“ There are so many good ideas to choose from it’s hard to know where to start, though it has to be right to try to throw some weight behind a variety that will benefit a range of groups. Most of these look great - and it’s really encouraging to see such a high quality document - but at first glance I do worry that the immediate interests of the less visible corners of the town are slightly overlooked. Can these excellent ideas be integrated with some proposals to enhance the streetscape and improve links with the parades on Bells Hill and Mays Lane and the open square at the bottom of Chesterfield Road? All have real character and great potential and they’re an integral part of our town.
Four other random things not in the proposals but compatible with many of them: a revival and expansion of the blue enamel street names still on some the roads behind the Spires to give the town a subtle but special sense of place distinct from the corporate borough branding; reinstating the small pond at the Black Horse end of Ravenscroft Park - good for biodiversity; greening of some overly wide junctions - not just at the top of Barnet Hill, but outside the Arkley pub and the corner of Alston Road and Salisbury Road; and restoring the Hadley Green drinking fountain. ”