WHAT have they been doing down on the A6 in Ashwood Dale? A naturally invasive scrub environment, only slightly stunted and poisoned by exhaust pollution, has been cut down and reduced to bark chippings. Some of the trees were actually still alive. I know they had to stabilize the rocks, but did they have to open up the gloomy and scruffy dale, quite so dramatically, so that now every Tom, Dick and Harry can see the sky and imagine how the valley might look with further commitment and hard work.
Perish the thought, but I would not be surprised to hear a call for more of the same, further down the dale.
Don't you agree that there is a particular attraction in neglect, especially around roadside verges and public spaces? Call it encouraging
wild flora and it becomes fashionable and of course, it is much cheaper. It must never be too obvious that we care about where we live; that is a continental characteristic and we get enough of that once a year, on holiday.
It used to be so conveniently easy to ignore the fly tippers rubbish and motorists' litter in the dale, but now that it has been tidied up into a light and looked-after landscape there are going to be calls for council tax payers' good money to be spent on maintaining it. And do they realise the consequences of letting so much light into the valley floor? There is going to be a plethora of wild flowers in ever shade of colour you can think of. Motorists will be distracted for sure and I've no doubt accidents will treble. I'm reassured slightly by the scruffy bits they are leaving further along towards the town; I don't subscribe to the view that the approach road to a town says more than a guidebook. My main concern, though, is for the police camera van. Where is it going to hide now?
R Blincoe
Litton Mill
Buxton
The full article contains 336 words and appears in Buxton Advertiser newspaper.
