Friends of River Park Website

Friends of River Park, a group of concerned Winchester residents, have challenged Winchester City Council's decision, on 9th March 2022, to hand over the River Park Leisure Centre site to the University of Southampton. The land has been in public ownership for over 120 years and forms a significant part of the Recreation Ground, which was always intended to be used as a public park, for public recreation.

We are now encouraged to continue our fight, by the decision of the Supreme Court in a parallel case: https://www.theguardian.com/law/2023/mar/01/activists-win-supreme-court-appeal-stop-housebuilding-shrewsbury-park

The support we have received has been very encouraging. It is clear that many of Winchester’s residents agree that the Council’s behaviour in disposing of the River Park Leisure Centre site, without any consultation and in apparent breach of the duty of trust they owe the public, is wrong.

As a result of the Friends’ challenge, the Council has made significant concessions:

• They have committed to advertising the whole site, not just the Indoor Bowls Club and Skatepark but also the redundant Leisure Centre and the North Walls car park.

• They have also committed to a complex legal procedure which they need to follow in order finally to dispose of the site.

• Before they take the next step, they accept that they will have to hold a proper public consultation exercise, to provide evidence that the land is no longer required for the purpose for which it is held (as a public park for public recreation), and to consider any objections received.

As Rose Burns, on behalf of Friends of River Park, says, “We are determined to make the Council think again about this valuable, publicly owned piece of land in Winchester’s city centre. The public needs to have a say in what should happen next. No one wants to see the neglected building fall further into disrepair over the five-year period given to the University. The Council should either recommission it or else demolish it now, so it can continue to be used for public recreation”.

Friends of River Park clearly needs financial support to continue their action and we ask you to give as generously as you can so we can keep up the pressure. We are grateful to all who have already given both to our JustGiving account and also by direct donation.

How you can help

a) give to our Action Fund

b) spread the word – share this page

c) sign up to Friends of River Park: https://riverparkwinchester.org

d) email us to offer help or suggestions: friends@riverparkwinchester.org

Our objections to the Council’s plans

1. This land is a Public Park, for public recreational use, and that is the way it should stay. From 1902, the Recreation Ground, including the area of the redundant Leisure Centre, the Indoor Bowling Club and the Skate Park, has belonged to the residents of Winchester.

2. The area is designated “open space”, protected by statutory law and by a covenant. The Leisure Centre was a public recreational facility, managed on behalf of residents, and as such it falls within the definition of open space – as do the Skate Park and the Bowling Club. The Council has acknowledged that it holds the land on a statutory trust as a public park and recreation ground for the city, and that it is subject to a restrictive covenant. However, if it is leased to a third party, such as the University of Southampton, it loses these legal protections. A precedent is set and the remainder of the park is at risk of development.

3. The city has a shortfall of open space: the land must be kept as a public park or recreation area. Winchester’s Local Plan Part 1 identified a shortfall of land available for open space in the city. The Council cannot allow this open space, where people can play, exercise and enjoy their leisure time, to be handed over for development.

4. The Council has provided no opportunity at all for public consultation. There has been no public consultation allowed by the Council at any time, and consultation at earlier opportunities, in 2018 and in 2020, was specifically prohibited by the Council. The public must be allowed time to air their views and to explore alternative, sustainable, viable uses for this land.

5. Green environment in the city: River Park is an urban park providing a play, recreation, sports and leisure environment for the City of Winchester. It is adjacent to Hyde Abbey Garden as well as the Winnall Nature Reserve which is part of the South Downs National Park. Through the park and around the River Park site flows the River Itchen, the navigation canal and its tributaries. This is one of the UK’s unique chalk stream rivers and is a Special Area of Conservation and a Site of Special Scientific Interest. Its wildlife species and their habitat are already in danger from pollution. The Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust has voiced concerns to the Council that proposals for the Recreation Ground could increase disturbance to Winnall Moors Nature Reserve and the River Itchen.

6. Effect on tennis courts, all-weather 3G pitch and cricket pitches of large buildings: the River Park site lies to the south, and is next to, the artificial (and much-used) pitch and the popular tennis courts – the only public tennis courts available in the city. Just beyond them is the main cricket pitch. Any overly large building(s) erected on the River Park site might cast long shadows over the public ground next to them and, if the new building(s) were to be part of a student campus, this would adversely affect the public recreational facilities and their accessibility to Winchester residents.

7. Flood Risk: the land lies in a zone where the flood risk is high, and it is upstream of the city and the Cathedral. A Council-commissioned report by the Environment Agency says a new design that increased the existing building footprint or the impermeable area within the floodplain would not be appropriate in this location; also, replacing the existing leisure centre buildings with open, green space might have a beneficial effect on the downstream flood risk.

8. Winchester is a small City. The numbers of students at the University of Winchester are more, when compared to residents, than in, say, Exeter, Bath or Cambridge (ONS figures). Can this small city sustain a second major University campus, bearing in mind the numbers of students and the associated accommodation problem?

9. The Proposals in detail

– There has been no procurement process for this disposal (called a ‘sale’ in the draft contract): nobody else has been offered the opportunity to bid for it.

– There is to be no initial payment to the Council for the site, which could lay dormant for five years – following which the University might not decide to go ahead with any development plans – and in the meantime the Council has to pay for the demolition of the Leisure Centre (estimated at £2m) as well as maintenance of the remaining buildings (estimated at £80,000 per annum).

– The Council proposes to help the University with the potential relocation of the Bowling Club and the popular Skate Park. There is no mention of where they would go, the costs concerned, who would pay for this and how it would be achieved. There is apparently to be a 'lease-back' clause in the draft lease but it is not known whether this will, in fact, secure the Skate Park as intended.

– The University of Southampton, assuming planning consent were to be granted for what is called ‘the campus scheme’, will pay an unquantified amount for the ‘purchase’ of the site. The Council has not revealed to the public how the value is to be assessed and on what basis.

– Most of the car park, which is currently used by those visiting the Recreation Ground, the tennis courts, the artificial pitch and the cricket pitches, is to be handed over to the University.

– There is no fixed financial benefit to the taxpayer of this sale. It is said the University intends to "invest £100m in the city"; however, the more apposite phrase may be that the University intends to invest £100m in whatever it builds with its new property acquisition.

– For the first 35 years of the proposed sale, the land shall be put to principal uses only of or in connection with tertiary education: the public will not have open access to the site for 35 years following the sale.

– There is only an ‘aspiration’ and no condition in the draft contract that the University should provide publicly accessible performance space, and no description of the extent or scope of it: there is no definite benefit to the public of this sale.

– The University will have ‘virtual freehold basis’, no restriction on selling the site on to another, no obligation to repair (including during the initial 5-year period) and ‘absolute discretion over the campus scheme’: the Council will effectively lose control of the site once it is sold.

10. Conclusion

This is a very bad deal for Winchester. The Friends of River Park strenuously object to the Council’s proposals to lease any part of the River Park Leisure Centre site to the University of Southampton, or to any other third party.

The residents of Winchester should decide what use or uses to which the site may be put, following the de-commissioning of the Leisure Centre building (including, for instance, the possibility of returning it to use as parkland).