1 week Ago
Dene Francis, Northwood: On Monday, planners approved a greenfield site in Northwood for housing development . This was a second application after the first lapsed. Both times there were numerous objections from individuals, local councils and others parties.
These objections are heavily weighted towards the evidence of long and unrestricted public use of this field with its right of way, and what the loss of such amenity will mean to the established community. Two things make this field development particularly concerning; it is the setting for Definitive Map footpath CS14, and it is a rare piece of open space in its community. CS14 as it has been known since 1952, was first surveyed as an existing landscape feature in 1793 meaning it is over 232 years old.
Read more letters sent to the County Press HERE Find the County Press on Instagram , Facebook and Twitter Do you have a view on this or any other subject? Send us a letter – under 350 words if possible - to [email protected] It remains on the same course, mapped by the Ordnance Survey time and again until today.
But not for much longer; this path was mapped as part of an effort to improve military readiness across the South of England, a response to a feared Napoleonic era invasion force and it remains in regular use today. Its long history ends when its field setting is bisected and diverted to become just another roadside footway through housing. This is not so minor a diversion so as to be inconsequential to CS14 overall, but is so dominant that it is wholly destructive of the course and nature of both path and setting.
The documented evidence throughout the planning process, is that this footpath and its whole field setting have been in regular public use without objection or restriction for many decades, making its development tantamount to building over a public park. The 2021 Cowes and Northwood Place Plan emphasised 'a significant deficit of accessible public open space in Northwood contrasting with its rural setting'. The granting of this application represents a dereliction on the part of planners to consider open space and footpath access as integral to communities, despite lip service policy making on issues of health, well-being and the benefits of open spaces produced in abundance at public expense by County Hall.
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