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Fears over ''historic green'' .
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by liamssoft | February 8, 2008 at 07:03 am
634 views | 5 Recommendations | 4 comments
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Keeping the countryside in green open spaces, beautiful views where village life should be treated the same way as historic homes and preserved for life... Village open spaces are rapidly diminishing from the prey of new developments in Britons race to supply the housing and infrastructure that Europe so desperately needs. In desperation the villagers of the Old historic village ''Cookham''are campaining against any roads or housing to their little pricey conservation area ''Cookham Pound''.... .
Residents living near a rural area made famous by British artist Sir Stanley Spencer are angry at plans to build housing and a relief road on the site.The Poundfield in Cookham, north of Maidenhead, was taken out of the town's protected green belt a few years ago.
Following a High Court battle it became a conservation area.
But the parish council's recently published 20-year plan includes a proposal for affordable housing, plus a one-way relief road to ease congestion.
Villagers have fought for years to keep developers away from the site, which they say attracts interest because the land is so valuable.
It's important to say that the council don't want to take sides
Cookham parish council spokeswoman
Sir Stanley Spencer, whose work hangs in the Tate Gallery in London, was born in Cookham and the area often features in his work.
Sara Maynard, who lives in the village, said the proposal would ruin the site.
"I live opposite the Poundfield and it's a beautiful view. It's just lovely for the kids and it's going to ruin it," she said.
Sally Powell, who is also a resident, said she felt the plan would be "taking our countryside away".
"I'd like to keep it more like a village and less of a town," she said.
The Cookham Plan proposal for a road across Poundfield - Online
Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (4)
at 11:40 on February 8th, 2008
liamssoft, I think this is an important story. Anyone from the area should be encouraged to review the petition and let people know about the proposals.
The enviroment is disapearing before our eyes, we need to save what we can. I am sure there are other areas that they can make affordable housing available. Refurbashing older buildings is a great idea.
at 12:54 on February 10th, 2008
Many thanks Comons. Cookham is a very old established large village which is immaculately looked after and is a pleasure to visit. I think its unlikely that there are any old buildings there that have not already been refurbished or preserved. If there are then now is the time to consider it.
at 18:19 on February 8th, 2008
I'm sorry, but the whole "keep development away" sentiment has lost its luster for me.
A little over a decade ago, when I still played baseball, there was a clear view of these rolling hills that had no signs of humanity on them and then the developers came in. At first I was against it because I liked the hills. There was pretty grass and at night the moon made the place look awesome. But then I got to thinking.
Not too long ago, definitely less than 75 years, the place where I'm playing baseball was virgin. Not more than thirty years ago the place where I lived had nothing on it. In fact, if you want to go back about one hundred years then most of Southern California had no signs of civilization.
People need a place to live and as long as people need a decent place to live they will be for new developments. When people do find a nice place to live with some open space they always seem to be against any more development. Rolling hills are pretty to look at and inexpensive housing is not.
I'm not saying lets convert every inch of open land into homesteads but that isn't what we're talking about. Homes take up such a small percentage of land on Earth and even if we wanted to cover the land with wood from Lumber Liquidators we couldn't.
If those people want to keep that land open then maybe they should take out their pocketbooks and buy the land themselves. But if they did that then they would probably want to break ground on their own development within a couple of years. After all, green in the wallet is better than green on the ground.
at 14:25 on February 16th, 2008
Many thanks for your comments BigT.
I agree with your view ..
When you buy into an area because its got green spaces and old worldly character you pay a premium. Cookham is very expensive for that reason. By building a housing estate on the common land the conception and value of the village would be decreased.
There are other things to consider including infrastructure, schools, hospitals, doctors, dentist, police, roads and traffic congestion, pollution, drainage and sewerage. Would the existing facilities and services be able to accommodate the extra occupants.
England does not have such large empty land masses as in the USA especially
in the Maidenhead and Cookham area. So very careful consideration has to be given to any proposed large scale developments.
America and Scotland maybe....