Plans for Places... after Blueprint

Plans for Places….after Blueprint is the Council’s response to the many and varied comments we received to the Blueprint consultation held in 2010. It specifically sets out draft planning strategies for the whole of the Winchester District, taking into account feedback from Blueprint and revised and up-dated technical evidence, including revised population and housing projections. These strategies also include the amount of new development that needs to be planned for and where this will happen.

Plans for Places….after Blueprint will be published for 6 weeks consultation on Monday 27 June, all Parish Councils will receive a copy, together with a few posters advertising the consultation period to encourage contributions from a wider audience. All those individuals and groups that responded to Blueprint will also be informed of this new document, so Parish Councils may wish to organise a local discussion and submit a collective response back to us by the closing date of Monday 8 August 2011.

Plans for Places….after Blueprint covers the whole of the Winchester District including those parishes that now lie in the South Downs National Park, as it has been jointly approved by Winchester City Council and the South Downs National Park Authority and will feed into the Winchester Core Strategy to be published late 2011.

Back in April the Sports and Physical Activity team in April sent an email offering you the opportunity to be involved in an exciting new project: Winchester 2012: Parish Celebrations.

Winchester 2012: Parish Celebrations is a themed project that aims to engage rural communities in sport and physical activity in the build-up to the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Parishes and Wards are being offered the opportunity to participate in the project by identifying a new or existing festival event in their locality to capture people’s imagination and inspire them to celebrate London 2012. 

Thank you to those of you who have already responded to the initial request by expressing an interest in being involved in this project. The Sports team have been advised that some Parishes have not been in a position to discuss this project yet, and as a result the deadline for expressions of interest has been extended to accommodate Parish Council meeting time tables.

A helping hand for Village Shops

In another measure designed to support local businesses, Winchester City Council is continuing its financial support for vital village shops. Grants are available to village shops located within the Winchester District and which provide basic services for the rural communities they serve. The grants will be allocated on a first come first serve basis.

To apply or find out more, contact Alison Woods, Head of Economy and Arts at Winchester City Council on 01962 848 563 or email awoods@winchester.gov.uk.