This evening, I walked round the dog walking field between Masefield Crescent and the Drayton Road. Looking down from the top of the field, the remaining cooling towers of Didcot ‘A’ Power Station are visible through a clearing in the trees – made for the entrance of the new Morland Gardens estate.
On the west side, the wind blows across a field of barley – wave after wave.
The south facing field has a crop of rape seed, and not far beyond, next to the village of Drayton, another new housing estate is being built.
The new Morland Gardens estate is now the home for quite a few people, and houses are going up, out of sight, at the far end of this ex-horse-grazing field.
The new estate is separated by a wall from Virginia Way and Lucca Drive so the older and new estates are kept separate. New residents cannot just cut through on foot.
No sign of the bikes that the developers said that half the residents would commute by. They said that the residents would not need cars.
I’m sorry, I cannot see a field like that in the second picture without imagining Theresa May running through it with gay abandon.
I had the same image, David! PS I take it your choice of the last two words was deliberate?
There are so many pockets of development going on around us. I found it ironic that – for a development which was controversial for the additional impact it will have on traffic – the Moreland Gardens team chose to use an advertising sign attached to the back of an empty truck driving around town, just adding to the problem.
On the subject of traffic, I noticed temporary cameras set up on the various roundabouts leading into town on Marcham Road. I wonder if this is a new traffic study?
Why the brick wall? It seems ridiculous to expect residents walk onto the main Drayton Road and then along Preston Road if they want to walk or cycle to town. Hardly a green plan…
No need to flag anything up, Hester, it was an innocent remark. I was just imagining Theresa may in the Rain, Bowling through the barley fields.
It’s an image I cling to in these troubled times…