The Swamp's the best bit!

If you have a good look at the Talbot Village Trusts plans for the redevelopment of the land south of Wallisdown Road with 378 new homes and a further 450 student beds in purpose built accommodation, you might be a little shocked at how bland the proposals are.

Given the size and location of the site and its proximity to 'Britain's Best New University', you might have expected something a bit interesting, exciting even. Instead we get 378 new homes, mostly 4/5 bedroomed expensive places with a few compulsory 'Affordable Houses' to satisfy minimum requirements.

The proposed swamp in the current pleasant meadow is the most interesting thing about the whole plan. All the rainwater runoff from the houses and roads will be ducted to this swamp where its slow progress across a wide area planted with reeds will effectively filter the water before it joins the Bourne.

If done correctly this is easily the best idea the Planner was able to come up with. Its not perfect - the meadow is currently full of wildflowers and butterflies. When I was there yesterday I saw a roe deer. Its rather pretty. Perhaps ironically meadows are in short supply around here, and most of Bourne Valley is a swamp!

On the other hand swamps are good habitats too, for all kinds of things, mainly mosquitos and midges, but reed warblers are nice.

Perhaps the runoff could be directed to one of the existing swamps instead?

Possibly the worst idea the Planner intends to inflict on us is traffic lights on Boundary Roundabout - at a cost of £1M!!! The bottle neck is not Boundary Roundabout, its Wallisdown and Mountbatten that dont move and choke it all the way back to the Lansdowne. Lights on Boundary are ludicrous! So what if its green - you can't pull out because the traffic still hasnt moved. It would be funny, if I didnt live here!

The cat fence sounds rather horrible, its been designed deliberately to make pedestrian access from the new development as difficult as possible. Although I applaud the attempt to stop cats from getting on the Heath the fences main purpose is indeed to restrict access to casual walkers, arson seems to be the main concern. However, I suspect that arsonists will not be inconvenienced by a fence anywhere near as much as a dogwalker or a family on a nature trek.

This plan should be so much better.