Tuesday 2 February 2010

How Essex CC build a path through a council estate, and a private estate

Over the last 4 months, Essex County Council have been widening and extending an existing footpath that runs alongside Salary Brook Local Nature Reserve from the Greenstead (“magic”) Roundabout to The Beehive pub on Bromley Road, a distance of about 2 miles.

On Sunday, I walked the length of it with the dogs, and was surprised, and disappointed, to see the different ways that the contractors had treated the land alongside the new path. Here are some pictures:

This is the path as it runs through a green area in Longridge Park, an estate of privately owned houses.

This is the path running behind a council estate, approaching a children’s play area, which is heavily used.

This is the grassed area leading down to the children’s play area.

This is a new section of path, through a previously fenced off, grassed area which was safe for smaller children to play, and was used in Summer for community barbecues.

This is the section of the nature reserve that they used to get from one section of the path they were working on to another.

I know that over time the land will recover, but the question I have to ask is, why treat the path through the private estate with so much more care than through the council estate? The only people I ever see on the green area have been dog walkers, whereas the other areas are well used by the residents.

Posted via email from John's Posterous