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THINGS look black for potential tourist attraction, the Nantwich Walled
Garden. At their meeting on Thursday, March 5, 2009, Crewe and Nantwich
Borough Council Development Control Committee voted in favour of an application by
the Dowhill Group to build inside the garden walls.
So, barring any further action
by the Nantwich Walled Garden Society (NWGS) - see below - that would appear to be end of the battle to save the
garden from development.
The walls have to be restored
by the developers and there are said to be plans to construct flower
beds around the inside of the walls recreated the essence of an
Elizabethan garden.
Time will tell if that comes to
fruition. But with two apartment blocks, car parking - and, therefore,
roads - I can't see much of the available space being allocated for
replica flower beds.
And even if it were, only the
residents of the new homes would see them, surely. The last thing anyone
spending good money for an apartment would want would be for the general
public being allowed access to the site.
One of the criticisms of the
NWGS Garden Plan was "Who will tend the garden?" (See the
Garden Plan on the NWGS website for the answer). The same question
could be asked of the Dowhill Group. Will there be a garden maintenance
charge levied on the residents?
Picture: an artist's
impression of how the garden could have looked (from the NWGS website). Does anyone really prefer yet more housing to that?
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