Agenda item

Item 7: The erection of a multi storey car park to provide 287 park and ride car parking spaces including 800m2 of photovoltaic panels, 16 Electric Vehicles (EV) charging bays with associated access, turning and landscape proposals.

Coventry House, Barfield Close, Winchester, SO23 9SQ

Case number: 21/00219/FUL

The Service Lead – Built Environment referred Members to the Update Sheet which set out points of clarification regarding parking on site, outlined that 53 objections had been received from 53 households and set out in full a typographical error and the acronyms referred to within the report. 

During public participation, Ian Ford and James Miller spoke in objection to the application and Catherine Bartlett (agent), Andy Hickman (on behalf of the applicant Winchester City Council), Sophie Moy (Middlemarch Environmental Ltd), Sarah Jones-Morris (Landsmith Associates), Michael O’Byrne (Goldbeck) and Jon Carlton (Wilmott Dixon) spoke in support of the application and answered Members’ questions thereon.

During public participation, Councillor Mather spoke on this item as Ward Member and Councillor Tod spoke on this item as Cabinet Member for Service Quality and Transformation.

In summary, Councillor Mather stated that this was a highly sensitive SSSI site (Site of Special Scientific Interest) with its ancient history and high quality countryside within the South Downs National Park which blended into this Winchester City Centre location. She made reference to the high number of objections submitted by residents expressing concerns regarding a multi-storey car park in this location and stated that this would result in a significant detrimental effect on residents of Domum Road and the surrounding area and considered that car parking spaces would be better placed in a less sensitive site where it did not have a massive dominance over the buildings below it. 

In conclusion, Councillor Mather stated that the concerns of residents had not been adequately addressed and that the noise and general business of cars arriving and leaving a multi-storey car park, the adverse impacts on air quality and the SSSI and excessive light spillage would all be unacceptable and highly intrusive in this location and she urged the committee to refuse this application.

In summary, Councillor Tod stated that a number of issues had been raised by objectors, primarily relating to the scale and the visual impact on the rural area, lighting and safety. He referred to the initial consultation proposals for a larger car park on site and stated that at that stage residents’ concerns were of lighting and visual impact and to address this, plans had been amended to reduce car parking to 287 spaces, improve headlight barriers and move its location nearer to Barfield Close, with most of the shielding now placed on the Domum Road side to try and mitigate concerns.

Councillor Tod referred to the visual impact concerns raised by objectors and provided an illustrative presentation of the scale and height of the site and of the overall visual impact once built out.

At the conclusion of debate, the committee agreed to grant permission for the reasons and subject to the conditions and informatives set out in the Report and the Update Sheet, subject to an addition to Condition 5 regarding the care of the green wall, with the exact wording of this to be delegated to the Service Lead- Built Environment.