and lunch Etc um we’ve been doing a lot of uh background information gathering and Consulting with the various offices at Winchester and Hampshire to understand the policy context in which this scheme will need to be come forward and the ideas will need to be married between
The the needs of the site the needs of the public and the uh and the direction of policy and just to finish I think our initial kind of uh thinking for this uh site I think our ambition is to turn it from somewhere which you travel through
Um and arrive in to actually becoming a place and a place for connecting um and that works on a number of levels connecting existing transport routes new modes of of moving to and around and through the site a place to connect to to work to play for connected nature
What elements are there and and how can we improve the biodiversity within our Urban centers um connections for neighborhoods existing communities new communities um transforming the site from place to park cars predominantly um and movement to a place for culture and events um uh an identity a place a way
Marker through the city and connecting Winchester um to cities and destinations within the city and Beyond um that’s us uh so thanks for listening and as Ken said listen for more uh opportunities to get involved through um the public consultations which will be in the summer and some
Focused workshops with um local interest groups which will be advertising shortly in March thank you very much indeed um so uh colleagues um fell counselors does anybody have any questions you would like to ask um Ken or Richard or oliv El Thomson um thank you yes um you’re
Probably aware that um around the station there’s a lot going on at the moment with bards been put out you know there’s concrete blocks Etc um the trees are being fenced off and I just wonder what interaction you will be having with um Network Rail and Southwestern uh trains um throughout this process
Because obviously the whole area needs to work and at the moment it’s kind of not working anyway um I just wonder what your plans were if I if I start off and then maybe bring in Richard and Oliver so Network rail um although not looking immediately
To develop their sites are still part of the project team they still coming to the meetings so they’re there for for a dialogue we have a dialogue with Southwestern Railway and I think the area you’ve referred to cancer Thomson and that that whole public realm the
Four Court of the station is a key part of the work that these gentlemen are going going to be looking at and hopefully we can resolve the paving issues and and the trees that are causing the problems but I I will leave it let um Richard NOA talk a bit more
About some of the thinking around that they’ve got around how does that whole for court work yeah thanks Ken I mean I think for us the the arrival approach um coming from from the station and and and finding the roots through into the center is AB going to be absolutely key
To how this uh Place functions as a as transport interchange and as a gateway to Winchester um we’re aware of the uh conversations that St um Southwest Rail and nwork rail have had about the existing trees and the paving it’s to be clear we’re uh commissioned for a
Concept master plan which is to set the direction for the Regeneration in the long term for this area um so I think the best we can do is informing that Vision might help inform Southwest Rail with and not ra is what they do in the short term um I would very much hope
That those Bing issues be sorted out long before the concept master plan becomes a reality thank you um who’s next councelor Bolton thank you chair I was just wondering um you said the next engagement is going to be over the summer um I’m not sure how long it is
Since the last and I wonder whether anything was possible pre-election period I’m looking at you but maybe I’m should be looking at no counc maybe I’m sorry I maybe I didn’t make myself clear um so there are four workshops with stakeholders pre-election so they will be gone out shortly to invite an invited
Group of stakeholders the public consultation much wider um going on after this committee actually in June that will begin after that so um councilor thank you um just wondering if you could um enlarge a bit more in terms of it being a connecting places and talk a little bit about your ideas around
Being a transport Hub but particularly for sustain transport starting with walking and then cycling and then buses and what you see as the potential role there within the work you’re doing um to encourage more of sustainable travel rather than the you know drive there be dropped off come back be picked up and
All the rest of it you know sort of trying encouraging a bit more sustainable travel your thoughts on that well um it’s a great question and I think it’s something that will I’m not sure we can answer that now because I think truly that will come out the
Design and consultation process that is due to happen um over the coming months uh only to say really at this point that it’s very much part of the brief we’re aware of the Winchester movement strategy and other policies and the aims of reducing traffic and improving space for walking and cycling
In Winchester as in many cities around the UK um so that’s the context in which we go into those consultations with um but equally we’ll be you know listening to the officers understanding the policies and also the local interest groups which will be engaging who represent those very interests that you just
Mentioned God God free thank you so much last year we had the um EV in capacity study which looked at what was possible on each site um and uh that included some um preferences expressed in this forum last year um how’s that um those um how’s the capacity study being uh
Results being taken forward into the consultation and um presumably inter concept master plan uh and what what sort of constraints or um expectations will you be presenting to um the stakeholders yeah we’re aware of obviously the previous um documents by half Tomkins they’re part of the Baseline study that we’ve been currently
Working on and understanding what those those outcomes are I think we we’re looking at those and trying to understand how that those particular documents fit within broader conversations when they’re having about other things to do with obviously transport issues biodiversity issues so we need to look at those closely and
Understand how we can actually make those work and develop those I mean at the end of the day those things were effectively sort of capacity studies they’re not kind of um creating spaces or places they’re not kind of buildings as such they’re just looking at you’ve
Got plot of land how much you can get on it I think what our job is to try and understand that level of capacity and understand all the other layers that you need to put on top of that to actually come out with something that needs a
Sort of a more workable master plan diagram drawings so that’s what our job is over the next year nearly following the consultation process um of which hopefully we’ll be able to give you guidance on what we think is the best solution for this uh area and so we we
Obviously have all that information and we’ll obviously be using it as a sort of a way of helping us understand what was done before and how we can move that project forward thank you if I if I could just move into a different direction um so in
Your slides you’ve got the snake type of uh timeline uh kind of outling outlying an overall plan um now I think this committee is is due to meet in June um so what I’m really looking at here is to better understand what are the intering Milestones from your perspective and
What are what are you going to be bringing back for discussion comment the approval to this committee and at what Milestones so we kind of have a sense of what to expect next time and and we can gauge to some extent whether it you know we’re on track ahead
Of track whatever traps traps is the wrong hun phrase to be using in this context almost sounds the perfect celor um so I think as I said earlier we’ve got a briefing post election for the 22nd of May for all members to be briefed on the station approach and that
Will be with design engine showing the results of their work having had their um four workshops with key stakeholders prior to the election they will then be continuing to work on looking at each of the sites and pulling that together and then presenting that to members we
Already have an approval to go out for public consultation but we are clearly want to share that public consultation material with you at the next uh meeting in June of this committee that then leads us on to a public consultation exercise for six weeks over the SU
And then we will be bringing the results of that back to the committee in the Autumn that will give you another chance at that point to have some final comments before then we’ll bring the concept master plan will then get taken forward to Cabinet by our planning colleagues for endorsement as per the
Usual arrangements for um concept Master plans any any further questions anybody other than me right here we go um got I’ve got two questions I’m quite interested in following up on um and and one of them to be fair is a question that’s a sort
Of distillation of a page of A4 which I had from councilor Lee to to a question um which is first question is how are you working to join this up on other Citywide transport issues with the movement strategy with what’s going in central Winchester you know so we have
Joined up VI particularly if we’re looking at the question of connecting so that’s question number one and question number two um I’ve heard indirectly you know from I don’t know how we call it planning and Redevelopment regeneration gossip that they’ve they’ve historically taken quite an Innovative and engaging approach in
Andover so I was quite interested that you referenced that and I just wondered if there are things we can learn from how they’ve done there what they did there that we will be thinking of reapplying to how we think about and how we work in Winchester can I take the first point
And you can absolutely amplify it as well um and leader you’ve heard me say this before we do have a meetings to be set up between the two respective design teams of uh for station approach and for Central Winchester um that it’s due to happen un
Told and that will be with Hampshire K can so we understand and both teams understand how important it is that they hear from each other about the opportunities the constraints and also um what is the out of the possible in terms of public transport provision movement Act of travel across and
Between both projects so that’s absolutely um in the diary due to happen before the end of March because actually somebody from the jigsaw team is on is on leave in March so we have to get that in quite quickly I’ll let these gentlemen answer the rest of it and I’ll amplify that
Point as well if you if you want to um I I’ll try and address the second point but bearing in mind this isn’t a presentation about Handover Town Center I would say that the um we the team that worked on on that project there’s there’s a number of
Issues and uh skill sets that we’ll bring to bear on on station approach but also it’s the differences between the two sites and the two problems there so there are different challenges in Handover it’s it’s a High Street um site there is the very high part of of and
Over there around the uh the retail shopping center that was failing so it would it would be kind of out of place for me to talk about some of the learnings from that scheme because they don’t necessarily map across to the station approach regeneration problems in Winchester that we’re that we’re
Tackling um just to say that those elements of um Urban placemaking and public realm and particularly the The Roots so for example in and over some of the uh vehicular roots that sort of cut off and um sever some of the movements around and into the city center I can
See parallels there with some of the ways that transport moves around the station approach area uh and so that’s something that we’ll be taking um you know learnings from the Andover project into the station approach probably not except obviously it’s difficult to compare cities with different cities or towns um as ol Ando
Was a failing town center and it had a very difficult shopping center that needed to be removed and replaced they’ve done certain radical things relocation of the theater things like this TR bring sort of life back into the high stre and elements of that are important within station approach I
Think the difficulty with station approach how to bring life into that part of the city and avoid it just being a sort of place you walk through so what do you bring to it Beyond housing and offices is there ways that we can sort of um sweat that space harder and make
It a more a space where you might go there as a destination not just a place to either work or live and I think that’s that’s the sort of areas that we want to sort of in a sense tease out with the consultation process and see whether there’s a way of doing that
Within this particular area these these are two large sites and uh one of them is obvious the gateway to the city so I think there are bits about trying to think hate the word outside the box be radical about what we might try and do
Here um so none of those things we we’re we’re disguising we’re trying to embrace um but obviously we we’re trying to go through this process of of consultation and understand everybody’s particular sort of loves and hates about the sites and then understand whether we can then
Come to to a way of presenting back to the city something which which is maybe a different way of thinking about that place which is station approach which we we’re all now rather familiar with but probably not in a good way we want to try and change it into a place that’s
Maybe we’re familiar with in a in a in a in a good way something that maybe the city’s more proud of than it is currently I think they’re challenging I mean let’s be honest it’s not easy and you know something is going to have to
Be done there to be make it change and I think that’s going to be a collective effort I don’t think it just comes down to us putting something on a master plan and think it’s a collective will to make station approach and car and the cattle
Market site become a great asset to the city I think it’s designers confident we can do that but we just need obviously everybody collectively to join in in that journey and that’s what happened that that’s what’s happened at Endo I think it was a massively joined up and a very positive
Way of trying to develop that city which C Town Center which was effectively been failing on its feet and had been for many years unlike Winchester which isn’t the same very helpful and I think I think towards the end there you sort of captured what I was particularly looking
For which wasn’t so much I’m fully recognized that and and Winchester are very different places um but I was interested in the sort of communalities of what it takes to make to get that kind of quality of design sensitivity of design to place imagination of design as needed to to
Solve the challenges in front of you and I think you started to touch on that on the end I don’t know if you have any further thoughts on that but but otherwise your answer was very helpful any other comments or any questions um uh but we we are the theory of this
Is that we are noting the paper but uh in theory at this point we can uh have any debate that might be needed ahead of noting but I don’t know if that’s feels appropriate to people somebody wants to make any comments I think it’s been more about understanding the work that’s
Underway but somebody wants to say something they feel free no okay otherwise thank you very much indeed for coming along we’re very excited to have such a an eminent uh local practice involved in the work um and people who there I said by their very location are going to care about
What happens and make sure uh you if we look at the record of your work the the one thing we can absolutely bank and take for granted is that you care about this city and that you are ambitious for this city and how we move it forward in
A way that’s sensitive uh to its history but that we do move it forward um I like the idea of thinking about it as a place to connect um and very grateful for you for coming along today for the work that’s already underway and I’m excited
To see uh the outcome of what what comes next and as you say it will be a common effort to drive the kind of excitement and Improvement that we are looking forward to and I I look forward to that common Endeavor so thank you very much
Indeed for coming and we will uh I’ll ask cabinet to note the paper which I’m sure you y um and we’ll move on to the next item at business but thank you thank you very much for inviting us um so the next item of business is the central Winchester uh regeneration project
Update um uh the way we will do this is we will have the uh presentation uh the introduction the presentation I think we then have um a chance for Mr Baker to um make his comments and raise any questions that he may have uh and then answer those questions and then cabinet counselor
Colleagues have the chance to ask their own questions but if we could start with the team taking us through the um presentation I have now muted everybody with my second button only I have I have to confess I think that might have been me chair apologies um so yes thank you for
Um introduction there we’re going to give you a bit of an update now on how the central Winchester project has progressed and what the next steps are um touch on where we at with the Fri Gate medical center um we’ve got Tracy Matthew uh Tracy Matthews our
Archaeologist here to go through some of the archaeology slides and we also have our development partner jigaw here with us today as well to take you through what they’ve been up to since the last time we were here at at regen committee so here are some actually now some of
Them are out of dat photos of where we got to with friers gate and for those Eagle eyed and not so Eagle eyed amongst it’s practically gone now there is a pile of spoil left but substantially the building has come down um we have been a
Little bit the oldd week or so slightly behind schedule but nothing onard I think there was some um theft from sight early on and I think there is just one other small I think there’s been another unexpected electricity connection found this past couple of days so we’re on track for it
Coming down definitely by the end of February so the program itself is not being held up in any way we are also on the cusp of awarding the next stage because for those of you that have followed this we have we want to put the interim interim space there
Which involves some Landscaping so once the site is actually cleared of all the spoil and the rubble the hard landscape aping will be undertaken contract for that is about to be awarded and again they are looking to start onsite towards the end of February um with a view to
You can see the timings here march to May actual work and straight off the back of that there will be the soft Landscaping which we’re talking there around trees and Planters and seating Etc and I know the Estates team are already working hard on pulling together
The brief for that and making sure that the soft Landscaping follows hard on the heels of the hard Landscaping we’re also liasing with the um archaeologists that are currently working on the site PCA on the trenching work that the council has carried out um which Trac is going to
Talk about in a little while but we’re also looking to to to speak to PCA to talk to them about the the final stages of the friers gate site which is bringing the site um to life through engagement around archaeology we’re looking at bringing in some of the
Arts groups some of the culture groups to try and make it a bit of a focal point throughout the period that it’s going to be a a meanwhile use um again working with our partners jigsaw to understand how they also might be involved in that including their
Engagement and uping the profile of the pro whole project through what we do on that particular site that fr’s so slightly behind with the Demolition but nothing unto and we are still on track to have the site activated and engaging by the summer of this year so that’s that’s really
Exciting with regards to the other key element that the council is doing ahead of the main project which jigsa are helping us with obviously is how we are getting on with the trenching works and the excavations um which PCA are currently doing on the bus station so we’ve got
Tracy with us this afternoon is going to talk us through the next few slides to obviously knows far more about archaeology than I do um good afternoon leader counselors and members of the public here and those viewing online um as very has outlined I’m here to just present some of the
Initial results and findings from the archaeological work that’s currently underway site finishing soon um so as you know uh a previous regeneration cabinet in February last year approved the funding to progress evaluation trenching on the site um pre-construct archaeology were appointed to undertake this work following a rigorous procurement
Process so the project aims were obviously to find out more we didn’t know we don’t know a lot about this area there’s a lot of reconstruction of Street plans Town layout in the Roman late Saxon and medieval period but there’s been very little archaeological investigation in this area um of any
Date so it’s really an unknown area um and in parallel we wanted to undertake a a big wide program of public engagement activities and events um bringing the site and the work that has been undertaken to a wider audience um if I could have the next slide
Please thank you um so the project as you know entailed four trenches big trenches deep trenches um which had have been formed by the previous um ball hole project undertaken in 2020 21 um it was a research driven project like I said we we have very little key and
And detailed information on this area we were testing a lot of questions through this project um trying to understand more about the Roman the lake Saxon and the medieval towncape um in the wider sense um individual buildings if we could locate them um streets lost streets lost Lanes um tying that very
Much into the medieval documentary evidence of which there’s extensive work undertaken by the winest Research Unit and published by the wi direct Creations committee Martin biddle’s um uh group um and obviously through all of the finds and samples really increasing our understanding of life and activity
Across this area so as you can see from these photos it’s been a complex engineering project in as much as an archaeological project um big machines huge trench boox systems to um sorry if we just go back a bit thank you uh very big box trench systems to ensure
The safety and stability of the trenches um both for the ground and also for the archeologist in the in the trenches um water management has been an issue um uh and you know we we we’ve we’ve managed to get that that working but there’s all sorts of health and safety
Issues confined spaces gas monitoring um for the people in the trench um whole process is procedures had to be planned out in the event that uh one of the PC Personnel was injured or sick and had to be lifted out of the trench in the sort
Of you’ve seen them sort of um Coast Guard rescue basket sort of scenarios that’s all on site ready just in case so it’s been a very complex project um not withstanding before we even got into the ground so what did we find slide please these photos um
Illustrate some of the work things that we’ve found and identified and understood so far um up at the top left of the screen uh we’ve got the trench that was um to the west of Tanner Street um in the qub house car park um here um
We identified what you can see in that photograph is is the early uh sorry it’s the late 19th century Alleyway surface um the that’s documented on historic OS Maps below that and see you can see in the photograph to the right um we had two phases of a medieval building which
Would have fronted onto Tanner Street um floor surface within that um and to the east of the building which is the left of the photograph we’ve we’ve had uh a sort of cobbled surface which suggests that it’s a yard um outside of structures below that um which can be seen in the bottom
Central photograph uh we’ve had um a sort of a a chalk and Flint layer which which perhaps is a capping layer above very black deep silty uh deposits which we which are very fine grained in terms of their nature which suggests their water Lane um the photograph here shows some preconstructed archaeologists sampling
Um that deposit and we’ll find out more about its character and what it means in terms of what happened below the med before the medieval period in Du course um the photograph on the bottom left is one of the trenches within the main bus station area um R trench three um and
That there you can see um is is an area where there’s sort of TI small areas of tiles towards the top of the arch iCal surface there um those those are Roman tiles um but they are reused so we are looking at remains of probably a a late
Saxon to early early medieval building um at that point um above all of that sorry below all of that we’ve got a sort of fairly thick 30 to 40 cm thick organic layer um lots of twigs and bits of wood lots of animal bone coming from
It and that we think at this stage um we know from the bore holes that that deposit dates to the late Saxon period um or sorry early middle Saxon period um and it likely represents reversion to the flood plane following the sort of breakdown of the Roman Administration
And maintenance of a Roman water management system in this area so it’s basically become a swamp again um and on the right hand side the larger photograph that uh is the trench which is immediately south of the Fri Gate medical center site um and here we have um a revetment structure which is
Formed by um Timber posts they’re actually just tree trunks driven into uh the ground um sort of bound together by horizontal Timbers um and behind that and as part of the construction of this revetment we have a sort of large dump of materials um and soils um lots of
Finds coming out of that material the upper Parts seem to be medieval but the the lower parts seem to be producing earlier perhaps Saxon Norman artifacts and you can see right at the base of that next to the archaeologist is another Timber where you can see a hole
In it um and that is a reused structural Timber now our current thinking is based on um evidence from what the structure is is a revetment to probably an early incarnation of the brook the lower Brook that passes through this site currently it sort of WS its way underground in a
Culvert and then to the east of the bust site as an Open Water course this we think is an earlier incarnation of the brook um evidence from similar Waterfront sites in London uh apparently look at this type of constriction as 9th century um however the the artifact certainly within that dump supporting
The Rev out man to the rear of it is suggesting s later date the fact that we’ve got an earlier reused Timber integral into the construction of this might suggest that there’s an earlier phase of structures on the site and that Tim come from that and being reused in this medieval period
We might be slightly behind the times in terms of construction techniques perhaps here in Winchester we’ve been able to recover some of the Timbers from that revetment and as part of the post excavation work PCA and their Specialists will’ll be looking at species identification and dendr Chron chronological dating ring dating as well
So we’ll hopefully get a good date for for that structure we can move on to the next slide um and these three uh photographs uh really show some of the complexity and difficulties in evaluating this site um the photograph on the left I mean I me
They all show there’s a lot of mud and water that needs to be managed daily I mean basically the The Trenches flood every day and they have to be pumped before the archaeologist can get back in there get back to where they were yesterday and then move on ahead so um
It it’s it’s a slow process um if you in the photograph on the left to the left of the archaeologist is is a pit uh which is a later pit that’s been cut through earlier stratigraphy and in the middle of that water filled pit you can
Sort of see this sort of triangle of it’s it’s a it’s a wooden post effectively um and that feature that piece of Timber is in the right hand photograph the at the center top of the trench um the same post but but they’ve archology gone down
Below and this is now showing remains of a Roman Timber structure or buildings um plural we think possibly um some of these elements represent drains um we have wooden drains from other archaeological sites in Winchester um and so we we have our first confirmation of Roman archaeology on this side in
Those trenches um lots and lots of fines so if we can move to the next slide lots of material culture lots of pottery lots and lots of animal bone um the center toop photograph um is actually a pig mandible um but what’s interesting on that is it’s it’s showing lots of cut
Marks through its evidence of Butchery people are processing um meat on on the site or and and dispos of it um within the site um we’ve also got at the top right um is what is a crucible that’s that’s evidence of metal working um I
Don’t yet know if we know what type of metal working but hopefully there’ll be some residues within the crucible that will tell us exactly what they were working with below that there’s a wetstone um a small lace tag I think that was Clay pipe so what people were casually losing from their highest
Possessions perhaps um Pottery lots and lots of animal bone and and top right is is a part of a sculpture um now preliminary uh assessment of that by a specialist suggested that is a very important 12th century Romanesque sculpture there’s there’s traces of paint um which will be further analyzed
Um the the way it’s carved and the position of of there’s a hole in the top um and where the mouth would have been um it’s possible that this was a gargoyle um from a a significant building um presumably on on the site somewhere in the locality of where it was
Find um if we can move on to the next slide um like we said um public engagement around this project um has been a very fundamental part of this project from the outset um we’ve had significant partnership between the council um pre-construct archaeology and the UN University of
Winchester to to deliver this um we’ve had an extensive programs of volunteer activities both up at the University where volunteers have been helping have been helping to process some of the early um environmental samples um and also in the offices of preconstructed archaeology washing the fines um and
Just getting to handle um some of the material that’s coming out of the site um we’ve had some fantastic feedback from volunteers um who have come from far and wide as well as the immediate locality I think I think a an American Tourist came and volunteered for four
Weeks because they were staying in the locality I presume they were on extended family visit or something and they volunteered and had a fantastic time um and it’s been great and that program has been extended twice by pre-construct due to the success of that program and and it’s that’s ongoing currently as
Well now we’ve had four open days which have been highly successful um both for general public um involving tours off the site in the trenches um opportunities to see and handle some of the fines and information um which were held in Abby Gardens um prec construct
Also had a an invited group from the local beavers group and cubs groups who who had a special tour and activities set up for them um yeah and lots and lots of information on prec constructs website and our own website Friday finds um some of the special things that have
Been found from the site um have featured on their website too so I think it’s been hugely successful the next slide and the next steps um I said the work’s ongoing because it is ongoing still um we are slightly delayed um in completing the work three out of the four trenches have been
Completed and they have been backfilled ready for reinstatement um the fourth trench is well underway um and we have agreed exactly what next steps will happen within that trench um and we have an end date scheduled for the end of the week commencing the 19th of February we are in February only yes
Um um so that will then be completed and then there’s a twoe period allowed for back filling decounter from site and vacating the site removing all the equipment site accommodation Etc um that the delays have largely been down to a number a combination of factors just the complexity and and sort of slog
Sometimes of opening the trenches up each day Water Management we had some delay delays with the environment agency um agreement process due to delays in their handling of paperwork um through through last summer um they they were just extremely busy um and it meant that something that should have been
Hopefully agreed within 20 days took much longer um but that delayed opening some of the trenches on the main bus station site reconstruct archaeology unfortunately have had cases of covid um through through the autumn and winter uh which has obviously knocked out Key Personnel at times um and and obviously
We’ve had a number of severe weather events um through the the autumn and winter um which has has brought its own challenges in terms of water management and Etc um there have been no cost implications to this because although the program has been delayed um or is
It’s extended um what that’s meant is that each trench has has been delayed but the overall time of uncosted Staff Time by prec construct has not increased so that’s where we are with that um following prec construct leaving the site um they’ll be entering what’s called we call the Post excavation stage
That’s where all of the fines will continue to be processed by that I mean washing the fines processing the environmental samples to recover all the seeds Etc um we’ll receive an interim report um which is do one month after the completion of the field work um probably won’t say much more than I’ve
Kind of alluded to today but with more detail um and then they’ll commence work with the Specialists looking at all of the categories of finds and artifacts um and the samples um that will all be correlated across all of the careful site records and drawings made
During the project um and and that will that will then all be brought together and create uh the story of the site and the story of those trenches and how they can enhance our understanding of that part of Winchester um will then receive that that report um we’ll certainly be
Looking at integrating that fully with the previous ball hole results um and um our plan is then that um at some point we will then have another public panel session where we’ll present a very detailed picture of the archaeology um which will be in a public forum so that
Everybody can hear much more about this fantastic site um and as Varan has alluded to already um there’s further further Project work which will form part of the interim use at the fir Gate medical center site thank you thank you very much indeed um I have
A quick question which I’m going to ask Mr Baker which I’m assuming your presentation probably your deputation relates to the last presentation and not to the archaeology or do you want to ask something about archaeology Central Area as a whole okay so I suggest we take it the end there’s
An awful lot in that presentation so I’m thinking that it might be helpful that if people have questions on what we’ve covered so far Now’s the Time to ask it rather than trying to remember all the final details and then come back to it later on um so I just wondered if
Colleagues had questions here councilor Edwards um thank you the next steps um there are some elaps times but not indicative dates and I’m wondering when the final archaeology panel might be held and more generally what the relationship is between this archaeology process and the ability to begin construction work on the site
Okay well um as I said we do an initial sort of interim broad brush this is what we found what we think currently within a month um the the detailed report is due six months after the completion of field workor and I think also related to the developer agreement um which takes
Us to sort of late summer um we’ve we’ve talked um internally and we anticipate that that sort of public forum full-on presentation about the archaeology of this site from these trenches would would happen close to or around that that period of that report because obviously we would want the full
Information to to present to the public um obviously there are things in the political world that may change that sort of thing so but um we are looking at for the delivery of that detailed report within sort of late late summer so I’m sure that we’ll be able to give a
More an update on when that final sort of panel presentation will happen in due course but that may be affected by wider events um in terms of your second question about how that relates to the you know development um this is this is very much um an evaluation it’s starting
To look at what’s there the next steps really will be um for jigsaw and the the project team to sort of start the pre-application process really and and engage through planning um and there’ll be a lot more detailed discussions about what we do know what might happen where
Um and therefore where or what further information might we need Etc so that’s all the sort of next stages in terms of the planning sort of process really I hope that answers your question I think councelor Edwards just just just to add to that the development brief
That went out in the procurement papers that went out very specific archaeology strategy which which obviously Tracy oversaw the jigsaw team are here today they they’re well aware of that and I think um so joining the two up is is already happening along the way behind ABS
Promo thank you for that and Council Edwards has asked the question I was thinking about there in terms of timeline but I um just curious really where is all this work happening all the processing of the fines and to what extent are the public or local experts
Involved in that processing of that all that all those finds um at this stage a lot of that processing work uh is happening at prec constructs office in North Winchester um and as you see from the photograph there’s a lot of local volunteers who are helping with that um initially I
Think some of them are a bit bored of washing animal bone but that’s what Lots has been found so um but they get lots of other treat finds to look at as well um a lot of the uh preconstructed and multi office um organization and their main office is in London uh Southeast
London and a of their Specialists work out of that office so um but there’s also lots of other external Specialists who will be brought in by prec construct to look at specific elements of some of the finds from the site so you know leather experts they’re fairly few and
Far between so they tend to be used by all the archaeological contractors but but prec constructive certainly set in place know we need you here they’re all set and ready to go so um so some of that a lot of that specialist um review of the material will happen not in
Winchester um but it’ll all be brought back and our hope is um and I’ve talked prec construct about that before is to sort of have a sort of fora um officer con specialist contractor fora to look at how that story is evolving and just discuss you know the B results that
Would involve Keith Wilson from the University Winchester we hope Etc so yeah you thinkk you say a little bit like trying to organize all your trades people in on a building project you just hope they all going to turn up the right right pre pre constructive a lot of lot
Of scheduling ahead in advance so that there are no delays I’m ju just curious is is is this is this place a place that could accept visitors to come and have a look and be shown okay this is what we’re doing and so on or was that just a very very scary
Proposition the the office in Winchester is pretty small um and certainly I don’t think it’s suitable for public sort of viewing of that once the material’s been processed and a lot has already it will go off to their London office and then for for work on by the Specialists
Externally as well so um that’s that’s probably not something that we could provide fac direct facilitation to view or understand but I hope and that that there’ll be further updates on anything you know if for example some of the material being looked at produces a really interesting fact or information
We’d certainly be looking to kind of provide regular updates through the social media platforms um during this post exavation process Bolton do you want to ask a question just that um I think we’re all curious along similar sort of lines here and the only two sort of outstanding
Bits for me were I was curious to know sort of how many people you have working on the digs was it like a seven hour a day five day a week exploit and secondly um I appreciate that we’re in the final throws of all of that part of
The project um and in the absence of a last minute discovery of the Ark of the Covenant would any thing get in the way of sort of the next stage in terms of development thank you um in terms of a working day yes it’s a five- day week by the open days
Which on Saturdays um the team on site uh in in each trench you you have restrictions as to space and capacity so it I think it varies from uh three four five people in the trench um they all had to have confined spaces training you had a a permanent person at trench top
Undertaking the gas monitoring um making sure everyone is safe and and that’s a permanent they are there that they they’ve been sat there for months and haven’t done any digging um then you have the site the site supervisors on site as well um and then you have the
Project management team back back at the office and visiting and discussing strategy with with my myself and the site team um it’s an 8 till 4 working day but as I said to get to site you’ve got to dewat the trench First Take Back the silt layer that’s
Accumulated overnight so and and then at sort of 3:30 you’ve got to start packing up the equipment Etc so um and obviously light through the winter months has been obviously an issue in terms of packing up as well so that’s the sort of General setup in terms of a working pattern um
Um I’m sorry your second point we we certainly haven’t found the Ark of the Covenant no um the Archaeology is incredibly exciting and interesting but we haven’t got anything that we can point to as being massively significant we haven’t got um a mosaic there’s been a couple of pieces of Tess
In later deposits but no intact mosaics no no firm beautiful room and building lots of remains of things and we will build up a really exciting picture but there’s there’s no show stoer as yet been identified onite Mr wilgar I think you wanted to I either comment or ask a question feel
Free to I was I was just going to chip in on the um substructure archaeological challenges uh point which was sort of mentioned a little earlier um we have worked with PCA actually in the past in a very challenging location in uh in buray uh the solution in that instance
Was actually a combination of sort of caner levered um ground floor slabs so you have your piles in locations that aren’t sensitive cancel leering slabs away from uh any of the the archaeological remains and interestingly in that particular instance in Bur Square we actually opened we had a large
Glazed panel in the floor uh to actually expose some of the remains um which are still visible to this day when you go into the uh the commercial space in that area thank you very much indeed um any other questions from anyone uh oh cast godf is this the right meeting
Um the question I asked this morning um wrong time back govern come confirm that the um direct development agreement with J oh right I’m sorry I was archaeology section oh if that’s all we’re doing yeah we just I just thought while we uh while we had Matthews here then we would
Do that uh in detail and then we’ll come back to that uh question in a minute um so no that was extremely helpful thank thank you very much indeed I’m I’m looking forward to uh hearing more about I mean I’ve got questions but they’re really about the archaeology and I’ll
Get a chance to do that when we have the the panel um like you know we we had a very exciting uh well exciting to some of us um launch last night of the latest uh book in the Winchester excavations committee series about Roman Winchester so um uh which presented some things
That genu genuinely I think none of us knew like it Winchester being the largest what was the phrase he used the largest stone walled fort in England or something I in antonine Period or something like that the largest flavian urban center there were various things very early first century soon after the Roman
Conquest I think what was interesting about it was I think we always assumed that we were kind of just another Roman city and uh what’s clear from the publication last night is we weren’t we we often in this city have all long discussions about the Anglo-Saxons but actually what’s clear from this publication
Available from all good book shops at are really quite High watering price but you can down pay for a PDF um is is that actually our Roman history is equally important as well so I’m I could ask all kinds of questions about you know how
Old was the Rome and stuff um and I also share your excitement that actually discovering a working part of the city and where things were made and done is actually just as important as any other part of the city that we we find and and so getting Insight onto that is
Incredibly important and also the city’s complex as we are now discovering more complicated relationship with water in the river that perhaps we realize so lots of exciting things thank you very much indeed for giving us the update we now move on to the next presentation um which is from uh tiaw uh
Yeah about the the project overall thank you very much um what I will set out here is is a it’s just a brief summary um across our sort of two um approaches when it comes to engagement we have our uh active engagement and we have our passive engagement active engagement is actually
Going out meeting people um reaching out directly whereas our passive is um primarily digital is where people come to us us so the first uh slide here is just around the series of meet and greets that we ran from um October to December there were um six or seven in
Total I think with a total of 142 attendees um the um I think it’s fair to say that that it was um it was worthwhile as an experience and you can see some of the key themes coming out of their uh overriding interest around uh movement and transport uh but also some
Interesting discussions around um housing concerns and mix of uses um you know some some ideas there which perhaps we didn’t um expect to be brought to us from members of the public which was good um 142 people uh turning up to a meet and greet isn’t enough uh in our
View and we want to meet more people so we are um already in the throws of our next round or setting up our next round of and you know we we’re we’re moving around our terminology slightly because we’re calling these ones popups uh and it is very much that one of the things
We learned from the the uh meets and greets was actually positioning ourselves in a you know somewhere where there is potential for in incidental sort of contact IE people just walking by works really nicely people might not have uh time to to book out of their day
But if they’re walking past and they can grab five minutes just to chat to you it works quite nicely um so we’ve got locations across um marwell Zoo um hopefully the cathedral uh going back to the Leisure Center at the right time uh with the ark and Rugby Club uh as well
As um making sure we have a presence at the the upcoming Global galaxies um event on middle Brook Street um the content of that again is is is around um trying to get people’s opinion ask an opportunity to discuss their concerns uh and we’re going to be asking um those
That come and see us and talk to us to uh literally uh send your ideas on a postcard card so we’ll be handing out postcards to members of the public so that they can respond to us with the incentive um off the back of it that um
The will’ll run a little prize draw at the end of it and um offer a family ticket to go to 878 ad um that’s our sort of our immediate plan for meet and greet we’re we’re we’re conscious that we have the pre-election period coming up so this is all du to
Take place in the next six weeks uh and actually our sort of public engagement um certainly that active element of the the public engagement will resume after um publication of the development delivery plan which we will come on to later in the um this presentation thank you um so that that
That was the active this is the passive um common place has continued to uh tick away in the background uh it has been pushed through um both common places um mailing list and and registered list which are people that have already kind of signed up up to Winchester um
Anything that’s happening on Common Place Within Winchester so it’s been pushed through them and there’s a thousand invites gone out there um it’s also been featured within the um the Winchester uh newsletter uh with 18,000 uh recipients of that uh as well as um 700 individuals that are specifically
Registered to um hear about cwr as a project that being said um we look at the the number of visitors the number of subscribers and those answering the demographic questions and actually we need to reach more people um so whilst it tells us some interesting things um around uh sustainability integration and
Permeability um th those sorts of elements there’s there’s lots of commonality and responses that we get from people on commonplace um it tells us a bit but it doesn’t feel as though we’ve got too enough people to really kind of get the weight of that yet um
And I think the way that we will um improve those numbers we’ll be around enhancing the digital offer and actually creating something that people are interested in coming and seeing and I’ll talk about that a little bit because that’s the last Slide the next steps so uh this is
Really just setting out the process of uh us coming back in um June um with a view to trying to finalize our development delivery plan um the development delivery plan uh is the end product of of a process um so you know our Guiding Light uh when it comes to
The tender was a combination of the the development brief uh the the SPD uh movement strategy and then there are a couple of pages of um other documents to reference within the the development brief um and those are are kind of our Bible that that’s led to our tender uh
But the content of the development delivery plan will be assessed against the contents and the guidance U within the development brief so that’s very much our um our primary focus over the next six months and you can see the chapters uh on the right hand side there
Um there’s a lot in it with regards to design um our approach to the mixed use quarter approach to high quality public realm and placemaking um our approach to Estate Management how we expect um the the differing um functions across the estate to to to perform and interact um
We will also set out some findings from our community engagement to date but also set out our approach for community and community and stakeholder engagement as we work up the actual designs following the development delivery plan being published um we’ll set out our approach to sustainability um and a lot
Of that will um focus around the the igloo uh footprint principles um we will set out our approach to social value um likely to be started from indicating a social value Baseline uh and building up from there um we will set out our strategy around uh meanwhile uses uh and
That’s very much an iterative process idea where we’ll be um indicating where we think that there are opportunities for intervention um we don’t want to just sit here and work up a planning application in the background actually we think that there are opportunities to to to get on and do things in an
Iterative way and that will be set out within our Meo use strategy uh planning strategy partnering and procurement strategy i i s I probably don’t need to read them all out but you can see that there’s there’s a lot of content here and this is exactly what we’ll be bring bringing back in
June keep looking at my screen it’s actually not there um so yeah just how does that look on a on a road map um we very much a focus of the next six weeks uh around the uh the popups um as well as reaching out more to uh to youth
Groups and younger people we we we uh in collaboration with wi officers we we’ve identified around about 35 36 different um organizations that would be um really helpful for us to engage with um we’re in contact with well we’ve we’ve contacted all of them and we we’re
Engaging with at least 10 of those now uh to to set up a Spoke work work shops that specifically Target the youth um the intent there is that um we form a youth group which are there to sort of hold us to account uh over the
Course of the process together with a a Futures group uh which will be formed of other stakeholders um again to hold us to account to the commitments that we set out within the development delivery plan um we have uh resequenced our strategy to uh place the co-creation workshops
Which we were hoping to get done um early this year we’ve resequenced those now so sit um just at the other side of the the pre-election period uh and we think it’s actually quite opportune given that we’re we’re going to be meeting more people over the course of
The next few months anyway and Keen to have as many people participating in those co-creation workshops as possible um and then we’re into publication of the um development delivery plan so the last thing here I I I had I had hopes to uh to give a bit of a sneak
Peek of this but I have to admit I think technology is going to to beat me um what you’re seeing on screen there is on the right hand side this is a a photometric model which has been uh built of Winchester uh it’s a little bit like Google Maps except for its
Incredibly high resolution um it is entirely possible to sort of effectively walk through the city as it is now and this was this was a series of photographs that were um put together uh in about October November last year but on the left uh you have uh the scale
Model um in the from the uh city of Winchester Museum which we have now also been in and undertaken a photometric scan of uh and similarly to Google maps you can now walk through that uh as though it was 1870 um and so when I when I talk about
Um wanting to um enhance the digital offering in order to get more engagement through our passive means this is what I mean I think by creating something that is interesting to people a as a minimum oh I want to go and see what where my house is oh wouldn’t it be interesting
To see what was where my house is in 1870 you know as a minimum it’s that but um we’re going to continue to sort of build on uh the the engagement platform in ways like this to try and bring people to us um there are other many uh things
That we could do with with uh these two models and I think uh something that I really enjoy is this idea of creating a narrative and I think it’s going to be really wonderful to look at the the development and place it within its context of a 150e history uh as we go
Through the the the planning process I think that’s probably it for me thank you very much indeed um questions oh sorry public par after all this i’ been carefully saying to Mr Baker are you ready can you hold off and we finally get to the time where it’s uh
Your turn to come forward um Mr Baker would you please come forward and make your comments or ask any questions uh Richard Baker City of win trust I have one question has the council signed a contract with Jigsaw to develop and complete the Regeneration of the Central Area um Mrs
A thank you um the answer to the question is yes the council has signed the contract and it’s been sealed um jigsaw have also sent their versions and they’re they to use the house analogy if you sell a house we’ve exchanged but we haven’t yet completed so we’re due any
Day could let ask supplementary do you have a time limit for completion for an open and involving Council so in this occasion absolutely what’s your question is that the time is there a time for completion oh is there a time liing for myel colleagues but we’re we’re expecting
Days not weeks and you’re nodding so we’re all expecting days not weeks right I think we’ve sort of got through the point of the lawyers having their arguments and now we’re in the paperwork no the discussions are all over so everything is sorted out and we are literally in the grinding process both
Sides have agreed and we’re now just stamping the Bits of Paper and signing the Bits of Paper and sorry they’re signing the Bits of Paper we we’ve we’ve exchanged we’re going to complete essentially that’s the uh that’s the best way of thinking about it what bit more than
That um thank you for your question so the right answer I hope very good it’s the one we were all hoping for and we now have uh good um so Council godfre obviously he’s done now so uh but I’m sure you will have some other good questions who else has
Some questions colleagues uh councelor larnie um yeah I’m just has anything come out of the consultation and engagement that you’ve done so far that’s been surprising or has it all aligned with um all the previous work that the council’s done the honest answer is there’s a lot of
Alignment um I I think there’s one thing which I found interesting was I had a conversation you know I guess a lot of this stuff does become anecdotal when you’re talking in relatively no numbers and so these are sort of anecdotal feedback from uh a couple of the meet
And grps that there there were a couple of um people I spoke to who were more keen than I might have expected to uh create purpose built student housing in the center um which wasn’t on my radar um but like I say that’s that’s a couple of people
Out of uh all of the various people that we’ve met so that that slightly surprised me um I would say the majority of the the conversations and feedback that we’ve had uh are in accordance with uh the message that we’ve we’ve had over the course of the last few years good thank
You Council Thompson um yes thank you um right at the end of um the presentation you talked about setting up a youth group and I just wondered whether you could shed a bit of light on how you proposed to do that and sort of how will it meet
And how will it inform um plans going forward absolutely um so we we’ve started the process so I suppose in in a sense I’ve got an answer to the first part of the question uh perhaps not all of it the the um we really we want the
Process to be organic uh in that we want to be guided by the professionals that work with those particular groups rather than for us as a developer to turn around and and set a process that that governs them that might not work we so it it’s very much a case of us uh
Initially meeting with the the groups that are coming back to us that we’ve approached we’ll we’ll set out a a workshop in um that complements a process with them um from there we we’ll start to identify individuals groups that are particularly engaged and want to continue to be
Engaged um but beyond that the formality and the manner in which they sort of Monitor and comment it is not yet set I think it’s it’s open to be shaped while these groups from schools or colleges um universities yes uh we we we’ve gone quite broad um so it’s it’s all the way
Down to Primary School uh and up I councelor Thompson sort of delt into an area I was interested in sort of building on that I’m I’m sort of wondering what are you hoping that these uh you organizations will input into the project and kind of I’m beyond the youth area
I’m just I’m just wondering um how do you how do you sell the idea of engaging putting the time into uh into coming along to engage with you to provide input because I can sort of sense that you’re kind of hoping for a little bit more um and I I just wonder
If it’s it’s just too abstract for folks to get their heads around to then think and and then of of course you end up with certain demographics um who’ve got more time on their hands can do it and and then the really busy people um tend not to have
The time and it’s just a little bit you know abstract and difficult to gete around how do you how do you kind of overcome that and I guess related to that you got any ADV well any asks of counselors to kind of try and encourage
People thank you um so you take the the first question regards to the youth I think and again I I don’t want to sort of um preempt the the the process but I I think that that I’m kind of expecting um the workshops that we have to be very
Centered around creativity um you know they’ be quite practical possibly um art-driven uh and lots of fun ideas can come out of that sort of process I don’t know what they’ll be U but they’ll be they will be shared uh widely uh and I think it’s that that fresh perspective
Kind of um thinking a different way of thinking uh comes from a a primary school kid uh than it does from from everybody else um in terms of additional engagement I think you’re right around um the the concept being too um uh abstract uh and therefore not
Engaging people um you know I think it’s fair to say that a few people have turned up at the meet and greets and said well I thought I was going to see some designs um but we would have failed if the first time we’ve had a conversation with somebody is is the
Time that we’re showing them a design um and that that is really what we’re trying to achieve here is is is this reaching out to people to try and feed in their um their their concerns and their um hopes for for the development right at the very beginning rather than
Simply creating a straw man design throwing out there and expecting it to be torn to shreds it’s it’s not it’s not the way we like to work we want we want to work with people on the journey I I understand that it’s a chicken and it kind of thing you know
I’m I’m sure when whatever is done is fully implemented there’ll be all sorts of opinions and some of them will be highly critical uh and you’ll be thinking I wish you’d engaged earlier on and put that point out then but uh it is tricky but when it’s not even on paper
It’s more about Concepts and Frameworks and stuff I I think a regular um drumbeat of us being present publicly uh and inviting people to come and talk to us I think is is probably a good way for us to and you know whilst I talk about sort of tranches of of Engagement the
Truth is we won’t stop uh it it’s uh you know we’re always here to discuss with members of the public and any other stakeholder um and yeah so it’s an ongoing process I suppose thank you very much and I agree with your point of about the primary school children I’ve been interviewed by
David dimbleby and I’ve been interviewed by primary school children and I know which was harder um any other questions that people might have C Bolton thank you chair um this could be just a clarification really um sometimes I get a bit boggled by terminology and so um when you say the detailed design
Plan by sort of June uh TW 20 20 you’ve already switched your microphone on um is that the same as a master plan and is that what would go to the council or I just wanted a bit of clarity about what all that means all right so the DDP the development
Delivery plan yes that that that is a a series of strategies that um we’re committed to produce as a part of the development agreement uh it it isn’t a master plan it is a um it is a refresh and enhancement of uh design principles and a framework for us
To to operate within um it will largely take the form of a um a detailed um design brief for our designers to operate within effectively um as supplemented by a series of other strategies you know elements around infrastructure how are we going to um Power the site you know what are we
Going to do about the cold all of these sorts of things um will be contained within it but will it be a master plan that sets out exactly where buildings are no uh and I guess the followup is when will we see that um I I would expect so
We’ll be launching uh into what’s called ra RBA stage one uh immediately following the approval of the development delivery plan and I would expect a master plan to take shape uh in the early part of that process um so if if we say 6 months to the development
Delivery plan we’re sort of talking 9 to 12 months to a Master Plan yeah terrifyingly exciting um councelor Kon as helpful to know and I think Council Bolton was on the same track as me as to okay what um so just bring it back to specifics I think this is probably a
Question for Mr B uh bakey um just make sure I’ve got your eye um hi Ken um I think I’ve got a question which is more for you I think but you may but off someone else um I think in your right at the start of this uh introduction you were talking about
Progress with the Fri gate area and just bringing this back to relating this to the fact sometimes some of this work is a little bit conceptual and Abstract um public is always very interested in what you can see feel and touch and it feels to me like the meanwhile use thing
That’s going to happen on on FR gate is going to be a real tangible thing that where you know the folks can see they can have comments on and so on and just wonder if you just just remind us of the dates but also just give us some idea if
You can describe what we’re going to see when the soft landscaping and so on has has been done and it’s open and people can engage with it just remind us what that will look like if you could and I know you haven’t got the probably got the content
To be able to put it up on the slide and show us I’m going def toan because she she’s been learning reading this for the last over many years um but before she does I suppose what the one thing that’s interesting just to say for the committee is the development delivery
Plan when jigsaw present that to us we will be taking that back to cabinet for approval and so that will be we are aiming for a July cabinet date and as Matt described it will set out a series of issues that the council wanted further work on and
Also demonstrate how jigsaw will be approaching more before they start doing detailed design and spending quite a lot of money so that will come back to Cabinet um once it’s been submitted um I think there is an interesting one before we talk about maybe the specific fir gate is once
They’re into that detail design process actually there’ll be a much I think it’s easier to engage people when they have something to look at then rather than abstract con Concepts there I say without committing to making a model there’s enough models in lest or maybe um but you know there there are well
Well well tried and trusted methods of actually engaging people using visual means either on a screen or with a physical model to demonstrate what something is is actually going to look like in the future and I’m sure that will all form part of their submissions part of the development delivery plan
About the details of what that engagement might then look like as well but forgate very we did we did share we could circulate the designs for soft landscaping and interpretive facilities but you can maybe describe it as well thank you Ken yes so with with regards
To Bri gate as as as we said we’ve got the hard Landscaping moving into the soft Landscaping that the aim is to have that completed by summer so it hopefully depending on weather and depending on we don’t come across anything else unexpected um and what we’re currently
Doing is working with the team from PCA so the the archaeology team because the first part of that engagement and opening up with that site will be to do um sort of more an engagement come and have AO at digging on an archaeological Ty type of experience um quite shallow
Quite come and have a go um for a short period of time with a view to giving a bit of a heads up as to maybe what might be there but it’s mainly to get people to come in and be engaged and and get excited about the project um and leading
On from that there will be space within the Fri gate site and we can re redistribute the proposals for the site is space for um there’s a small platform stroke stage so we could get art groups creative groups drama groups to come in and and do some form of of performance
There’s space to do art there’s space to drive in and bring in vehicles so for example one of the archaeology ideas was to have um like like a Time truck or a an exhibition so at the moment it’s a bit fluid we haven’t identified exactly what that might be but again working
With Matt and Warick and the team at jigsaw it is a really good opportunity to bring them in on on that to start further engaging Across The Wider projects and how all of that comes together because obviously it’s it’s it’s it’s holding the for for them until
They’re ready to to start the bigger scheme on that site so we’re working very closely with them on that at the moment how we integrate that more fully okay that that’s helpful so sort of use the opportunity that will come from having that area opening up and
Engaging with people who might use it to then sort of draw them more into the more strategic uh long-term uh idea development so so that’s that’s really helpful thank you very and it’s quite exciting walking past the site now you can see across it you can see the
Beautiful arms house chimis it it it’s just changed the whole the whole outlook as you come into to that and we’re hoping that once the work is completed the Holdings come down and it it absolutely enhances that area and starts to get people give people a reason to go down
There thank you um and that actually ties into a question I’ve got which of course one of the things one of the consequences of it will be it will change the nature of movement in the area and uh slightly referring back to the the question that was um asked by uh
Councelor lee um who the area of discussion which is again know what the answer is but I’m going to ask you anyway so we have it on the record which is you know how are you coordinating so that uh you’re coordinated with Hampshire you’re coordinated for kind of
Movement and other questions that we have within the city and indeed you’re coordinated with you know um colleagues from design engine that we we met earlier so that between us all we’re we have a coherent uh story in terms of how people move about and use the
City I think it’s um uh as simple an answer as that that uh design engine joined the the working group for movement uh and meet regularly that’s that’s essentially yeah I think that’s it includes Hamshire and includes corre the officers involved in the movement strategy correct good are there any other
Questions um any debate um yeah not really debate just a few comments really I think um it’s really great to see the progress and um you know I I think we can generally start getting a bit excited about all of this um I mean obviously the actual
Development still seems quite a away in the distance but great that pror gate is now you know down by all intents and purposes something I’ve been telling residents and you know that this was going to happen for at least the last three years so that is fantastic
Progress and as um Miss Lions has said it really opens up the vistas um and makes a huge difference that and I think it it you know having that down once it’s got the hard landscaping and then the meanwhile use it will be um it shows progress and real
Commitment to the development um that is going to take place um in in the next few years so I’m I’m really getting quite excited that you know the beginning is um Insight if you like thank you I think I think it has been very frustrating uh from the outside uh to
The public and and and to members uh and it seems as though things have taken a long time and they have uh but in very terbly there’s been a lot going on behind the scenes we’ve been working very hard on all aspects of the project and I think it’s only once there’s
Something tangible on the ground it’s very difficult when it’s just a blank sheet of paper to get people to engage to really get them to start to say something because what they want to do is comment on something rather than hypotheticals and uh I’m sure now there’s actual activity on S side and
Things are really starting to to to motor that we’ll get that much better engagement I’m sure that’s the casee slightly lost control of the meeting but uh very in way and I think that’s absolutely right wark thank you chair um seeing the difference that the work that the council’s done with the
Tenants on kings’s walk the transformation at King’s Walk has been phenomenal and I think the There’s real Buzz around Kings Walk now and I think as you said cancer Thompson with Fri gate coming down and and the next steps there is remarkable change now and I
Think it is time for maybe a little bit of cautious optimism here you know um it is going to happen we’ve we’ve got the team in they’re here all the time really working on it and I think things will really start to to progress quite quickly
Now thank you very much indeed um and I think I think the combination of conversations we’ve had today about friers gate about the archaeology um about I’m glad you mentioned King’s Walk you know the things that are already happening physically on the ground is very exciting but I think
What’s also clear is that we’re motoring ahead with the next stage in terms of defining the plan moving towards the master plan and you know things are going to move at PACE to get to a and how we involve people in that Journey which is so important and how we work
With the people and businesses and other organizations of Winchester to to to make that project special um uh it’s it’s we’re at a very exciting time and uh thank you for all the work and partnership that we get from our friends at jigsaw and all the work
That’s been done by officers um and I’m looking forward genuinely to the next meeting uh and uh um uh and the and the progress that I’m sure we will be reporting at that point as well so on that note uh we’re asked to note the report I
Taking that right y noted um we have reached the end of our agenda um thank you everybody who’s attended um uh thank you Mr Baker for your piy and to the point question which proved very useful and put us on a very good basis for discussion um thank you everybody for
Coming and uh I declare the meeting