Today, Sept 7, is the next council meeting, where some protesters will be campaigning to protect the parkland of the city, such as here, the fields by Lockleaze, from progress.
The green party, are obviously against it.
Question is, what should the B.Traffic stance be?
To us, this green stuff is all wasted space which could be replaced by drive in superstores or more housing. But we fear something: the consequences -the congestion.
Question is, what should the B.Traffic stance be?
To us, this green stuff is all wasted space which could be replaced by drive in superstores or more housing. But we fear something: the consequences -the congestion.
Look at this "field" above. Soon it will be a playing field for Fairlawn School. Behind the trees, the hill drops down to Muller Road, a key bottleneck in this part of the city, and a road you can waste hours on of a weekday evening.
There is no point redeveloping these forgotten parts of Lockleaze without adding a new dual carriageway to the M32!
There. We said it. S106 infrastructure money needs to go into either uprating Muller road to a full dual carriageway -as we've advocated in the past- or adding a new route to the M32.
Which is where an idea springs to mind. St John's Lane. From Purdown Camp down to Stapleton. Twenty years ago you could get car up it -admittedly, a stolen one you'd have to torch afterwards, but you really could drive all the way up it from Stapleton to Lockleaze. Not now. There's a gate in the way, relegating it to being nothing but a foot/bike path.
But sometimes, the gate gets opened by the allotment people, and the dream comes back.
A dream of a road, from here, the top of the city, right down to stapleton, and then, ideally, a new M32 on-ramp. Just a short one, like the Mina Road on ramp; enough to reward people with big-engined cars. And here, a place for the road to begin.
Look someone is trying it already, with their Peugeot 306, X615EDB, seeing just how far down the footpath they can get.
What better way to enjoy a summer evening than to drive down here and to dream of more dual carriageways.
Trivia footnote: the fields above date from the civil war; some of the hedges are apparently historical monuments or something. Presumably St John's Lane has the same history and access rules, despite the gate and the no trespassing signs. Sept 10, 1645, was when Prince Rupert of the Rhine and hence Bristol surrendered to the people, at least in the form of Cromwell's New Model Army. So what will happen this week, 365 years on?
Trivia footnote: the fields above date from the civil war; some of the hedges are apparently historical monuments or something. Presumably St John's Lane has the same history and access rules, despite the gate and the no trespassing signs. Sept 10, 1645, was when Prince Rupert of the Rhine and hence Bristol surrendered to the people, at least in the form of Cromwell's New Model Army. So what will happen this week, 365 years on?
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2 comments:
Thanks for posting the pic. Such happy, but also troubled memories, of a sunny August evening when I went to pick some veg for tea. From what I remember you were the tosser on the mountain bike in the lycra gimp suit who cycled down insulted me from a distance. When I finally lost my rag, walked towards you, told you you were trespassing and to F*** off you cycled away very quickly. Don't worry though. I remember exactly what you look like and hope to see you again soon, it's 50 yards down past the gate on the right.
Thank you for your feedback. As discussed at the time, it is actually a public path, has been for centuries. Up until the gate went in it used have cars driven up and then torched, so it is wilder than it was 20+ years go. Sadly there will be large fence all around the fields before long, so it won't be pleasant for anyone.
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