winchester movement strategy feasibility studies

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Winchester Movement Strategy Feasibility Studies Phase 2 Summary Report

July 2021

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Foreword Using feedback from residents and extensive evidence gathering, Hampshire County Council, together with Winchester City Council, have developed firm proposals for creating more park and ride provision across the city alongside designs for improved and enhanced walking and cycling infrastructure and the reconfiguration of some areas within the city centre to reduce car use by prioritising bus, pedestrian and cycle movements. This recent work forms part of the Winchester Movement Strategy.

Councillor Rob Humby, Deputy Leader of Hampshire County Council and Executive Lead Member for Economy, Transport and the Environment, said: “Since the Winchester Movement Strategy was adopted, we have been working with colleagues at Winchester City Council and partner organisations to develop proposed schemes which, if implemented, would help to reduce traffic congestion in the city centre by expanding out of town parking capacity, providing new cycle routes and schemes to encourage walking. This, in turn, would help to improve air quality.

“The Coronavirus pandemic has accelerated changes in how we work and shop which, consequently, has significantly altered everyday travel patterns. The proposals emerging from the Movement Strategy seek to enable people to develop more sustainable ways of travelling into and within Winchester city. If agreed, the changes we propose to make over the coming years, to the way roads and streets in Winchester function will set a clear course towards a lower carbon, greener and healthier city. We’re working with Winchester City Council every step of the way to ensure that our plans make a positive contribution to the quality of life of those living and working in or visiting our historic city, and help support its economic recovery.”

More detailed plans will be developed, to help make a strong case for securing funding from central Government, as and when it becomes available. Consultation will take place during the autumn on a suggested programme of priorities for investment, that build on the proposals set out in this report. The plans include:

• New park and ride provision on the Andover Road corridor and extension of South Winchester P&R; • High quality pedestrian and cycle routes including on Stockbridge Road, Worthy Road and between the

railway station, city centre and new Leisure Centre at Bar End; • Working with the Business Improvement District (BID) and the logistics sector to pilot initiatives to

manage freight deliveries to reduce congestion and delays in the city centre; • Enabling two-way traffic on Friarsgate and Union Street to reduce unnecessary traffic circulation and

enable public realm enhancements on Jewry Street and The Broadway; • Working with bus operators to persuade bus and Park and Ride users to return to using these services

and, as demand recovers, to increase park and ride bus frequency and improve the quality and reliability of bus routes to exceed what was provided before the Covid-19 pandemic.

Councillor Martin Tod, Winchester City Council Cabinet Member for Economic Recovery said: “The City Council is committed to a strong and sustainable recovery from the pandemic – and see our work with the County Council on the City of Winchester Movement Strategy as critical to enabling that. The Movement Strategy has recently helped to inform our work to pedestrianise The Square and The Broadway and support investment in new park & ride car parking outside the centre – but this report sets out further ambitious proposals that will cut carbon and improve air quality while still enabling our centre and city to thrive.

Importantly, this is not just about how our streets are laid out or where people will park, important though those issues are – but also about achieving better, faster bus routes and services – and implementing better ways to deliver freight to shops and businesses. Close working with residents and businesses will be ever more essential as we continue to work with the County Council to deliver a series of tangible Movement Strategy improvements in the next few months and years. We are ambitious for our city and this project – and look forward to continuing to work with the County Council to deliver improvements at pace as we recover from Covid-19.”

Hampshire County Council and Winchester City Council adopted the City of Winchester Movement Strategy in spring 2019. It sets out an agreed vision and long-term priorities for travel and transport improvements in Winchester over the next 20-30 years.

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Table of Contents 1 Introduction .................................................................................................................. 4

2 Park and Ride Expansion Study ................................................................................. 8

2.1 Overview of current P&R use .................................................................................. 8

2.2 Sifting and prioritisation of locations for new/ expanded P&R Sites ......................... 8

2.3 High Level Demand Estimation for New P&R Sites ................................................. 9

2.4 Recommended scale of P&R expansion ............................................................... 11

2.5 Proposed P&R bus routes to serve existing and new P&R sites ........................... 16

2.6 Bus priority measures ........................................................................................... 17

2.7 Conclusions and Next Steps ................................................................................. 18

3 City Centre Movement and Place Plan ..................................................................... 20

3.1 Summary of Phase 1 MPP Study .......................................................................... 20

3.2 Phase 2 MPP Study Methodology ......................................................................... 21

3.3 Feasibility Designs for the three priority areas ....................................................... 23

3.4 Jewry Street feasibility design proposals ............................................................... 23

3.5 St. George’s Street feasibility design proposals .................................................... 25

3.6 The Broadway feasibility design proposals ........................................................... 26


4 Local Walking and Cycling Infrastructure Plan ....................................................... 29

4.2 Phase 2 LCWIP Study Methodology ..................................................................... 30

4.3 Approach taken to the preparation of feasibility designs ....................................... 34

4.4 Cost estimates for the prioritised routes ................................................................ 34


5 Bus Provision Study .................................................................................................. 36

5.1 Future Growth in Bus Service demand .................................................................. 36

5.2 Locations for additional on-street bus and coach stands ....................................... 37


6 Winchester City Centre Urban Freight Transport Study ......................................... 40

6.1 Recap of main findings from Phase 1 Freight study .............................................. 40

6.2 Phase 2 study – Stakeholder Engagement and MCAF update .............................. 41

6.3 Conclusions and next steps .................................................................................. 43

7 Priority WMS Infrastructure investment ................................................................... 44

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WMS Phase 2 Summary Report 1 Introduction Winchester is a historic medieval City and as such its urban form and road layout means it was not intended to accommodate vehicle traffic at the levels of demand currently experienced. Since the 1970s, the approach taken has been to accommodate traffic within a two-lane one-way circulatory system. Since the 1990s, those working in central Winchester or for employers off Romsey Road have been encouraged to use Park & Ride services. These choices helped to maximise vehicle capacity of roads within the City Centre but at the expense of poor air quality, a traffic dominated public realm and a challenging or unpleasant environment for pedestrians and cyclists.

Winchester can either accept that the traffic dominated status quo will continue and congestion may worsen or instead has an opportunity to consciously plan to reduce traffic levels and re-provide road space to provide an enhanced public realm and better air quality befitting of our historic city.

The Winchester Movement Strategy (WMS) is the agreed transport strategy for Winchester. It sets out a shared vision and long-term priorities for travel and transport improvements in Winchester over the next 20-30 years. The WMS was adopted by Winchester City Council (WCC) in March 2019 and Hampshire County Council (HCC) in April 2019, following an extensive process of engagement and public consultation carried out during 2017 and 2018. The traffic maximising plan is replaced by a traffic reduction plan – so instead of planning for vehicles we will actively plan for people.

The five ‘Phase 2’ studies summarised in this report have looked at this challenge of how we can plan for people rather than for vehicle capacity and illustrate what an alternative future could look like. For the highway infrastructure it means changing the current two-lane one-way system into a one-lane one-way system and providing elements of two-way working where it can be shown to reduce vehicle miles driven, taking out unnecessary through traffic, putting in place quality alternatives to the private car and managing deliveries differently. For people who currently drive into Winchester it means you still can continue to do so if you must but as a result of WMS policies, you will have quality alternatives that hopefully will mean you will choose not to.

The overarching vision of the Strategy is to support economic prosperity whilst at the same time enhancing Winchester as a place where people can have an excellent quality of life. The different stages of work undertaken to progress the WMS are summarised below:

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The public consultation in 2017 and 2018 showed strong support for three WMS priorities of:

• Reducing city centre traffic;

• Supporting healthier lifestyle choices;

• Investing in infrastructure to support sustainable growth.

Phase 1 feasibility studies

During 2019 and the first half of 2020, Atkins undertook a series of five “Phase 1” feasibility studies to identify and assess options. The five study workstreams were:

Phase 2 feasibility studies

In summer 2020, Atkins were commissioned by Winchester City Council (WCC) and Hampshire County Council (HCC) to undertake five feasibility studies that are complementary and inter-dependent to support the delivery of the Winchester Movement Strategy (WMS). The five “Phase 2” WMS studies undertaken between July and December 2020 were:

1. Park and Ride expansion study (P&R) - a feasibility study into the most appropriate

locations for expansion of existing sites and new P&R provision. This study also

considered and prepared feasibility designs for bus priority measures on radial bus

corridors that could benefit P&R.

2. City Centre Movement and Place Plan (MPP) – a study to identify preferred options

for the creation of high-quality, people-focused places by reconfiguring parts of the

existing road network within the City Centre. This will be achieved through changes

to city centre wide traffic routeing and access, road space reallocation, public ream

and active travel improvements that could be delivered in three priority areas of the

city centre;

3. Winchester City Local Walking and Cycling Infrastructure Plan (LCWIP) – a

study to define a preferred and prioritised walking and cycling network to form the

focus for investment and identifying infrastructure improvements. Three priority

walking and cycling routes were identified - Stockbridge Road, Andover Road, Chesil

Street – with an objective of making them more comfortable, safe and attractive to

pedestrians and cyclists.

4. Bus Provision Study – a review of bus facilities both for current services and future

services that will be required to meet growth of the city and the requirements of WMS

(including P&R). The study will inform decision-making regarding the reallocation of

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bus stands once the current Bus Station is redeveloped as part of the Central

Winchester Regeneration (CWR) scheme.

5. Winchester City Centre Urban Freight Transport Study – identification of a series

of measures which seek to facilitate greener and more efficient management of

deliveries of goods to the City Centre reducing the number of freight deliveries.

The measures we are proposing that have been identified in the five Phase 2 studies are not at this time funded. The purpose of developing a prioritised and focussed action plan for transport improvements in Winchester is to ensure that HCC and WCC are able to articulate a clear business case for the identified actions and to support the securing of funding through developer contributions, future bidding to Government and to direct and prioritise what funding is available to both HCC and WCC.

In preparing these five studies, Atkins took into account the Climate Emergencies declared by both HCC and WCC, the need to work towards net zero carbon from transport by 2050 and the poor air quality in Winchester City Centre, an important existing issue that the WMS proposals should seek to alleviate and address.

Alongside these five studies, WCC have published the Winchester Parking and Access Strategy which sets out its’ planned approach for managing the demand for parking by changes to pricing, delivering further reductions in the total supply of City Centre car parking over time over and above those already in the pipeline as and when new park and ride capacity increases come on stream. The Strategy also sets out how WCC will improve facilities at car parks, including installation of electric vehicle charging points. Some car parks such as Upper Brook Street - are already scheduled for decommissioning. Others such as Gladstone Street, Friarsgate and St Peter’s have been earmarked for future redevelopment as part of Station Approach, Central Winchester Regeneration and planned new Council Housing respectively.

Having completed the Phase 2 studies for these workstreams, the proposed approach for the delivery of the WMS over the next ten years can broadly be summarised as follows:

Additionally, HCC and WCC will support improvements to the Strategic Motorway and Trunk Road network managed by Highways England that will help achieve WMS priorities by removing unnecessary through traffic from the city centre. For example, the proposed free-flow junction at Junction 9 of the M3 will mean that long-distance car and van trips will have less incentive or need to re-route via Winchester to avoid delays on the southbound A34 on the approach to Junction 9.

The five different WMS workstreams in which Atkins were involved have been developed in a synchronised manner with outputs from each study feeding into the others to ensure synergies are taken account of and that there is a consistency between the workstreams.

A number of workshops were held to discuss interdependencies and address potential conflicts to ensure alignment between the various WMS workstreams.

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Looking ahead beyond this Phase 2 feasibility work, towards delivering various WMS interventions and measures, there will be a continued need to carefully consider the impacts of changes made for one WMS workstream on the other WMS workstreams and mitigate any unintended adverse impacts.

For example, the graphic below summarises the various inter-dependencies between WMS workstreams in order to realise the WMS priority of reducing city centre traffic levels.

The different WMS workstreams need to be delivered in a coherent and sequenced manner in order to maximise the effectiveness of the various measures. For example, in order to encourage good and effective use of any increases in P&R capacity that are delivered through the WMS P&R workstream, there should be a corresponding reduction in city centre car parking capacity through the Parking and Access Strategy workstream.

HCC and WCC fully welcome the ambitions and the commitment to £3billion of funding set out in “Bus Back Better”, the Government’s National Bus Strategy (NBS), that was published in March 2021 (after the five WMS Phase 2 studies were completed). HCC has decided to develop an Enhanced Partnership with bus operators by the end of March 2022 and is developing a Bus Service Improvement Plan to articulate its’ level of ambition for improving bus services by the end of October 2021. HCC and WCC will ensure that the bus priority measures and city centre bus study proposals set out in Chapters 2 and 5 of this report are progressed and developed in a way that is fully aligned with the ten Bus Back Better outcomes that the Government has set out in the National Bus Strategy. HCC and WCC will seek to develop firm proposals for bus priority, real time information and other bus stop infrastructure improvements in Winchester that can be included in an Enhanced Partnership, which funding from the NBS would then be sought to enable the implementation of these schemes.

Whilst these five feasibility studies have been undertaken during the Covid pandemic, they have used data and modelling that reflected pre-pandemic traffic conditions and travel patterns and behaviour. The long-term priorities of the Winchester Movement Strategy are not affected by the pandemic, but in some cases the next steps set out in Chapter 7 may need to be reviewed to take account of any significant changes to travel patterns, such as the levels of home working. Where it is anticipated that there will be a specific likely impact from these changes to travel journeys this has been highlighted within this summary report.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/980227/DfT-Bus-Back-Better-national-bus-strategy-for-England.pdf


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2 Park and Ride Expansion Study

2.1 Overview of current P&R use Winchester has a resident population of 46,000 and a workday population of 56,700, which shows the City has a significant in-commuter market. Each day 15,600 people commute into Winchester via car, with the Royal Hampshire County Hospital, University of Winchester, HCC and WCC being major employers, as well as a number of commercial companies.

The use of P&R sites in Winchester has increased steadily since implementation and, despite an additional 199 spaces being added when the site at Pitt opened in 2016, a number of the P&R facilities now operate at capacity during peak times. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, average P&R occupancy across the four existing P&R sites was at 82% in 2019 and looking ahead into the medium and longer-term, the potential for further growth in P&R capacity and usage is strong, as part of a co-ordinated package of WMS investment.

P&R Occupancy (%), 2013 to 2019

Site Site capacity

(spaces) Period of Week 2013 2018 2019

Barfield 195 Monday to Friday 100% 100% 100% Saturday 100% 88% 88%

Pitt 199 Monday to Friday N/A 100% 100% Saturday N/A 10% 10%

St Catherine's 583 Monday to Friday 45% 77% 80% Saturday 24% 38% 38%

South 884 Monday to Friday 55% 58% 75% Saturday 11% 11% 11%

All 1,861 Monday to Friday 57% 73% 82% Saturday 26% 27% 27%

Total Spaces 1,623 1,861 1,861

There is currently contract parking provided at the South Winchester P&R to staff of the Royal Hampshire County Hospital (RHCH) and the University of Winchester, served by the P&R stops on Romsey Road. With a new regional hospital currently planned in Basingstoke, some staff currently working at the RHCH could relocate to the new hospital once opened.

Enabling total P&R capacity and occupancy to continue to grow is important in addressing the WMS priorities and wider objectives around air quality, health and climate change.

P&R services run on street, and largely without any priority, apart from at the Railway Station, in Silver Hill and on a short section of Olivers’ Battery Roundabout. While there are, on average across the peak period, no issues between the South Winchester P&R and Pitt P&R, there are issues on the rest of the route. Bus speeds are lower than average for inbound and outbound bus services, and there are slight reliability issues on the approach to Winchester Railway Station and on St George’s Street, and punctuality issues with buses arriving earlier than scheduled. However, P&R commuters don’t currently experience significant delays to their journeys on a regular basis.

2.2 Sifting and prioritisation of locations for new/ expanded P&R Sites In order to systematically assess the long list of site options proposed and make objective-driven recommendations for potential new and expanded P&R sites, a Multi-Criteria Assessment Framework (MCAF) was created in line with DfT TAG guidance on sifting. The MCAF was considered a suitable approach as it provides a consistent and logical framework to rank options, from the most preferred to the least preferred, to help deliver the priorities of the WMS, as well as meeting further, desirable criteria.

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In the Phase 1 work, each of the sites identified by HCC were ranked against these criteria to critically assess the benefits and disadvantages of each site. The assessment criteria used were broadly split into three categories - land use and site, environmental, and transport. Additional deliverability criteria were added in Phase 2 of the MCAF sifting and some scoring was refined to reflect greater focus on active travel.

A revised shortlist of options was determined based on sites where a P&R site option could be delivered, with strong levels of forecast demand that would be sufficient to make each site operationally viable. The revised shortlist also represented a P&R network-wide solution, with site options proposed in the northern, eastern, south-eastern, and southern corridors.

Given that a decision had already been taken by WCC to pursue the expansion of the existing P&R site at Barfield by way of a 287-space multi-storey on Vaultex site, the following three options were taken forward as part of the final shortlist for further feasibility investigation by Atkins, as agreed with HCC and WCC:

1. Potential new P&R site options on the Andover Road Corridor (linked to potential

new development). This provision would be in addition to the committed 200 space

Kings Barton P&R ‘lite’ site being funded by Cala Homes;

2. Expansion of the existing P&R site at South Winchester; and

3. Potential new P&R site options in the Winnall area, near Easton Lane close to M3

junction 9 (subject to land being released as a result of the Highways England M3

Junction 9 free-flow scheme that would see the existing large gyratory roundabout

replaced by a smaller gyratory layout) with two new overbridges.

These three medium term P&R site options were presented to stakeholders from HCC and WCC in a workshop in September 2020 and were broadly endorsed.

2.3 High Level Demand Estimation for New P&R Sites Assessment of potential future P&R demand was undertaken as part of the study and has been based on the same Solent area Sub-Regional Transport Model (SRTM) demand forecast matrices with a 2031 forecast year.

The Phase 2 demand assessment is based on a survey of Private Non-Residential (PNR) parking carried out by Winchester Action on Climate Change (WinACC) and some ‘select link’ traffic volume forecasts at radial entry points on the edge of Winchester undertaken on the SRTM, and assumes that there will be a gradual ongoing reduction in PNR parking between 2022 and 2030.

The total Phase 2 SRTM demand forecasts indicated that by 2031, there would be more than 10,000 car trips made into the City Centre during the AM and IP periods on a typical day. The subtotal of just the five key corridors where P&R is being considered (Easton Lane, M3 J10 (Bar End Road), M3 J11 (St. Cross Road), A31, and Andover Road) amounts to around 6,800 car trips into the City Centre – about two thirds of the total car trips into the city centre. These volumes of trips would be net of the numbers of trips already using P&R in the Do Minimum, so the range of 6,800-10,000 could effectively be considered the typical daily maximum number of car trips that enter the City Centre.

However, the propensity for these city centre bound car trips to switch to P&R will be greatly influenced by numerous factors including:

• The availability and costs of parking within the City Centre (either public or private, paid or free);

• Journey purposes and typical dwell times at bus stops;

• Journey time impacts that may arise from congestion at various times of day; and

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• Changes in highway capacity as from bus priority or other restrictions or reallocation of road space.

The graph below shows the cumulative increase in vehicle trips into Winchester City Centre forecast by the SRTM for 2022, 2026, 2030 and 2036, not taking account possible changes to commuting habits as a result of Covid-19.

Cumulative Increase in Total Demand (Number of additional vehicle trips into city centre)

This demand forecasting suggests that:

• By 2022, overall increase in demand will be almost equivalent to the existing capacity at St Catherine’s.

• By 2030 both high and low scenario’s suggest demand will be double existing Winchester P&R capacity.

The final Phase 2 radial corridor results for future P&R demand in the 2036 constrained and unconstrained high demand Scenarios are set out below in ranges. The lower figure is based on constrained P&R demand and the higher figure represents unconstrained P&R demand.

2036 Constrained and 2036 High Unconstrained P&R Demand Scenarios:

• South East – between 250 and 1,205 extra trips are expected in the Bar End area (the constrained figure is low due to there being very little spare capacity at existing sites and possible environmental constraints of further expansion);

• South – between 600 and 760 extra trips are expected to enter Winchester by P&R from the J11 area;

• North East – between 600 and 720 extra trips are expected to use Easton Lane; and

• North West – between 1,000 and 1,060 extra trips are expected on Andover Road.

The unconstrained demand scenario assumes that there would be no constraints on expanding P&R capacity. The constrained demand scenario takes into account space and environmental constraints affecting each site and radial bus corridor, and therefore represent a more realistic forecast of future P&R demand. Given that the Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in a reduction in P&R usage, it is likely that the level of demand growth will now be lower than the ranges cited above. The Covid-19 pandemic is likely to have a short to medium term impact on the level of P&R usage. As the economy recovers from the pandemic, if knowledge economy and office occupations based within Winchester see sustained increases in levels of regular working from home or hybrid office/ home working,

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there may be a need to re-orientate the P&R pricing and service operation away from being commuter-focussed towards being more about serving those undertaking leisure/shopping and health-related journeys into Winchester. Regardless of how working patterns of some workers change, P&R will continue to play an important role in reducing city traffic and facilitate delivery of the Movement Strategy priorities.

2.4 Recommended scale of P&R expansion In light of the demand forecasts, the approach to P&R expansion in Winchester can be summarised as follows:

Committed new P&R site:

• Kings Barton P&R ‘lite’ site – a new 200 space P&R site will be constructed by the developer of the Kings Barton residential development and would be served by the new Kings Barton local bus service.

New P&R site options:

• Andover Road Corridor Option A - Sir John Moore Barracks (Defence Infrastructure Organisation) proposed development site. This would involve provision of 650-850 P&R spaces in the medium-term;

• Andover Road Corridor Option B - East of Andover Road proposed development site – up to 1,000 P&R spaces at location near Three Maids Hill roundabout, delivered in the medium-term;

• Winnall (near M3 Junction 9) Site Option A or B – 250 P&R spaces in the medium-term;

Expansion of existing P&R sites:

• Barfield P&R expansion – multi-storey car park on former Vaultex site north of Barfield P&R (287 spaces) following award of £5.5m from the EM3 LEP to implement the P&R site; and

• South Winchester P&R expansion (up to 800 additional spaces).

The map below summarises the short and medium term proposals for P&R expansion.

Location map to indicate proposed scale of and timing of potential P&R expansion

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Summary of potential P&R expansion and facilities at each of the shortlisted site options

Andover Road Corridor P&R Site Options

Concept layouts for the two Andover Road corridor P&R site options are shown below. As well as car parking, there is also scope to provide a secure cycle parking hub and area for Click and Collect services. Both site options have good access from and to the A34 via the junction at Three Maids Hill and would be well located to intercept car journeys from the north from towards Whitchurch and Andover and, (via the A30) from the west from villages towards Stockbridge and Salisbury.

South Winchester P&R

expansion

Andover Rd Corridor Option

A – Barracks (Defence

Infrastructure Organisation)

Proposed Development

Site

Andover Rd Corridor Option

B - East of Andover Road (Three Maids

Hill) Proposed Development

Site

Winnall New P&R Site - Option A or B

Existing P&R site size (Ha)

3.3 n/a n/a n/a

Proposed size (Ha)

7.3 2.9 5.1 0.86

Potential maximum capacity

(spaces by 2036)

1,700 (800 additional)

650-(+250 delivered in a future phase)

1,000 250

Deliverability

Short-term improvements are

deliverable (by 2022)

Medium-term (2026):

Dependent on developer

engagement

Medium-term (2026):

Dependent on developer

engagement

Medium-term (2026): Dependent on M3 J9

improvement works and relocation of Highways

England depot to another site

Indicative cost (£m)

£6.0 (for additional)

£6.0 (+£2.3 for future phase)

£10.0 £1.8

Potential for 3rd party funding

Limited potential Developer

contributions Developer

contributions Limited potential

Buses/hour to City Centre

10 10 10 6

Bus route Use of modal

filter on Southgate Street

Use of modal filter on Andover

Road

Use of modal filter on Andover

Roadt

Via Winnall Manor Road and Bridge Street

Scope for active modes

Cycle access to NCN23, C1 South

(LCWIP)

Links to network identified in

LCWIP

Links to network identified in

LCWIP

Quiet route under consideration as part of

LCWIP

Cycle hub ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓

Click and Collect

✓ ✓ ✓ Subject to engagement

E-charging ✓ ✓ ✓ Potential

Freight capacity

✓ ✓ (Subject to engagement)

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It is proposed that only one of these two site options is progressed, which would be dependent on which associated development progresses through the Local Plan following a comprehensive District wide site selection and allocation process.

Option A is in the north eastern corner of the Sir John Moore Barracks site, which is planned to be vacated by 2024 and is the subject of redevelopment proposals that include new residential and employment development.

This P&R site would be built as part of the development as an 850-space site (in one go or potentially in two phases). This concept layout is partially-aligned with the draft developer masterplan but will seek to retain the existing mature tree vegetation belt and screening on the western side of Andover Road, and a bus turnaround area is proposed within the south east corner of the P&R site. The journey time from Sir John Moore Barracks to the bus stop on City Road for a non-stop P&R bus service would be 10.5 minutes not including dwell time.

Site Option A – Sir John Moore Barracks (Defence Infrastructure Organisation) concept layout

The size of the East of Andover Road site is larger than that of the Sir John Moore Barracks site, with scope to offer around 1,000 car park spaces, which it is envisaged could be constructed as an integral part of a proposed housing-led development, if the proposals were taken forward as part of the Local Plan.

The Option B East of Andover Road (Three Maids Hill) site option is further north than Option A (Defence Infrastructure Organisation site), and just south of the Three Maids Hill roundabout.

The P&R site entrance for cars is proposed to be via Down Farm Lane, whilst buses would access the site via a new access junction on Andover Road. An alternative potential lower-cost design option would see buses use the existing Three Maids Hill roundabout to turn around, and then use a bus layby area directly on Andover Road).

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Site Option B – East of Andover Road (Three Maids Hill area) concept layout

Potential Winnall P&R Site Options

A potential new P&R site in the vicinity of M3 J9 at Winnall would prove useful in intercepting commuter flows in from Basingstoke and the M3 corridor (as well as the A34 corridor).

Bus journeys between Winnall and The Broadway would be expected to take 8.5 minutes, not including dwell time, travelling via Winnall Manor Road and Bridge Street (as road widths on Wales Street are narrow and are considered unsuitable for use by buses.

However there are key deliverability issues in this area related to land ownership which may mean that it is not possible to progress or deliver either of these options.

Both sites are on land that is owned by Highways England and would only become available once the planned M3 Junction 9 improvement works are carried out which would see the existing large gyratory roundabout above the M3 replaced by a new layout1, that has a smaller land take than the gyratory, meaning new parcels of developable land would become available.

Both sites are relatively small in area meaning that a decked layout would be required in order to provide a reasonable amount of P&R spaces. Whilst both options lie outside the South Downs National Park, they are close to the boundary, so decking could have an adverse impact on the landscape setting of the National Park, although a lesser visual impact than the M3 Junction 9 improvement scheme. Both site options are on a slope and so earthworks may be necessary in order to accommodate a P&R car park.

1 Since the P&R Expansion Study has been undertaken Highways England have redesigned the M3 Junction 9 improvements which potentially reduces the amount of land available for a new P&R site. The study has shown the potential role of a P&R site in the Winnall area and opportunities will be sought to facilitate this.

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Option A would require the re-use of land currently occupied by the Highways England maintenance depot just north west of J9. This could provide 250 spaces over three levels.

Option B is located North of the existing Tesco Winchester car park on land currently occupied by the Junction 9 gyratory. This site is also more constrained and a three-level layout would be needed (with two decked levels) which would provide for around 250 spaces. Concept layouts for the two Winnall site options (A and B) based on an earlier set of HE proposals are shown below.

Winnall Site Option A (NW of M3 J9) concept layout

Winnall Site Option B (SW of M3 J9) concept layout

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South Winchester P&R expansion

There are two potential approaches for expanding the capacity of this site from the current 884 spaces, either through extension and reconfiguration of the existing surface layout to utilise the space that is available more efficiently or through the provision of a second level of parking above the existing parking spaces.

The area that could be used for a surface level extension both southwards and westwards is shown in yellow below. This includes the current bus access road and a mix of grassed area and shrubs.

Alternatively, the existing parking area shown in red below could be reconfigured to accommodate more spaces (retaining the row of 13 coach parking spaces) and one level of decking could be added.

Expanding the site outwards could provide an additional 800 spaces, whereas decking could provide up to 650 additional spaces. Surface level extensions could be delivered in phases, subject to how quickly total demand increases. Although outside the South Downs National Park, the site is close to the park boundary, so the landscape and environmental impacts of these two options would need to be considered to identify the most suitable approach and measures to mitigate any adverse impacts.

2.5 Proposed P&R bus routes to serve existing and new P&R sites To minimise bus operating costs, it would be desirable to pair up P&R bus services to match passenger demand at different P&R sites. An indication of the level of passenger demand for the 2036 ‘high constrained’ demand scenario is shown in the P&R network diagram below:

Passenger Demand (Constrained P&R Demand scenario) Along Proposed Bus Routes

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The passenger demand for the hour of maximum demand in the morning peak period is shown by the coloured figures. BPH refers to Buses per Hour during the peak hour.

What this would look like for cross-city P&R bus routes is shown in the map below:

Bus Routeing for Constrained Demand Option Scenario

If demand increases by more than the constrained scenario (the long-term impact of the Covid-19 pandemic make this less likely), then demand at Barfield and St. Catherine’s P&R would be higher, so there would be merit in pairing the bus service for these sites with the South Winchester P&R site via St. Cross Road and Southgate Street. If so, then demand to and from the Andover Road P&R site could be similar to that to and from a Winnall P&R site, so these sites could be served by a cross-city P&R bus service.

2.6 Bus priority measures Traffic restraint measures have been considered as a key part of the WMS, with restrictions benefiting active mode users, bus users, freight movements and also car users. Bus gates, specifically, would improve bus journey times and therefore has the potential to make individual P&R sites more attractive relative to parking in the city centre, with the location of

Bus Services (Constrained)

Route A: South Winchester P&R to Winnall

Route B: Andover Road corridor P&R to City Centre

Route C: Kings Barton P&R to City Centre local commercial

bus service (serving the Kings Barton housing development)

Route D: South Winchester P&R and Pitt P&R to East P&R

Park & Ride Sites

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proposed gates considered in the routeing of P&R bus services to ensure the benefits of journey time savings are maximised where possible.

Traffic restraint (bus gate) and bus priority interventions are recommended for delivery at the following locations:

• Bus Gate at northern end of Chesil Street prohibiting inbound general traffic movements and changes to City Bridge (with the introduction of shuttle working over the bridge on Bridge Street);

• Bus Gate on Southgate Street (immediately north of St. James Lane, but permitting local access to commercial and residential areas such as Archery Lane, St.Swithun Street, Symonds Street, Minster Lane and St. Thomas Street);

• Inbound bus lane on Andover Road (between Athelstan Road and Worthy Lane); and

• Investigate keeping through access open to buses on the section of Andover Road between Harestock Road and Stoney Lane, in line with planning permission for the Kings Barton development which proposes to close this section of Andover Road to through traffic.

These proposed bus priority measures will be progressed and developed in a way that is fully aligned with the ten outcomes set out in Bus Back Better, the Government’s National Bus Strategy (NBS). HCC and WCC will seek to develop further firm proposals for bus priority in Winchester. NBS funding will be sought to enable implementation of these measures.

2.7 Conclusions and Next Steps There is a strong justification for P&R expansion in Winchester. The demand forecast and assessments suggest that there is likely to be sufficient future demand to justify investment in expansion of Winchester’s P&R capacity. The Covid-19 pandemic has sped up trends towards greater levels of home working and internet shopping, so the impact of these changes could be reduced numbers of weekday vehicular trips into Winchester city centre, meaning that scope to divert journeys to P&R could be reduced. The expansion of P&R would be dependent on progression of other WMS workstreams, including further reductions in city centre parking provision (e.g. the surgery redevelopment agreed for Upper Brook Street Car Park, revisiting previous Station Approach proposals to redevelop Cattlemarket and Gladstone Street Car Parks, and considering the potential to redevelop other city centre car parks such as St Peter’s) and increases in car parking charges within ‘inner’ area car parks as part of the Parking and Access Strategy.

The site option sifting and identification process used has followed the approach recommended within DfT TAG guidance.

WCC will undertake an interim review of P&R once a “new normal” of travel patterns into Winchester have been established. This review will be integrated into economic recovery work and into work on the Winchester District Local Plan.

There will be a need to identify the most suitable funding and bidding opportunities to enable new P&R provision to be delivered in the Andover Road and Winnall areas and to allow P&R expansion at South Winchester. This will involve considering and assessing the suitability of a number of different potential funding mechanisms, from short-term to long-term, as the P&R sites are at different stages of feasibility development and have different prospects for and constraints that would affect deliverability.

The next step for further development of P&R proposals as part of the WMS should focus on progressing the development of designs and costs for the shortlisted sites that have lower deliverability risks. There will be a need to swiftly demonstrate strong alignment of P&R delivery with the ambitions of the Winchester District Local Plan working closely with developers to embed proposals for P&R within their site proposals for the Andover Road corridor. This will provide an opportunity for private sector contributions to be used to enable


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P&R expansion, continuing past successes with this approach that have enabled delivery of the P&R site at Pitt and which will enable the committed P&R site at Kings Barton to be delivered.

Deliverability risks for the Winnall options need to be better understood in the context of the Highways England M3 Junction 9 improvement scheme. Early discussions and dialogue with the HE should help to identify whether any scope exists to progress a P&R site in the Winnall area. If such discussions suggest that delivery of a site at Winnall would be impractical, then further work on this should not be undertaken, and efforts focussed on expanding South Winchester P&R.

At the next stages of development of proposals for the shortlisted sites, environmental constraints will need to be better understood, these include;

• River Itchen Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), a site of 748ha which encompasses three former SSSIs: Itchen Valley Kings Worthy, Itchen Valley Winnall Moore and Itchen Valley Winchester Meadows and provides habitat to nationally rare river-life. The SSI follows the river Itchen from New Alresford to the north east of Winchester, through the city to Eastleigh to the south;

• Though the majority of Winchester is in Flood Zone 1, some land around the River Itchen and its tributaries are in Flood Zones 2 and 3;

• Contaminated land;

• Protected habitats;

• Tree loss; and

• Mitigating visual impact of sites with close proximity to South Downs National Park.

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3 City Centre Movement and Place Plan The Movement and Place Plan (MPP) of the WMS seeks to identify preferred options for the

creation of high-quality, people-focused places by reconfiguring parts of the existing road

network within the City Centre. This change would be achieved through changes to traffic

routeing and access, road space reallocation, public ream and active travel improvements

that could be delivered in three priority areas of the city centre that help enhance the

character and heritage of the built environment of central Winchester. The aim is for

Winchester City Centre to be transformed from an environment based on ‘planning for

vehicle movement’ to instead be all about ‘planning for people’ and ‘planning for places’.

With many established high street retailers ceasing trading or closing physical stores as a

result of the Covid-19 pandemic, it is important that Winchester has a distinctive offer to

shoppers and visitors that enables city centre retailers and businesses to not just survive but

to thrive. Public realm improvements developed through the MPP workstream will help in

achieving this goal.

3.1 Summary of Phase 1 MPP Study The Phase 1 MPP work identified three long term strategic design options for changes to

traffic on city centre streets in Winchester (Options 2a, 2b and 3), in order to enable

improvements to be made to the quality of the public realm. A diagram showing the

proposed changes to traffic circulation under strategic design option 2A is shown below.

MPP Phase 1 study Strategic Design Option 2A

• Option 2A: Public realm enhancements and measures to support sustainable modes balanced with more changes in strategic traffic management and road space reallocation – Jewry Street would see access north of St. George’s Street restricted to buses, taxis, servicing and local access only and Friarsgate and Union Street would be made two way. The section of Jewry Street from St. George’s Street to High Street would be made southbound only;

• Option 2B: Public realm enhancements and measures to support sustainable modes (especially buses) balanced with more extensive changes in strategic traffic management and road space reallocation relative to option 2A – in addition to making Friarsgate and Jewry Street two way, North Walls would be made two way between Upper Brook Street and City Road, enabling access restrictions to be introduced on St. George’s Street as well as on Jewry Street; and

• Option 3: was developed as more of an aspirational potential long-term vision that seeks to maximise opportunities for the pedestrianisation and extensive public realm

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treatment of the city centre retail core, through removal of all non-essential traffic (retaining access for local businesses and residents), achieved by moving buses and through traffic out of both St. Georges Street and Jewry Street primarily onto to North Walls. As with Options 2A and 2B, this would see Friarsgate, Union Street and North Walls converted to two way-operation but would additionally require reconfiguration of Upper Brook Street between Friarsgate and North Walls to make this street suitable for use by buses and general traffic.

Options 2A and 2B received the highest scores using a Multi-Criteria Assessment Framework. The Phase 1 study therefore concluded that scope exists for enhanced public realm and associated measures based on either Option 2A or 2B, to prioritise pedestrians, cyclists and bus movement in Winchester city centre, whilst balancing essential access for businesses and residents.

The study recommended that a phased approach should be taken to the delivery of MPP proposals, beginning with relatively easily deliverable quick wins, then progressively moving through to focussing on more complex but more beneficial schemes in terms of meeting WMS strategic objectives.

3.2 Phase 2 MPP Study Methodology In the Phase 2 MPP study, the Phase 1 MPP strategic options were further developed and considered in more detail. This comprised high level assessments of the Phase 1 strategic design options to assess the feasibility of proposed access and movement changes, VISSIM modelling to check the impact on highway performance through traffic flow and journey time comparisons.

Following this, engagement with stakeholders on feasibility designs was completed and further consideration was given to how emerging requirements from other WMS workstreams could be accommodated. In engagement meetings, bus operators raised concerns about Option 3 as it would increase mileage for bus operators and would result in a need for pedestrians in the central and western part of the pedestrianised High Street to walk further to reach a bus stop, potentially making using the bus less convenient.

This process resulted in the refinement of strategic design options 2A, 2B and 3 as options 2Ai, 2Bi and 3i respectively.

Option 2Ai was the same as Option 2A (and both envision reducing North Walls down to a single lane of carriageway for motor vehicles) except for permitting two way working for buses on Jewry Street between Southgate Street and St. George’s Street and making Upper Brook Street two way between Silver Hill and Friarsgate so that buses can use this section in a northbound direction. It also includes reversing the direction of traffic flow on Gladstone Street and on Newburgh Street.

Option 2Bi incorporated nearly all of the elements of Option 2B, but also proposes two way working along the full length of North Walls, permitting two way working for buses on Jewry Street between Southgate Street and St. George’s Street, and making Upper Brook Street two way between Silver Hill and Friarsgate so that buses can use this section in a northbound direction. It also includes reversing the direction of traffic flow on Gladstone Street.

Option 3i is similar to Option 3, in that bus access would not be provided to St. George’s Street and Jewry Street, except it proposes making Upper Brook Street between Silver Hill and Friarsgate for buses only in a northbound direction. As with Option 3, this option would increase mileage for bus operators and would result in a need for pedestrians in the central and western part of the pedestrianised High Street to walk further to reach a bus stop.

Option 3i is considered to be too challenging in terms of deliverability and stakeholder acceptability and buy-in (especially securing the support of bus operators).

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A detailed multi-criteria assessment identified three areas of Jewry Street, St. George’s Street and The Broadway as being the highest priority areas for MPP intervention. Following this, in the short/medium term, Option 2Ai (shown below) will be the basis for change and has informed the development of feasibility designs for these three priority areas.

MPP Design Option 2Ai

If it was considered to be important to deliver the full set of potential public realm improvements and traffic reduction on St. George’s Street, then once traffic volumes in the city centre have been significantly reduced (as a result of the WMS measures of P&R expansion, reduced city centre car parking capacity, bus priority measures and LCWIP improvements), it may be appropriate to consider the merits of changing North Walls traffic flow to two-way for general traffic as a potential future longer term option, based on Option 2Bi. To gain public support for this, HCC and WCC would need to be able to demonstrate that North Walls could be converted to two-way operation without increasing traffic volumes, noise and congestion in a way that would not see a reduction in active travel or a worsening of air quality as well as avoid harm or damage to the heritage setting of the wall on the north site of North Walls. The adoption of a “plan, monitor, manage” approach to ensure that any proposals comprehensively address these issues before designs progress to the next stage would be followed. Additionally, there would need to be a workable solution found to permit two-way working along the length of North Walls (such as a 2.1m width restriction on all westbound movements) and an alternative parallel east-west route for cycle movements would need to be delivered in lieu of potential two-way segregated cycle lanes along North Walls.

The feasibility design stage explored aspects such as engineering, operability, deliverability, cost and trade-offs and interfaces necessary with other WMS elements such as walking and cycling improvements, bus access and stand provisions, freight access and loading bay provision as some of these streets are constrained by space limitations.

An initial timeframe for phasing of the implementation of improvements to the three areas was identified to suggest how these substantial changes to access and movement arrangements, public realm enhancements and pedestrian and cycle improvements can be delivered over a period of the next 5 to 15 years.

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3.3 Feasibility Designs for the three priority areas The feasibility and design work undertaken for the MPP Phase 2 study has sought to take a balanced approach in improving bus accessibility in the city centre by prioritising bus access to Jewry Street and St. George’s Street whilst also considering improvements to public realm and pedestrian and cycle permeability.

The MPP feasibility design proposals used existing best practice design guidance and standards, primarily the following:

• Manual for Streets / Manual for Streets 2 (Chartered Institution of Highways & Transportation)

• Streetscape Guidance (Transport for London) • Inclusive Mobility (Department for Transport) • London Cycle Design Standards (Transport for London) • Cycle Infrastructure Design: LTN 1/20 (Department for Transport) • Accessible Bus Stop Design Guidance (Transport for London) • Kerbside Loading Guidance (Transport for London)

3.4 Jewry Street feasibility design proposals Proposed interventions as illustrated below (Jewry Street Option 1) include:

• Enhance the character of Jewry Street by implementing quality surface treatment

throughout;

• Flushed contra-flow cycle lane along the length of Jewry Street from its junction with

North Walls to St. George’s Street;

• Widened footpath and public realm enhancements near the north end of Jewry

Street, primarily in front of the Discovery Centre;

• Removal of the northbound vehicular lane near the Jewry Street/High Street junction

and road space reallocation for public realm enhancement along the western edge of

the junction. It is worth noting, that some of these gains will be potentially eroded if

the provision of a contra-flow cycle lane connecting the High Street with St. George’s

Street was deemed essential for improving west to east cycling permeability through

the city centre.

An alternative cycling option (Option 2) would see the southbound contraflow lane run as

far as the junction with Tower Street, where people cycling south could continue towards

the High Street via Tower Street and Staple Gardens. This would mean that more space

for pedestrians could be provided.

An alternative road space relocation option (Option 3) would be as per Option 1 but

would retain the northbound lane near the Jewry Street/High Street junction. However,

some road space reallocation for public realm enhancement along the western edge of

the junction is gained through highway realignment and reduction of the footpath space

on the eastern side, but less than would be achieved by Option 1. All three options are

estimated to cost approximately £2.5m to deliver.

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Jewry Street Feasibility Design Option 1

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3.5 St. George’s Street feasibility design proposals Proposed interventions as illustrated below (St George’s Street Option 1) include:

• Enhance the character of St. George’s Street by implementing quality surface treatment throughout;

• Stepped contra-flow cycle lane along the length of St. George’s Street from its junction with Jewry Street to Upper Brook Street;

• Minor footway widening and public realm enhancements along the southern edge of St. George’s Street opposite the Parchment Street junction (this intervention would not be possible with Option 2Ai due to the need to provide two lanes of queueing capacity for general traffic, but would be deliverable under Option 2Bi);

• Pedestrian priority improvements at the junctions of St. George’s Street with Parchment Street, St. Peter Street and Upper Brook Street;

• Enable future provision of up to three bus stands to cater for future growth in demand for bus services at the south-eastern end of St. George’s Street. In the short term, option 1a proposes a passive provision design by utilising that space as loading bays;

• Potential additional bus stop provision near the western end of St. George’s Street under Option 2Bi only, in case the option 2 design for Jewry Street with shuttle signal working were to be implemented (requiring the existing bus stop on Jewry Street outside Barclays to be relocated); and

• Public realm enhancement at the paved area in front of retail outlets near the south-eastern end of St. George’s Street to improve setting of an under-utilised space and enhance east-west pedestrian permeability.

The three proposed additional bus stands east of Parchment Street are potential locations to accommodate future growth in bus services (such as the new bus service to Kings Barton and additional P&R bus services). It would however be preferable to accommodate these stands in other locations such as on Upper Brook Street or Friarsgate (See Bus Provision Chapter for further information).

St George’s Street Feasibility Design Option 1

Option 2 would be as per Option 1, but without the provision of an eastbound contraflow cycle lane. St. Clement Street and The Square/ Market Lane would be used as an alternative W-E route.

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Option 3 would be the same as Option 1 but with the loading bay near St Peter Street wholly on a widened footway rather than partially on the carriageway, and with a fourth bus stand at the eastern end of the road near Silver Hill. Option 1 is estimated to cost approximately £1.2-to deliver and Options 2 and 3 are estimated to cost £1.3m to deliver.

3.6 The Broadway feasibility design proposals A two-step approach for implementation of feasibility design public realm proposals for The Broadway is envisaged, which is fully aligned with the CWR scheme aspirations for public realm improvements. These could be implemented as follows:

• Step 1: Some small-scale public realm and character enhancement in conjunction with the removal of the central parking and the taxi rank in front of King Alfred’s statue, whilst retaining bus and coach stand/stops in The Broadway;

• Step 2: Maximising the public realm and character enhancement opportunities in conjunction with the removal of bus and coach stand/stops from The Broadway as well as the removal of Eastgate Street roundabout.

The Broadway Feasibility Design Shorter Term (Step 1) Option

The Step 1 option would see enhancement of the character of The Broadway by implementing high quality surface treatment the removal of the central parking area and taxi rank by the statue and provision of between four and five bus stands in The Broadway (one of which as now would be used by National Express coaches).

It is envisaged that the fifth (additional) bus stand would be only provided on a temporary basis, for the duration of construction of the Central Winchester Regeneration project. Once construction work has progressed, then a new bus layby would be provided on Friarsgate to replace this additional stand on The Broadway.

The Step 2 option (illustrated below) would see enhancement of the public realm and the character of The Broadway through pedestrianisation, landscape interventions and quality surface treatment. It would see the removal of all bus stops from The Broadway, and the current roundabout replaced with a priority junction. The removal of the roundabout would enable the provision of new inbound and or outbound bus stops in either Bridge Street or Eastgate Street and a new zebra pedestrian crossing provided on Eastgate Street to the north. A number of design options have been developed for different numbers of bus stops that could provide either:

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• one outbound bus stop; • two inbound and one outbound stop (as shown above); or • two inbound and two outbound stops.

Alternatively, additional eastbound bus stands could be provided on Friarsgate (to

complement the additional westbound stands planned as part of the CWR project) once this

road has been made two-way. This would mean that stands on both sides of Friarsgate

could cater for inbound and outbound bus movements bus stands for the lower part of the

city centre, negating the need for bus stands on Eastgate Street. This could provide an

opportunity for substantial public realm improvements to be delivered in the vicinity of the

existing roundabout that would see a significant reallocation of road space away from

vehicular traffic.

The Broadway Feasibility Design Medium to Long-term (Step 2) Option

3.7 Conclusions and Next Steps The feasibility and modelling work done in Phase 2 of the MPP has demonstrated that there is scope for strategic design option 2Ai to deliver on wider WMS and MPP objectives set out in previous phases in the short to medium term (2025 – 2030). This would see measures to covert Friarsgate and Union Street to two-way operation, which would reduce the need for traffic to negotiate the full one-way system. The impacts of these changes on traffic circulation and volumes would be better understood once they have been implemented by following a “Plan/Monitor/Adapt” approach.

If WMS measures can achieve a reduction in traffic volumes looking to exit the city centre area via St. George’s Street, and if an alternative high quality cycling route running parallel to North Walls can be provided, it may be possible to then work towards Option 2Bi in the longer term, which could see North Walls become a two-way route for vehicular traffic although it is likely that this would need to incorporate a width restriction of 2.1m for westbound traffic.

Other “bus centred” design options for traffic flow that could help to reduce journey times by bus and offer an improved level of access to the city centre can also be considered and if such proposals have merit, these could be modelled.

The feasibility and modelling work undertaken on an alternative long-term strategic option 3 suggests that whilst it is operationally possible to enable all general traffic and bus movements to be removed from Jewry Street and St. George’s Street to provide further

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opportunities for public realm enhancements, it is shown to compound delays at the Carfax junction.

Further modelling work is recommended in the next phase to assess if reduced demand assumptions made in incremental modelling for option 2Bi will have a similar impact on a refined option 3i to reduce delays at the Carfax junction and improve its overall network performance.

Option 3 is seen as being very challenging in terms of deliverability and stakeholder acceptability and buy-in (especially securing the support of bus operators who value having access to Jewry Street and St. George’s Street). It would be useful to engage with them again once more modelling results on option 3i (based on reduced demand) become available.

The feasibility designs for Jewry Street, St. George’s Street and The Broadway can be

progressed to preliminary design. HCC and WCC should identify whether further work is

needed to future-proof and revisit designs to better align with the long term strategic vision.

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4 Local Walking and Cycling Infrastructure Plan 4.1 Phase 1 LCWIP Study

In line with the WMS, HCC and WCC also seek to develop and implement a Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan (LCWIP) for Winchester. The Winchester Phase 1 LCWIP was developed by Atkins and completed in April 2020. After a process of data analysis, stakeholder consultation, audits, site visits and engagement with HCC and WCC representatives, the Phase 1 study produced the following key LCWIP outputs:

• Identification of a primary walking network (13 routes) and primary cycling network

(nine routes), presented below.

• An initial package of infrastructure interventions to improve conditions for walking and

cycling on each route

• High level costs

• Prioritisation of the primary walking and cycling routes

Proposed Winchester Walking and Cycling route network

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4.2 Phase 2 LCWIP Study Methodology Atkins were commissioned by HCC and WCC to undertake a Phase 2 feasibility study for the LCWIP. The core aim of this work is to advance the concepts and proposed interventions identified in the Phase 1 LCWIP study through the feasibility design stage. This phase of work focuses on the highest priority segments of the walking and cycling networks. The methodology used for the Phase 2 study is summarised in the graphic below.

Overview of LCWIP Phase 2 feasibility study methodology

In conjunction with HCC and WCC, Atkins reviewed the Phase 1 prioritisation process. From the 13 walking and 9 cycle routes identified in Phase 1, 3 walking and 3 cycle routes were selected for inclusion in the Phase 2 work to develop feasibility designs.

Additionally, as a result of potential funding opportunities and key localised interventions, which were not part of the selected routes, five ‘quick wins’ were added to the feasibility design scope of work.

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Map showing the routes where feasibility designs were developed

The map above shows the locations of these selected routes and ‘quick win’ developed as part of the feasibility design stage. The quick win scheme locations are shown in light green. It also shows (in dark blue) the intervention areas developed by the Movement and Place Plan (MPP) to highlight the synergy between the two workstreams.

The tables below give a commentary on the scope of improvements proposed for each of the 3 prioritised walking routes, the 3 prioritised cycling routes and the 3 quick win schemes.

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Overview of the three prioritised LCWIP walking routes

Overview of the three prioritised LCWIP cycling routes

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Overview of the three ‘quick win’ schemes

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In parallel, as part of the design development process, Atkins held several meetings and workshops including:

• To align the prioritization process with the other WMS workstreams, regular meetings

took place throughout the design development process, including Movement and

Place Plan (MPP), Park & Ride, Freight, Bus Provision Study and Traffic Modelling.

• Workshops with WCC and HCC officers (including Asset Management Team) and

two workshops with local walking and cycle groups to receive feedback on the

proposed walking and cycle design interventions and feasibility of implementation.

4.3 Approach taken to the preparation of feasibility designs The proposals were also developed and refined to reflect both local and national design aspirations as far as practical given the local constraints. This includes recent design guidance in the Department for Transport (DfT) LTN 1/20 and Gear Change, as well as the ‘Guiding Principles’ outlined in the Winchester LCWIP. This guidance advises that routes should be designed to be safe, continuous, well-designed routes that are inclusive and cater for the needs of different people of different levels of cycling ability and personal mobility.

Feasibility designs for each scheme were developed based on the initial concepts identified and presented in the Winchester LCWIP Phase 1 report (30 April 2020). These concepts were refined through additional site visits, review of issues and constraints, and discussions with project stakeholders. The feasibility design evaluated the preferred concepts against the local constraints, and modified the concept, as necessary, to define a scheme that could be physically implemented.

The schemes sought to develop designs that could be implemented within the existing highway extent and/or public land in order to minimise potential impacts on third-party land.

The designs were developed in CAD using Ordinance Survey (OS) base mapping and indicative highway boundary information provided by HCC. Swept path analysis was conducted, where necessary, to inform the layout of the proposals and verify that appropriate vehicle movements can be accommodated.

4.4 Cost estimates for the prioritised routes The table below summarises the estimated costs of delivery of the priority walking and

cycling routes:

Construction – works only

(£k)

Construction contingency allowance

(£k)

Allowance for utilities diversions

(£k)

Total Cost (2020 prices) (£k)

C1 - NCN Route 23 400 180 90 670

C3 – Stockbridge Road 1,330 590 290 2,210

C4/W4 - Andover Road 1,260 550 270 2,090

W1 - Section 1 : Station Road -

Upper High Street (Long Term Option 1)

670 300 150 1,120

W1 - Section 1 : Station Road -

Upper High Street (Long Term Option 2)

690 300 150 1,140

W1 - Section 1 - Chesil Street 170 70 40 280

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The table below summarises the estimated costs of delivery of the quick win schemes:

4.5 Conclusions and Next Steps Atkins have recommended that the following elements should be progressed:

• Progressing the six prioritised schemes and quick win schemes from the feasibility

stage to preliminary design and undertake public consultation and engagement with

affected stakeholders to get feedback on the proposed designs (the model used

should learn from recent experiences of consultation on Active Travel Fund

proposals). Where schemes involve reallocation of roadspace and changes to

parking, it is important to give opportunities for meaningful focussed engagement that

allows refinements and improvements to the designs to be identified so that the

schemes can meet the specific needs of residents and businesses;

• Identifying sources of funding to progress the prioritised schemes to delivery (such as

the DfT Capability Fund); and

• Scheme development of the remaining LCWIP primary and secondary walking and

cycling network routes – including preparing feasibility designs and identifying

sources of funding to support phased delivery.

Additionally WCC and HCC can also work with businesses, the BID, Cycle Winchester and

schools to improve cycle parking provision, to facilitate increased levels of cycling that the

LCWIP schemes seek to enable.

Construction – works only

(£k)

Construction contingency allowance

(£k)

Utilities diversions

(£k)

Total Cost (2020 prices) (£k)

C8 – Parchment Street 50 22 11.2 86

C8 – St Peter Street 12 5.3 3 23

W1 – Upper High Street (short term)

178 78.3 39 300

W1 – High Street – Westgate to Trafalgar St (short term)

248 109.1 54 415

W2 – Romsey Road by RHCH 190 83.6 41 315

W7 – St. James Lane/ St. James Terrace

100 44 21.8 165

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5 Bus Provision Study Bus services in Winchester city centre currently operate via the existing one-way highway system, with west-to-east bus movements largely bypassing the retail core of the city centre until they reach The Broadway. A number of streets see heavy usage by bus services with a little under 40 bus movements in a typical hour on North Walls, Jewry Street (northbound) and St George’s Street. A number of inter-urban bus services into Winchester currently lay over at the seven stops in the bus station, and at stop 5 in The Broadway. Scheduled and tourist coach services use bus stops allocated for them in The Broadway.

The Central Winchester Regeneration (CWR) scheme and growth in the number of bus routes and service frequencies which will bring more buses into the city centre, will require changes to bus stop provision within the central area. The CWR scheme is proposing that the existing bus station site is redeveloped as part of a wider mixed-use regeneration scheme, with the bus stands re-provided on-street nearby. A key aim of this study is to demonstrate that the bus stands currently located within the existing bus station site can be relocated to new locations on Friarsgate, Tanner Street and Silver Hill, in a way that will enable bus services patterns in Winchester City Centre to continue to operate efficiently and effectively. This included giving consideration to bus operators’ need for provision of space for bus layover.

5.1 Future Growth in Bus Service demand The study considered more widely the needs of bus services and bus passengers in Winchester city centre as a whole, both in the current year (2020), the medium term (2026) and the long term (2036). This took into account potential future increases in service frequencies on some inter-urban routes that were under consideration by operators before the Covid-19 pandemc. However, the study was completed before the National Bus Strategy was published, therefore has not considered the impacts of commitments to improvements that will be set out in the new Hampshire Bus Service Improvement Plan, some of which would be delivered using ‘Bus Back Better’ funding (depending on the outcome of funding bids). Additional demand for bus travel is likely to be generated through demand management (primarily through the implementation of WCC’s Parking and Access Strategy which would see the number of parking spaces within the city centre reduced as P&R capacity is increased) and through further improving the city centre as a destination (Winchester City Centre Movement and Place Plan).

As part of the P&R Study, as explained in Section 2.6, new bus gates are proposed for Southgate Street and Chesil Street. This study proposes that in conjunction with the Southgate Street bus gate, that a new bus stop be provided at the top of Southgate Street to help reduce walk times to the pedestrianised High Street area. However, modelling work suggests that the journey time savings which would be realised by introduction of these two bus gates may be eroded by the increases in journey times for buses that would arise from Movement and Place Plan proposals that seek to deliver an enhanced public realm to improve safety and conditions for pedestrians in two areas:

• shuttle working on Bridge Street/ Chesil Street/ Magdalen Hill – in order to deliver widened footways in this area; and

• shuttle working for buses on the southernmost part of Jewry Street between St George’s Street and Southgate Street to enable reallocation of roadspace from vehicular traffic to pedestrians*2.

2 A number of design options for the southern part of Jewry Street have been developed, which involve different levels of reallocation of road space. One option proposes re-routing general traffic and introduction of shuttle working by buses to maximise space for pedestrians.



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The Bus Provision Study estimated demand for bus services in 2026 (medium term) and 2036 (long term). In the medium term, the study finds that the major change to bus service provision will be a new bus service to the Kings Barton development and associated Park and Ride (P&R) site. The Silverhill / Tanner Street / Friarsgate bus hub will need to be expanded by one bus stand, which will need to be located on St George’s Street or on Upper Brook Street. Bus priority on Andover Road will be strongly desirable to maximise the potential of bus to deliver the required modal shift for this development.

In terms of P&R growth, the unconstrained high forecast for demand sees a tripling of demand over existing levels, expansion of existing sites and the opening of new sites at Winnall and on Andover Road. The service pattern developed to uplift this demand has been carefully constructed to minimise the increase in bus vehicle movements, but despite this, some city centre streets will see a 50% increase in bus movements if these forecasts are realised.

5.2 Locations for additional on-street bus and coach stands The short-term implications of the closure of the bus station as part of the CWR scheme (with these bus stands being relocated to nearby on-street locations) have been considered by Atkins in 2020 and then subsequently by Arup. In consultation with WCC and HCC and the bus operators, both consultants identified potential to expand the existing provision of bus stops in Silver Hill, extending bus stops and creating bus stands in Tanner Street and Friarsgate. Arup identified potential to locate a coach stop on Friarsgate, though National Express suggested that this would only be acceptable if coaches could turn around in the vicinity of Silver Hill or Middle Brook Street car park, to avoid incurring additional mileage. Having a coach stop on Friarsgate may also cause safety issues with left-hand drive tourist coaches. The short term proposals for additional bus stands are summarised below:

Both consultants identified that a future medium to longer-term expansion in bus service provision would require expanded bus stop and stand facilities and identified St George’s Street or the lower section of Upper Brook Street alongside The Brooks Shopping Centre as potential locations for this provision. Atkins also identified part of the existing car park in Middle Brook Street as a potential suitable location for a bus hub or layover facility to cater

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for future bus growth should it prove not possible to accommodate this future growth through additional on-street bus stands along the north side of Friarsgate (taking a narrow strip from the southern edge of the car park). However, if this option is progressed, then access and egress arrangements, as well as civil engineering work that would be needed to address the current difference in height between the car park and Friarsgate will need to be carefully considered.

The introduction of a new Kings Barton local bus service and new P&R bus services serving new sites on the Andover Road corridor and potentially at Winnall would means that the Silver Hill / Tanner Street / Friarsgate bus hub will need to expand into and occupy kerbspace in much of St George’s Street. In the view of this study consideration should be given to utilising Middle Brook Street car park instead – but expanding on Atkins’ earlier proposals to make this into a passenger facility as well as for vehicle layover. This would provide a controlled environment for coaches as well as expanded provision for bus services.

The long-term aspiration which influences the form and function of the bus network and the hub of stops and layover space is the removal of bus and coach movements from The Broadway in order to release space for public realm improvements identified in the Movement and Place Plan workstream of the WMS.

This would of course enable the bus and coach stops to be removed from The Broadway, enabling public realm enhancements, though bus stops for outbound buses using Alresford Road and Chesil Street will need to be provided on Eastgate Street to provide adequate access to bus services from the eastern or ‘Marks and Spencer’ end of the city. The other condition required to remove bus and coach movements from Broadway is to enable buses to turn at the Silver Hill / Tanner Street / Friarsgate bus hub. This could be achieved by allowing buses to travel northbound along the two-lane section of Upper Brook Street.

5.3 Conclusions and Next Steps In the short-term, the bus provision study has identified that the bus stands currently provided at the Bus Station can be relocated to nearby on street locations in Friarsgate, Tanner Street and Silver Hill. It is proposed that the new stands on Friarsgate would be bus laybys, so as to not preclude converting Friarsgate from one-way to two-way flow as part of the Movement and Place Plan. There will be a continued need for five bus stops to be retained in The Broadway (with a possible additional temporary bus stand provided there in the very short term whilst initial phases of CWR construction is taking place, which would be relocated to Friarsgate as soon as this is practically possible).

In the medium to longer term, growth in the number of P&R bus services and the new local bus service to Kings Barton is forecast to require additional bus stands within the city centre.

A number of options for accommodating these have been considered including:

• The option of providing a new off-street bus hub utilising part of Middle Brook Street

car park. There is currently a difference in levels between Friarsgate and the car

park, which could hinder the provision of suitable access and egress arrangements.

As part of the CWR project, the masterplanning identifies Middle Brook Street car

park as a suitable location for future redevelopment. The combination of these

factors means that an on-street solution for providing additional capacity for future

growth would be preferred.

• new on-street bus stands either on St. George’s Street or on Upper Brook Street (on

the two-lane section between Friarsgate and St. George’s Street); or

• new on-street bus stands on the north side of Friarsgate (which could be

accommodated by to complement those being delivered on the south side as a result

of the CWR project, taking a strip of land from the southern edge of Middle Brook

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Street car park) to form a bus hub that facilitates interchange, if Friarsgate and the

lower section of Upper Brook Street were to be made two-way.

In discussions, bus operators have told us that their customers value that bus services

currently serve both the lower end of the High Street (e.g. the Silver Hill area) and the middle

part of the High Street (the Jewry Street area). In any future arrangements of bus stands,

they would like to continue to give customers this choice and flexibility as to where to board

or alight. Applying this principle, adding additional bus stands in St. George’s Street – in

between these two areas of demand, has the potential to slow down bus services, resulting

in an increase in congestion and result in a worsening of air quality and reduce the scope for

enhancements to the public realm. Therefore, additional stands on Friarsgate and Upper

Brook Street, in the locations indicated in green below would be our preferred medium/

longer term solution to cater for future growth in bus services. The locations in green are

potential suitable locations for new bus stands. It is not anticipated that all the future stand

locations shown would be required.

Proposals for accommodating this medium term growth will be developed in a way that is

fully aligned with Bus Back Better, the Government’s National Bus Strategy (NBS). HCC and

WCC will seek to develop firm and coherent proposals for bus priority and bus-stop

infrastructure improvements in Winchester city centre and beyond, which NBS funding could

then be sought to enable implementation and seek commitments from bus operators to

invest in new vehicles, service improvements and attractively priced ticket products that

meet the needs of bus users.


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6 Winchester City Centre Urban Freight Transport Study The Air Quality Management Area (AQMA) declared in 2003 covers the majority of Winchester city centre retail core. In 2019 both HCC and WCC declared a climate emergency. This study sought to develop freight interventions that would address the negative environmental impacts that freight and delivery activities bring to the city centre.

The freight workstream identified three objectives for management of freight in Winchester:

1. Minimise freight movement – Reduce and retime the number of delivery trips generated by businesses within Winchester city centre through freight consolidation to increase the efficiency of freight activity;

2. Match demand to network capacity – Maximise the proportion of essential delivery trips taking place outside peak times and where possible promote quiet evening deliveries. Promote retiming of delivery trips and appropriate freight routing, using streets that are suitable for the vehicle being used, supporting the proposed pedestrian focus of the public realm and encouraging trips made by active modes in the city centre. Ensure freight facilities are adequate in number and location; and

3. Mitigate the negative impact of freight trips Where goods and services must be transported by road, including for last mile, use of the safest, quietest and lowest emissions mode of transport available will be promoted and encouraged (e.g. transporting goods on foot or bicycle leading to lower noise levels and an improvement in local air quality). This will incentivise businesses and freight operators to reduce the negative impacts of deliveries.

Given these objectives, Atkins, HCC and WCC agreed that freight interventions through this study should look to minimise the number of high-emission vehicles entering the city centre and promote electric vehicles or green modes of transport.

6.1 Recap of main findings from Phase 1 Freight study A baseline assessment of the current situation for servicing and deliveries in the city centre was conducted. As part of this, Atkins undertook a review of existing available loading bay infrastructure and double yellow line restrictions. There are five loading bays in the area.

Core focus area of the freight study indicating delivery density, loading time regulations and loading bays in different zones

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This identified that on-street loading/unloading of freight vehicles in certain locations, such as on St. George’s Street, at certain times of day is causing disruption to the flow of city centre vehicular traffic, resulting in traffic congestion.

In October 2019, surveys were conducted with a sample of city centre businesses (mostly retailers) to understand their requirements, concerns and readiness to implement changes. This work identified patterns and the level of demand for freight and delivery at different times on different days. The survey work found that:

• 55% of deliveries use unofficial’ loading spaces (double and single yellow lines on-

street) this causes disruption to traffic in peak periods

• Businesses’ don’t appreciate that freight deliveries have an adverse impact on traffic

flow and are satisfied with their current freight delivery arrangements which consist of

unloading the goods on-street in as close a proximity to the shop as possible.

• Only 15% of deliveries use loading bays. They are very limited in quantity and most

are not suitable for large lorries.

• On average within Winchester city centre, restaurants see 2 deliveries per day and

shops get 3 deliveries per day (Monday Tuesday & Friday are the most popular days)

• Most scheduled deliveries to city centre businesses last less than 15 mins

• DPD is responsible for approximately one third of the deliveries in city centre.

• Business-owned vans are used by almost 20% of the businesses (independents).

Findings of survey on size and frequency of deliveries to city centre businesses

A set of options was proposed to address the challenges and opportunities and achieve the objectives of WMS to help to achieve the vision of more sustainable future freight and delivery systems in Winchester.

A set of options were proposed to address the challenges and opportunities and achieve the objectives of WMS to materialise the vision of future freight and delivery systems in Winchester. These options were then assessed through a Multi-Criteria Assessment Framework (MCAF) process.

6.2 Phase 2 study – Stakeholder Engagement and MCAF update In Phase 2, a stakeholder engagement exercise was carried out to capture opinions and preferences of both the public sector, HCC and WCC, and the local businesses

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representative, Winchester Business Improvement District (BID), on the criteria used in the Multi-Criteria Assessment Framework (MCAF). This work has enabled to carry out a sensitivity test on the MCAF by creating multiple preference scenarios, reflecting the views of HCC and WCC and the Winchester BID.

An intervention package was finalised based on the results of the refined MCAF, containing options that are aligned with the priorities and objectives for the Winchester freight strategy.

The freight package proposes that a series of 8 actions should be progressed over the next two years, of which two actions are considered to be ‘quick wins’ – that could be delivered in the short term. The 8 actions are summarised below:

The main opportunity identified for future interventions on management of freight is related to retiming deliveries and dynamic kerbside and loading bay management. The recommended intervention package for freight identified through the Phase 2 study is summarised below:

It is composed of primary interventions and complementary interventions. Additional interventions were also identified for consideration, aiming to maximise the impact of the intervention package. Ultimately, realising the freight options considered will depend heavily on the willingness and capacity of the private sector to enter the market in Winchester. The technical details of the selected options in the intervention package were investigated, highlighting the key advantages, challenges and potential opportunities surrounding the options.

For both the primary interventions (portering and cycle-based micro-consolidation freight solutions), it will be necessary to consider appropriate locations for potential consolidation

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and transhipment hubs. The local authorities may support the service operators in identifying suitable locations and funding the initial set-up and/or pump-prime the initial operation of the schemes for a start-up period until sufficient custom is built to cover costs.

For the collective procurement complementary intervention, the first step should involve engagement with businesses to understand the scope for this. The University of Southampton has previously researched the scope for collective procurement of commercial waste collections, so this could be revisited working with the BID. There will be a need for HCC/ WCC or the BID to find ways to effectively persuade the business to adopt collective procurement – calculating cost savings, marketing the initiative).

6.3 Conclusions and next steps In the short term HCC and WCC should work with the BID and potential providers to scope out how a portering scheme for city centre businesses can be established and how a cycle-based freight micro-consolidation centre could be delivered, perhaps on a trial basis on HCC or WCC land, such as at a Park and Ride site, in order to prove the concept. Then this mini-depot could be replaced by a permanent micro-consolidation site once demand has grown.

HCC and WCC can carry out research funded through the Solent Future Transport Zone (FTZ) freight project to improve understanding of servicing issues and supply chains within Winchester city centre.

HCC and WCC should continue to explore bidding opportunities (E-Cargo Bikes/ E-Vans for County Supplies / Council fleets) and partnership working.

In the medium term, WCC should introduce additional loading bays/timing restrictions in Jewry Street and St. George's Street. This would help to reduce pressure on loading bays in The Square (which are more difficult to access following changes to traffic circulation) and help to reduce congestion on St. George’s Street by formalising unloading.

In the longer-term, if the other measures do not deliver the desired improvement in air quality, HCC and WCC should consider need for a Low Emission Zone within the city centre for HGVs/ vans.

It is recommended by Atkins that a Freight Demand Survey be undertaken in order to better understand the structure of the logistics activities (for example size and weight distribution of the parcels) servicing businesses within Winchester city centre, and therefore provide a solid evidence base when assessing the interventions.

There may be benefit in working with Winchester BID to set up a Freight and Servicing Board to help support the design and rollout of the portering, micro-consolidation initiatives and to help ensure that new loading bays are provided in the places where they are most needed.

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7 Priority WMS Infrastructure investment The map below shows the locations of the proposed short/ medium term WMS interventions

that have been prioritised as a result of the five Phase 2 workstreams, across the city as a

whole and within the city centre.

In terms of timeframes for delivery of these short, medium and long term infrastructure

improvements, the timeline below summarises the proposed thinking:

winchester movement strategy feasibility studies

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