Bosham's Historic Core Coming out of Lockdown
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Bosham’s Historic Core coming out of lockdown Many long-running issues to do with visitors and the medieval historic core of Old Bosham have been focussed, concentrated AND amplified FOR local residents in recent weeks, irritating and even outraging them. We have a long summer ahead of us and unless the immediate and long-term issues are seriously addressed we can expect widespread unhappiness. For many years in the last century we were known as ‘Happy Bosham’ and whilst we are pre-eminently a resilient community, certain things need to be addressed. The focus of this present contribution from the Bosham Association is the opportunities for an urban design approach to handling visitor numbers. We leave to others the whole issue of dealing with illegal or criminal activity, but we are hoping to offer a multi-stranded design-based approach which we believe to a lasting effect to the well-being of a very beautiful and widely appreciated place. It is not easy to ‘make’ such places, but it easy to lose them through missing opportunities. We believe this time is such an opportunity. Many of us in the villages gained valuable insights in the course of writing the Village Design Statement (BVDS), the Review of the Conservation Area Critical Appraisal (CACA) and finally the Bosham Parish Neighbourhood Plan (BPNP). They form together and separately material consideration in the determination of planning applications. It is also worth mentioning the Conservation Area is entirely covered with an Article IV Direction which effectively removes all residual permitted development rights and requires any change to require a specific planning consent. What we see exhibited through these statutory documents is a robust consensus tested in the arena of local public opinion, but still lacking support from elected public figures and statutory authorities who pay lip-service and then failed so far to deliver. It hopefully also points to a way of avoiding one-off unilateral actions by significant stakeholders. We share this with you now as the basis for a community-supported set of proposals for further discussion and suggestions for a programme of public works emerging from the pandemic. Much of this was well supported through the Neighbourhood Planning exercise in 2013-15 and has yet to be implemented. Some things will have irreversibly changed with new circumstances necessitating adjustment and new ideas. Some of the stakeholders have also changed. Since these statutory documents were adopted by Chichester District Council (The local planning authority), we may observe a number of changes. Local stakeholders have also made additional comments and revised their proposal in the past week and these have been incorporated. These can be summarised as follows. 1. More people know about Old Bosham especially through smart phone apps and social media. 2. Whilst car travel may not have increased greatly, cycling, walking, canoeing and paddle boarding has hugely. Indeed the CHC struggle to keep up with licensing of harbour use permits for these craft. 3. A greater proportion of our visitors now seem more aware of tidal conditions and in particular the youngsters know of the swimming opportunities at high tide. 4. New mixed modes have emerged e.g. rail/cycle, car/canoe/paddleboard and this is evident from recent observations at Bosham Station, along Shore Road and on Quay Meadow. 5. As for the car-park, the installation of an EV charging point has occurred and at long last, provision of shore power to the boat park which in time will reduce the noise irritation to local residents. The leylandii in the carpark have been removed and yet the CDC have failed to re-design and replant the layout and the toilet situation has remained unchanged whilst before lockdown the CDC continued to receive a very handy income stream via car-park charges. Car-park charges were waived during lockdown. It has also been pointed out that in October 2018 Midhurst received £55,000 to give its north carpark a make-over. Austerity did not apply there and the pressing needs to an historic centre were addressed. 6. The effective current ban on foreign holidays and the aviation industries’ expectation that former leisure mobility will not fully return must surely mean that more Brits will be holidaying at home. Bosham can only expect an up-turn in British visitors and a likely reduction in visits from foreign nationals. However, the former will undoubtedly be greater than the latter. Local residents express concern as to the objectives setting the maintenance of Quay Meadow itself. It would be helpful were the National Trust explain to nearby stakeholders what that the purpose of such maintenance is – wildflower meadow, just public open green space or a mixture? At present the objective seems to wander with different styles of stewardship at different times. Previous attempts to re-establish a wildflower meadow should have been learnt. The NT on East Head have marked areas of habitat restoration so that people know the intention. 7. The BPNP aimed to reduce street clutter and signage, but boorish and ignorant behaviour of a few recent visitors has now caused the NT and the BPC to erect signs, both more permanent and more temporary ones. It would be much better that a proper sign audit of the area be done and a coherent and holistic strategy be agreed and implemented, 8. The high season this year 2020 is unlikely to be typical of past years nor necessarily an indication of ‘the new normal’. However, a new visitor survey should be done based on carpark use during the busiest weekend of August to gauge capacity and demand for parking (cycles and motor vehicles). 9. Nearby residents adjacent to the High Street, the Church, Quay and Meadow are frustrated by the singular failure to progress any of the Neighbourhood Plan proposals. It may well be that investment will have to await the construction of housing dictated to us by the District Council under the provisions of the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL). The failure of the District Council to have in place a thoroughly reviewed and thereby ‘made’ Local Plan has led to this impasse. Nonetheless the original proposals, backed by such exhaustive community consultation should remain integral part of the annual iteration of the community infrastructure development investment plan agreed by the Parish Council, under the provisions of the CIL. But in view of the facts that Bosham has been deficient on Public Open Space(measured against national standards and rehearsed in the BPNP AND that Bosham is a national and regional destination in non-pandemic times and a regional destination in peri-pandemic times, there needs to be public investment to cope with visitors above and beyond the provisions of the CIL. 10. In terms of prioritisation, two elements stand out that may help to manage the pressures on our beautiful village: one being the facelift of the carpark which would create the mood music for those parking up. But the other is to establish the mood music at Bosham Walk and create shared space at the end of Bosham Lane, from the Craft Centre/Car Park turning (see Figure 5.3.7 on Page 11) or follow the suggestion and get funding for some sort of barrier there which some believe would help. www.kjbramble.co.uk makes Rising Bollards and Traffic Barriers to order and has photographs, etc. on their Home Page. It has been suggested that Rising Bollards might be an excellent idea. We have experienced them in many historic towns and cities in Europe. However up to 300 boats are kept in the BSC boat park and on Bosham Quay combined; all requiring vehicle access in addition to the access required by residents and the sailing club. The rest of this report comprises the following elements from the BPNP process (2012-2014): 1. Pre-draft report of evidence from visitor survey 2. Excerpts from the actual BPNP 3. Report of the Third Exhibition (Public Consultation) on transport, visitors and the historic core. Notwithstanding the changes in social and economic circumstances in the last 5 or 6 years some of which we list above, we consider it timely to re-visit the consensus achieved through the community planning experience of 2008-2014. We would commend to BPC, CDC, CHC, NT, MoB, and WSCC consideration in partnership for promoting these ideas and establishing a clear plan for funding and implementation. 1. Car Park re-landscaping/signage. 2. Toilet facilities – is there a case for providing temporary loos on the quay at public expense for two or three days when the weather looks hot and we have spring (i.e. mid day) tides 3. Shared space resurfacing and restriction of vehicular access in the High Street 4. Restriction of car parking on Shore Road 5. Provision of cycle racks in the car park (when 50 bicycles are lying down on the meadow, they take up valuable space for others) Overleaf are two photos taken on 30th May, one on 10th June 2020 and one which we had in the family taken probable before 1914. Dick Pratt, For the Bosham Association 11/06/20 10/06/20 @ 09.22 Pre-1914 and 30/05/20 1. Prior to drafting the Neighbourhood Plan, a report was commissioned from the BPNP ‘visitor subgroup’ as follows. Visitor Theme: Quay Meadow (2nd draft as at 4th Sept 2013) Quay Meadow warrants specific discussion because it is an important recreational space heavily used by visitors. The situation is complicated by the fact that although the number of residents in Bosham has grown over several decades, there has been almost no growth in recreational space – so Quay Meadow also serves as an important recreational space for residents.