Vision and Strategy - Winchester Town Access Plan

A Vision for Winchester Town has recently been developed by Winchester's Town Forum - a cross-party group of City Councillors representing town wards. The Vision is intended to set out aspirations for Winchester Town's future, and describe the sort of place we seek to become. It seeks to capture the shared ambitions of Winchester's residents, and to challenge the City Council and others to help realise those ambitions.

The Vision for Winchester Town considers aspirations for Winchester's future under eight themes, one of which is improving transport, access and air quality. In this respect the Objectives as developed by the Town Forum are set:

To improve access and reduce pollution we will:

promote choice and variety in the ways people come to the city;
seek to reduce the need to travel by ensuring more services and facilities are provided locally;
manage car parks to balance the need of residents, visitors and businesses;
further expand park and ride, making it a more attractive option for visitors and workers;
promote improvements to parking at Winchester station and establish better links to and from the station, particularly from outlying areas;
reduce levels of congestion and manage traffic to reduce vehicle emissions and improve air quality;
provide a new high quality bus station with good links to the suburbs and rural areas;
establish more, safer and convenient walking and cycling routes;
promote improvements in public and community transport;
promote workplace and school travel plans;
reduce street clutter and champion well designed and managed streets.

But the Forum's Vision is not just about improving access and pollution - it's about making Winchester a better place to be. In this respect there are a number of other Themes within the Vision document which are important to make reference to in the Access Plan. These Themes and their relevant Objectives are:

Caring about our history, heritage and setting;

create exciting new public spaces: a space for activity and performance at the Cultural Centre in Jewry Street, a new public area to host markets and events outside the Guildhall and a new town square in the Silver Hill development;
enhance the quality of our public spaces: parks, streets and squares, and bring them to life with entertainment and activity.

Encouraging people to do business here;

promote a transport system which meets the needs of all, balancing ease of access with the need to protect our environment;

Creating a green and environmentally friendly city;

improve the pedestrian environment and gateways into the town;
remove street clutter to enhance the town's appearance;
Encourage the use of public transport to reduce space lost to the car;

Proposed Structure of the Plan

Following a preliminary consultation exercise with the local elected members a number of Key Issues emerged. These are fairly broad subject headings and can be categorised as: