Central Winchester Regeneration developer meet-and-greet

Jigsaw Consortium has been holding meet-and-greets over the past few months to speak to people about the Central Winchester Regeneration (CWR) scheme.

Events have been held across the district in places such as Kings Worthy, Colden Common, Alresford and Whiteley. 

The penultimate event was held at The Arc, in Jewry Street, on Wednesday, November 29. 

The scheme is focussed on the area between the Broadway and Friarsgate, and works had started on the demolition of the former Friarsgate Medical Centre and archaeological trenches have been dug at the bus station. 

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Ollie Barker, senior development manager at Jigsaw, said: “We're not yet in a position where we've started designing anything. We're in a listening and engagement process. We've been travelling around the district to understand the aspirations and the requirements for the project. 

“We'll be using that to inform our brief as we create the design next year. 

“The key themes that are coming through are the needs for housing in the city centre and the need for the provision of night-time activities. There's a real desire from local people to see the site come forward and developed.

“The feedback has been really positive, people have enjoyed the opportunity to give their thoughts. There's a real appetite in the city for the project to progress. 

“We have real aspirations to open up the river at the site which has been widely supported. Also creating new pedestrian and cycling routes.”

Around 25 people attended the event at The Arc. 

The final meet-and-greet event will be held at Winchester Sport and Leisure Park on Wednesday, December 13 from 4pm-7pm. 

Next year, the developer will start the process of collating all the ideas to create a development brief for the scheme. 

For more details about the project, visit cwr.commonplace.is.