The Necklace Park
Aug. 31st, 2006 05:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shewhomustWe managed to make the Bank Holiday weekend into a four day break, which was unintentional but fun. On Friday morning, back from the pool and discussing weekend plans - did we want to shop in town or were we due a supermarket run? would we have better weather for walking on Saturday or Monday? - we decided that actually, this was as fine as the weather was going to get, and took off for the day round the reservoirs of Baldersdale. Saturday was shopping and a little work, Sunday we were invited to a barbecue, and had a good time eating and drinking and talking and sitting in the garden. And on Monday we decided to follow up some information we had picked up in town on Saturday about the "soft launch" of Durham's proposed "Necklace Park".
This is something which has emerged from the series of consultative exercises and marketing strategies in which the Council has been involved: the riverbanks are allegedly an underused asset, and both residents and tourists must be encouraged to appreciate them more. To this end, a stretch of the river Wear is to be designated as Durham's Necklace Park - or possibly not: according to the leaflet
The ambivalence about the name is as nothing compared to the ambivalence about what is actually being sold here, and I think it is this that makes me, in turn, deeply ambivalent about the whole deal. On the one hand, what they are selling does not (yet) exist: there is no string of rights of way running along the river from Sunderland Bridge to Finchale. And on the other, what they are selling to the people of Durham is something we already own: access to a number of interesting and attractive places along the banks of the Wear. I feel patronised by the assumption that the riverbanks need to be marketed to us with made-up brand names and events.
Nonetheless, there were enough events which appealed to us that we had to choose between them: some we discounted as available - and possibly less busy - at other times, but should we go to Old Durham Gardens for a talk, or should we join the movement to "save" Belmont Viaduct? We opted for the Viaduct, and got into the spirit of the day by a little preliminary exploration of the city centre section of the necklace (the craft workshops and new coffee shop at Fowler's Yard, the Visual Arts building at the Sixth Form Centre) before walking along the river, past Kepier Gatehouse, and on to the meeting point.
I was disappointed to discover that saving the viaduct was not going to include the opportunity to walk along it, or even to get any closer to it than the riverside footpath, which we have walked in the past. And the rescue committee consisted of me and![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
durham_rambler, a local walker with a supply of leaflets describing the area, and two representatives of the Necklace Park project, Michael from the City Council and David from the consultants (as described on their name badges, from each of which hung a rather pretty bead: eventually I worked out the significance of this). Still, they were good company, and we took the opportunity to grind our own axes as we strolled along the river in the leaf-dappled sunshine: what's going on at Finchale?, what happened to the plan that Millennium Place would slope down to a riverside walkway, is Walkergate going to be another drinking circuit like the North Road, can't the council give a lead in designating land for open access?
All in all, then, an afternoon well spent. My natural inclinination, when someone is trying to sell me something, is to resist. And it's a little galling to have an expensive consultation exercise produce, with a flourish, something we already knew (the Ramblers' Association suggested to the County Council, a partner in this project, that a continuous footpath along the Wear would be a worthwhile achievement with which to celebrate the millennium). Overcome these prejudices, and you are left with a number of public bodies putting effort into negotiating rights of way along the river: which has to be a good thing.
Technical note 1: I'd link to more information about the Park, but there isn't any - or rather, the organisers prefer to present their material to us where they can talk it though with us (the manager told me), so for the time being, if you google necklace park, you get the consultants talking about their part in the scheme. Don't start me on this topic.
Technical note 2: This should have been posted last night, when I started to write it, but my network connection fell over.
This is something which has emerged from the series of consultative exercises and marketing strategies in which the Council has been involved: the riverbanks are allegedly an underused asset, and both residents and tourists must be encouraged to appreciate them more. To this end, a stretch of the river Wear is to be designated as Durham's Necklace Park - or possibly not: according to the leaflet
"Durham's Necklace Park" is a working title for a series of existing space and places along twelve miles of the River Wear, stretching from Finchale Priory to Sunderland Bridge, accessed through public rights of way. As with a necklace, the chain is the river, the jewel in the centre is the peninsula, and the necklace stones are places and spaces along the way.Isn't that pretty? I can't see them managing to change the name at this stage...
The ambivalence about the name is as nothing compared to the ambivalence about what is actually being sold here, and I think it is this that makes me, in turn, deeply ambivalent about the whole deal. On the one hand, what they are selling does not (yet) exist: there is no string of rights of way running along the river from Sunderland Bridge to Finchale. And on the other, what they are selling to the people of Durham is something we already own: access to a number of interesting and attractive places along the banks of the Wear. I feel patronised by the assumption that the riverbanks need to be marketed to us with made-up brand names and events.
Nonetheless, there were enough events which appealed to us that we had to choose between them: some we discounted as available - and possibly less busy - at other times, but should we go to Old Durham Gardens for a talk, or should we join the movement to "save" Belmont Viaduct? We opted for the Viaduct, and got into the spirit of the day by a little preliminary exploration of the city centre section of the necklace (the craft workshops and new coffee shop at Fowler's Yard, the Visual Arts building at the Sixth Form Centre) before walking along the river, past Kepier Gatehouse, and on to the meeting point.
I was disappointed to discover that saving the viaduct was not going to include the opportunity to walk along it, or even to get any closer to it than the riverside footpath, which we have walked in the past. And the rescue committee consisted of me and
durham_rambler, a local walker with a supply of leaflets describing the area, and two representatives of the Necklace Park project, Michael from the City Council and David from the consultants (as described on their name badges, from each of which hung a rather pretty bead: eventually I worked out the significance of this). Still, they were good company, and we took the opportunity to grind our own axes as we strolled along the river in the leaf-dappled sunshine: what's going on at Finchale?, what happened to the plan that Millennium Place would slope down to a riverside walkway, is Walkergate going to be another drinking circuit like the North Road, can't the council give a lead in designating land for open access?All in all, then, an afternoon well spent. My natural inclinination, when someone is trying to sell me something, is to resist. And it's a little galling to have an expensive consultation exercise produce, with a flourish, something we already knew (the Ramblers' Association suggested to the County Council, a partner in this project, that a continuous footpath along the Wear would be a worthwhile achievement with which to celebrate the millennium). Overcome these prejudices, and you are left with a number of public bodies putting effort into negotiating rights of way along the river: which has to be a good thing.
Technical note 1: I'd link to more information about the Park, but there isn't any - or rather, the organisers prefer to present their material to us where they can talk it though with us (the manager told me), so for the time being, if you google necklace park, you get the consultants talking about their part in the scheme. Don't start me on this topic.
Technical note 2: This should have been posted last night, when I started to write it, but my network connection fell over.
