Winchester Movement Strategy

The Winchester Movement Strategy (WMS) was adopted by Hampshire County Council and Winchester City Council in spring 2019, following an extensive process of engagement and public consultation in 2018.

Hampshire County Council and Winchester City Council want to remove constraints to travel and transport around Winchester to enable growth and make the city a healthier and more accessible place to live, work and visit. We need a widely supported strategy, based on strong evidence, which clearly demonstrates realistic, safe and affordable priorities. This will help us to identify initiatives to improve movement across the city of Winchester and put us in the best position to prepare strong business cases to bid for future funding.

It identifies these three priorities:

reduce city centre traffic;
support healthier lifestyle choices;
invest in infrastructure to support sustainable growth.

Following adoption, the two councils have been undertaking feasibility work, through which a set of ten proposed "next steps" schemes have been identified. This work also included the preparation of a Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan (LCWIP) for the city. This has involved engagement with businesses and with cycling and walking stakeholders.

A feedback survey carried out in 2018 sought to understand people's views on the then emerging Winchester Movement Strategy and provided an opportunity for suggestions on alternative approaches. The 2018 survey results indicated that the Movement Strategy should aim to:

ensure a more integrated approach to transport/ land-use planning;
increase park and ride capacity;
introduce measures to help manage traffic demand;
implement bus priority measures on key routes into the City Centre;
reallocate road space by widening the pavements to encourage walking and cycling;
enhance the quality of streets and the public space in the City Centre;
improve management of deliveries to the City Centre.

Since 2018, we have been investigating the options and feasibility of delivering these potential improvements and identifying how much each would cost to deliver.

Summary reports of the feasibility work can be found here:

The Coronavirus pandemic accelerated changes to the way people work and shop, including growth in online shopping. Since the pandemic, a high proportion of office workers based in the city are working in a "hybrid" way, working from home 2-3 days a week and in the office 2-3 days a week and conducting more meetings virtually. These changes have altered everyday journey patterns within and around Winchester, with less business travel undertaken and fewer commuting trips particularly on Mondays and Fridays.

What has been delivered since 2018 and what improvements are happening?

Completed schemes:

Great Minster St/The Square closed to through traffic
new pedestrian and cycle route to Winchester Sports and Leisure Park at Bar End
additional 287 Park & Ride space "Barfield 2" site completed on Barfield Close (just north of Barfield P&R site)
new puffin crossing on Andover Road to improve access to Harestock from Kings Barton
new pedestrian steps from Winchester railway station west side car park to the north side of Stockbridge Road providing a more direct pedestrian link to Peter Symonds College
covered cycle parking area in Middle Brook Street car park and extra cycle parking in other city centre locations
new zebra crossing on Wales Street
walking and cycling improvements on Romsey Road near Battery Hill

Schemes underway or committed to be delivered:

site of Upper Brook Street car park (58 spaces) being redeveloped;
active Travel Fund improvements planned in 2023 on Parchment Street, the top end of the High Street and Jewry Street to improve provision for pedestrians and cycles;
new puffin crossing on Romsey Road by Clifton Terrace (up to 18-month trial);
new 200 space Park and Ride site at Kings Barton, off Andover Road.

Schemes proposals that have been developed that require external funding to enable them to be progressed and delivered:

Winchester ‘Mini Holland’ package of proposed walking and cycling improvements
Andover Road corridor Multi-Modal Study
Changes to the one-way system in the Friarsgate/ Eastgate Street/ Union Street area

The Winchester LCWIP are now being produced as one document but in two parts. Part one will be the Winchester District Focus document of the LCWIP and part two will be the City Focus Document. This is due to the geography of Winchester with the district of Winchester being predominantly rural and the city of Winchester being mainly urban. The routes in the District Focus document are generally longer and have stretches that pass through rural locations, market towns and villages whereas the City Focus document covers a more densely built up and populated area. These two documents together will then form the LCWIP covering Winchester.

The current draft City of Winchester Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan (LCWIP) has been developed as part of the Winchester Movement Strategy– which focusses on the built-up urban area of Winchester. It sets out a proposed network of 13 walking routes and 9 cycling corridors where improvements are to be delivered within the city over the next decade or so, and six proposed improvements that have been prioritised for delivery. It also summarises where the main trip generators are within Winchester, and sets out data about current travel behaviour in the city and where existing cycling and walking infrastructure is located, as well as factors like topography and the likelihood of different routes to be used for cycling.

Information about the draft City of Winchester LCWIP is set out in the following reports:

The report summarises key findings from the feedback survey which took place from 6 December 2021 to 11 February 2022. This was an opportunity for local residents and businesses to provide their views on the strategy and draft LCWIP Plans.

Information packs are still available to read:

Funding for the transport capital delivery schemes is separate from the County Council’s revenue budget and savings proposals. In the majority of cases funding comes from external grants and / or Section 106 contribution from developers. This funding usually has conditions that strictly control on how, where and when it can be spent.

Visit One.Network which is where the planned works are published and is an independent platform that allows real-time monitoring of all the UK’s roadworks and diversions.

My Journey - travel information and travel advice choices in Hampshire.

Name Highways, Engineering and Transport
Email [email protected]
Phone 0300 555 1388

Address
Universal Services
Hampshire County Council
The Castle
Winchester
SO23 8UD