Background
Winchester City Council commissioned a number of Local Area Design Statements (LADS) in the early 2000s. Before the Sleepers Hill one was produced, the one for Compton Down was completed. This had a transport section which concluded that the junctions onto Otterbourne Road were inadequate to support a material increase in traffic. As a result of this, the Highways Authority recommended a limit on future development in Compton Down. This was accepted and their LADS contained restrictions on further development. When the draft version of the Sleepers Hill LADS was released, it mirrored the Compton Down one in structure apart from one omission – there was no transport section (surprise, surprise!)
It was clear that Sleepers Hill had similar junction issues etc so Tim Jones and Derek O’Neill commissioned a road consultant (Richard Parker Consultants) to write a report for Sleepers Hill. Using this report and the Compton Down one, a proposed transport section for the Sleepers Hill LADS was produced. Eventually the council accepted that a transport section was required and used our report to draft the section.
The final Sleepers Hill LADS therefore included a transport section which came to a similar conclusion as the Compton Down one – in our case, future development would be limited to ensure traffic did not increase by more than 5% (about 10 extra houses on the assumption that 50% of traffic is resident generated and there are around 100 properties on the hill).
Between 2007 and 2013, the extra houses to reach the limit were approved (Harkers and The Day House). In 2013, King Alfred Homes reduced the number of dwellings in the Day House development by 4, allowing the approval of 4 new dwellings on Charis Holt.
In 2014, the Council changed the speed limit on the Hill from 30mph to 20mph (and on Romsey Rd from 40mph to 30mph in the section above Sleepers Hill).
In 2015, it became apparent that WCC no longer judged the limit stated in the LADS to apply. The rationale appeared to be based on the development of the Highcroft site, which used to have a large parking area. With the loss of the parking area and its access from and to Sleepers Hill, road movements would come down negating the need for the earlier limit. As well as this, speed and traffic on Romsey Road and Sleepers Hill also had an influence (as the calculations on the capacity of the junctions/road were based on 40/30mph not 30/20mph). During the period 2015/2016, we did a considerable amount of work, including a report by Alan Baxter Associates and some traffic surveys, but were unable to shift the Council from their decision. We did however produce a list of points that might be made by residents to oppose further Planning Applications.
We were also unable to persuade the Council to fund a LADS update. Then in 2017, we engaged with Councillors and some Council Officials and they agreed that a self help LADS produced by us might be acceptable to the Council. However, it was significant that the key Council Officer refused to engage with us. It was realised that the self help LADS would require a great deal of work by residents and considerable cost. The matter was covered in the 2017 and 2018 Annual Reports and in the AGMs of those years. The Committee accepted that its members did not have the resources to do the necessary work so the Chairman’s Report sought assistance from SHA residents generally. Unfortunately, no one came forward, so it was reluctantly accepted that no further progress could be made unless or until the WCC funded a new or updated LADS.
No further approaches have been made to the Council since 2018.
Tim Jones & Derek O’Neil – July 2025
Correspondence
6th October 2015 – Letter from WCC stating reasons for downgrading traffic issues as a restriction on development.
4th January 2016 – 1st Review of the above WCC letter by Alan Baxter Ltd.
20th January 2016 – Chairman’s response to above WCC letter.
24th May 2016 – 2nd review of above WCC letter by Alan Baxter Ltd addressing questions raised by SHA
24th May 2016 – 3rd review of above WCC letter by Alan Baxter Ltd
Traffic Surveys
A number of traffic surveys were undertaken by WCC in the preparation of LADS
Traffic Survey June 2007 – Sleepers Hill junction with Sparkford Road
Traffic Survey November 2010 – Romsey Road
Traffic Survey March 2013 – Sleepers Hill
Traffic Survey November 2015 – Sleepers Hill
Traffic Survey January 2016 – Sleepers Hill junction with Romsey Road