City council being less than homnest (From Hampshire Chronicle)

City council being less than homnest

3:58pm Wednesday 1st July 2009 in

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SIR: — Gillian Shevlin’s suggestion (June 25) that Bushfield is a better site for development than Barton Farm is an understandable if misguided reaction to Steve Melligan’s earlier assertion that Bushfield Camp is an eyesore.

This is disingenuous and all the worse for having been expressed by a representative of the Church. The triangle that forms Bushfield is an unusually peaceful area of downland and a key feature of one of Winchester’s chief assets — its downland setting. The remains of the army camp are invisible until you are in them.

On St Catherine’s Hill and in the water meadows, there is a constant high level of road noise, but Bushfield is far quieter. Building on part of this site will not preserve the downland as claimed, because the remaining land will be compromised by noise, and the precedent for development set.

The city council is being less than honest in calling what is effectively a business estate a “knowledge park”. Councillor George Beckett has stated that keeping the land undeveloped is “indefensible” in the long-term, but this is a matter of will: the burned-out cars have already been removed and nature is quietly reclaiming what remains of the buildings.

The Church Commissioners’ website one of its chief responsibilities is the “provision for the cure of souls”. I would suggest the peace to be had at Bushfield is a rarity which should be preserved alongside the downland species and wildlife, all of which are more real and vital than flimsy claims about securing Winchester’s long-term economic prosperity.

Lorna Leach, Ashbarn Crescent, Badger Farm, Winchester.