Random thoughts on Melksham Town Planning and development
Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2010-03-08 08:52:50 - Graham Ellis
On Friday evening, I attended the Mayor's reception in Melksham Assembly Hall, and on Saturday I traveled to Taunton to attend TravelWatch SouthWest. At one of those meetings (and I'm ashamed to say I can't recall which) someone made the poignant comment that, for the most part, Town Planners don't actually "town plan" much any more - that the town planning and layout of the newly developed and redeveloped areas is very much in the hands of the big building companies, who want to get as high a return as possible from the land they have invested in ... with the town planners acting much more as a 'control' to avoid them going too far off plan. This somewhat cynical view sounds pretty depressing, but there's an element of truth in it. One hopes that the customer for a new house would baulk at purchasing something that has no access or local amenities, but in reality I suspect that a shiny new house will tempt many people to overlook potential access and service issues they'll discover - or grow used to - later.
In yesterday's "Horse's Mouth", I showed pictures of Melksham's river frontage and countryside, taken on a long dog walk to give her exercise (she runs 5 miles for each mile I walk!) and to clear my lungs. I took further pictures too which are less "pretty" and more thought provoking:
Heavy Industry sits right across from housing (and there's a distinct rubbery smell from the factory). A Road and housing that was in place long before a family car was the norm is now getting quite hard to negotiate. And - if this picture were used in a Geography / town planning exam, I'm sure comment would also be made on the satellite dish. Very Interestingly, this location is close to a supermarket and bus and rail connections and - in times to come - will suit the much greener agenda. But then as people, perhaps, drop from two cars per family to one, there won't be quite such a need for the tyres manufactured on the right. This is an emotive subject, as the plant employs the best part of a thousand people.
Housing development on the fields to the east of the town - away from the main trunk A350 road and the railway line. The Snowberry Lane development - from which this forms a further offshoot - is a glorified cul-de-sac and you can get in and out on foot, by cycle, or by car. Walking in "to town" is feasible for the more energetic of us. Cycling has its "pinch points" where there's an uncomfortable sharing of pavement and / or roadway with other traffic, to the restriction of easy movement for all concerned, and gives reduced safety to young cyclists. And there's no bus service there.
The importance of a local bus service was highlighted on Friday evening at the Mayor's reception, with a community award to the regular driver of the "No. 14" which provides a link from various parts of Melksham into the town - it's clearly a valued and much needed service. But it doesn't serve Snowberry Lane - there's not time in its schedule for a "double back" route which in any case would irritate the regulars with an elongated journey. And yet a bus gate from Dorset Crescent to Heather Avenue would fix that ...
Perhaps it's unfair to look at transitional conditions during a build - but for the record, here is one of our favorite walks as it is at 9th March 2010 - only just passable through the mud, but with very large numbers of footprints to confirm that it is heavily used.
Given time, areas that were in the country get very much build into the town - contrast the fields at Snarleton Lane yesterday with "The Ridgeway" - a path that runs between the houses from Church Lane to the Sandridge Road in Melksham Forest and which (an educated guess) is an old pathway from long before The Forest was built. Now that the developers of Melksham Forest are long gone, the path is very passable / usable, although it's not quite the relaxing and refreshing walk that it once would have been. But we should remember that even on the most pessimistic development plans (i.e. the largest amounts of sprawl), we're only looking at 2% of the rural land being taken by development in the next 50 years, and if that 2% were to become 2.5%, but then 20% of the area taken was given over to greens and cycle ways and a pleasant environment, I don't think I would be too unhappy.
Heavy Industry sits right across from housing (and there's a distinct rubbery smell from the factory). A Road and housing that was in place long before a family car was the norm is now getting quite hard to negotiate. And - if this picture were used in a Geography / town planning exam, I'm sure comment would also be made on the satellite dish. Very Interestingly, this location is close to a supermarket and bus and rail connections and - in times to come - will suit the much greener agenda. But then as people, perhaps, drop from two cars per family to one, there won't be quite such a need for the tyres manufactured on the right. This is an emotive subject, as the plant employs the best part of a thousand people.
Housing development on the fields to the east of the town - away from the main trunk A350 road and the railway line. The Snowberry Lane development - from which this forms a further offshoot - is a glorified cul-de-sac and you can get in and out on foot, by cycle, or by car. Walking in "to town" is feasible for the more energetic of us. Cycling has its "pinch points" where there's an uncomfortable sharing of pavement and / or roadway with other traffic, to the restriction of easy movement for all concerned, and gives reduced safety to young cyclists. And there's no bus service there.
Perhaps it's unfair to look at transitional conditions during a build - but for the record, here is one of our favorite walks as it is at 9th March 2010 - only just passable through the mud, but with very large numbers of footprints to confirm that it is heavily used.
Given time, areas that were in the country get very much build into the town - contrast the fields at Snarleton Lane yesterday with "The Ridgeway" - a path that runs between the houses from Church Lane to the Sandridge Road in Melksham Forest and which (an educated guess) is an old pathway from long before The Forest was built. Now that the developers of Melksham Forest are long gone, the path is very passable / usable, although it's not quite the relaxing and refreshing walk that it once would have been. But we should remember that even on the most pessimistic development plans (i.e. the largest amounts of sprawl), we're only looking at 2% of the rural land being taken by development in the next 50 years, and if that 2% were to become 2.5%, but then 20% of the area taken was given over to greens and cycle ways and a pleasant environment, I don't think I would be too unhappy.