A meeting in the Slad Valley

I was part of a meeting this afternoon with two staff from the Town Council and several residents involved in the improvement of the open spaces and the new playground at Summer Crescent.

We were all looking at how we all work together to continue the improvements which are already well underway. When we arrived the heavens opened and a torrent of rain fell for a short while, but after a few minutes it turned to drizzle so we could stand and discuss.

The site of this new playzone is just above the thirties housing estate built by the District council, which they now want to hand over to the Town Council for us to manage with and on behalf of the community.

It is a wonderful site with the views you can see here looking up the valley towards the villages of Slad and Sheepscombe in the far distance. This valley was the setting of Laurie Lee's semi-autobiographical novel, Cider with Rosie, particularly in the village of Slad, where he lived for most of his life. His widow, Kathy, stills lives there.

There is currently a lot of concern about a site opposite to where we were standing, which is subject to a planning application for 50 new Barrett houses. It is next to the houses on the top left of the picture. It will continue the encroachment of urbanisation up the Slad valley and will be heavily resisted. We, as a town Council are against the proposed development.

It is a wonderful valley which still has the feeling of a traditional Cotswold grassland landscape, with Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs), ancient woodlands, mixed farming, with sheep and cattle, and now many horses used for recreation purposes, not for ploughing and transport as formerly found here.

This play area was installed lat year and is very popular, with kids even coming from outlying areas to test out the facilities, according the the local residents. There is more equipment to the left of the picture with lots of swings, which were always my favourite. We also manage a small pasture connected to this site by a 250 yard trackway, which we are trying to stabilise as a play area where wildlife is encouraged. Jim, our new Green Spaces manager, will be in charge of this in future; he only started this job two days ago, and he has definitely been thrown in the deep end. He is a local resident and knows and loves the area, so I know we are in good hands.

I've back-blipped a view from yesterday too.