Changes to the Southern Campus scheme in response to community feedback

7th August 2017

Winchester College wishes to thank those who have made comments on its proposals to redevelop the Southern Campus area of the College.  We have listened carefully to the concerns and issues raised, and propose to amend our original scheme in a number of ways. We have:

  • – Redesigned and repositioned the Sanatorium building
  • – Moved the residential property away from the Kingsgate Road boundary
  • – Moved the proposed Support Services Building further away from the boundary with our neighbours at St Cross Road
  • – Improved our landscaping scheme for the new areas being created along the western boundary and within the proposed car park.

Revised plans reflecting these changes with a detailed report providing further explanation, were submitted to Winchester City Council on 17th July and all are available to view and comment on the Council’s website (reference 17/00446/FUL).  Alternatively, you can download a zip file here.

However, a brief explanation of the changes undertaken are as follows:

Sanatorium and Residential property off Kingsgate Road
The changes to the Sanatorium and residential property off Kingsgate Road followed detailed discussions with the Council’s Historic Environment and Planning teams. We believe that these better reflect and enhance the setting of adjacent listed buildings, whilst retaining important trees overlooking Kingsgate Park.

Support Services Building
As explained in the Boundary Report (July 2017), a large amount of work has been undertaken by our architects and landscape designers on this issue which has resulted in the adding of a 5-metre boundary strip between our St Cross Road neighbours and the Support Services Building, and a lower height of the building along this boundary.  This represents a substantial change from the details we showed at the public exhibition last summer and allows more space for tree planting and landscaping on the external façade of the building, whilst still allowing room for a land drain to ensure ground water flows are not adversely affected by the development.

Moving the Support Services Building eastwards, coupled with additional elevational treatment to the Sport Hall on its southern elevation, has allowed us to improve the views from Norman Road across the new car parking areas which address issues raised by City Council technical officers.

Boundaries
To the north, the existing dense tree cover with Hanover Lodge will be supplemented with additional trees and hedgerow planting within the College grounds.  In this area, the relocated swimming pool building will be lower than the current sports hall and positioned at a greater distance from the boundary, whilst the replacement PE Centre sports hall ridge line will be roughly the same height as the current swimming pool, ensuring no detrimental effect on the amenity of residents.

Clarification of the function of the Support Services Building
We recognise the concerns expressed by our near neighbours to the replacement buildings.  We have provided further explanation as to the function of the new Support Services Building to allay residents’ fears that this will become an ‘industrial’ type building.  This new building will amalgamate existing support services already on the southern campus site into one dedicated space, wholly for College use.  This will comprise the College’s maintenance department to serve the 25 specialist trades who work around the whole campus on the various listed and other school buildings.  It operates Monday to Friday only between 8am and 5pm, the College laundry operates Monday to Friday 6.45am to 4pm and Saturday morning, generally term time only, with occasional use during holiday periods.  The two storey administration block will be located adjacent to the new car park to avoid overlooking to our neighbours, whilst the new central energy centre will provide a low carbon and cost effective solution to heating the replacement buildings.  A  note detailing the uses to be housed in the Support Services Building can be found here.

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