Now That I've Mentioned Paradise...
Entry posted by caldrail
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Just around the corner from where I live is a nice little spot called Queens Park. Its the remnant of an abandoned railway tunnel entrance that was turned into a public park, now surrounded by housing developments that sprang up in the 20's and 30's. Its a lovely place with a natural patina thats difficult to achieve deliberately. The central lake is surrounded by thick bushes and trees, lots of overhanging willows and pines on small islands, and the local waterfowl use it as a hotel with free room service from generous bread-wielding pensioners.
The old glasshouse has long since gone. I remember visiting it when I was young, admiring the desert and jungle foliage exhibitions and being amazed at the damp heat required for the lush vegetation to prosper. Now its a concrete frame with ivy decoration, an open space where an entrepeneur has recently had his cafe removed.
Perhaps its just that I'm familiar with it as it is. I'm comfortable with it. Its a quiet haven of nature in the middle of town. But its under threat....
The council want to renovate it. They want wide open grass verges around the entire lake, to rid the park of the overhanging tree, to encourage families to wander around with somewhere to let their boisterous offspring off the leash. Thats all very well, but if you don't fit that category? The council did the same recently to Lydiard Park, a much larger public space. Whilst it genuinely looks clean and tidy it also looks empty, artificial, naked without the expected undergrowth and wooded paths. It looks awful not to put too fine a point on it, and after spending five million pounds ruining Lydiard some genius wants to spend more of our taxes ruining Queens Park.
I've sent an email to them. I hope they read it, I also hope they understand that not everyone wants indentikit parks everywhere, that not everyone wants the same thing from public space. Somehow, you can't help feeling that with big money driving the project, my email won't go much further.
More Uneasy Feelings
With Queens Park under threat of being transformed into a boring grassy wilderness inhabited by three year old tribesmen, its as well to remember that another beauty spot is under threat too. Coate Water, a canal reservoir thats been a public place for a a hundred and fifty years, is known as Swindons Gateway To The Country. Not for much longer. The government has OK'd a development on the flood plain adjacent to the motorway that runs behind it. Coate Water - Swindons Gateway To Another Vandalised Housing Estate.
Heartfelt Message of the Week
Please please please will people stop seeing big bucks and realise that sometimes a valuable asset can be ruined by throwing cash at it. I might be just a lone voice in the soon to be renovated wilderness, but natural beauty can't be created with bulldozers.
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