Masthead
One of my photos

Local Distinctiveness

January 17th, 2006 · Posted by Skuds in Politics · No Comments · Politics

A couple of years ago I was at a summer school run by the RTPI up in Bangor.

One session which particularly interested me was on Local distinctiveness as an economic driver, presented by a chap from Chester City Council.

It struck a chord with me because although its hard to define exactly what ‘local distinctiveness’ means I knew that Crawley doesn’t have it. Much of the town is indistinguishable from any number of other towns, and the newer the part of town the less distinctive it is – all those catalogue developments using the same house designs as everywhere else.

I can remember thinking at the time how great it would be to have something which would make the place feel different and unique, some little feature repeated across the town which would give it a spark of identity.

Today I was taking some rubbish to the tip and realised that we are starting to get it – concrete blocks and grassed ‘bunds’. Nearly every spare piece of land has ugly concrete blocks around it to keep travellers out. Lately there has been some attempt to replace these concrete blocks with piles of earth looking like bronze age ramparts. Now that these are getting grass established on them they are looking quite pleasant, believe it or not.

Or maybe they are seem that way in comparison to the concrete blocks? It must be costing a fair bit, but its a one-off cost compared to the ongoing rental of concrete blocks, and the travellers have showed that they are well equipped to move the blocks out of the way.

Not sure its much of an economic driver though, and I’m sure the bunds are appearing, or will appear, elsewhere in the country so maybe they are not so distinctive either, but its a better symbol of the the town than abandoned shopping trolleys.

I can’t help wondering where all the earth is coming from… must be a bloody great hole somewhere.

Tags: ·

No Comments so far ↓

Like the collective mind of the Daily Mail, comments are closed.