.. and moving on.
by, Peter Hayman
Through the dark days of winter, and when there is little to report, it’s difficult to think of anything meaningful to say about what’s happening on the estate. With spring approaching there would normally be a new burst of enthusiasm, but when there are so many dreadful things happening elsewhere, our problems here in Thurstan’s Rise rather pale into insignificance.
It appears however, that David Wilson’s sub-contractors EMG, have completed their works intended to bring the roads and pavements up to the standard required for the council to adopt the estate. (At least it appears that they have finished, although once again they have left the Heras fencing in place next to the electricity sub-station – so who knows!) To my knowledge we have had no update yet on this issue, from either DWH or Gloucestershire Council. As regards Lake Caudwell and the other flooding issues we must contend with in various parts of the estate, it seems that DWH now refuse even to acknowledge that we still have a problem, let alone attempt to do anything about it.
However, it must be accepted that some of the many issues which TRRA was set up to address have been resolved, in part at least, and for this we have, almost exclusively, the heroic efforts of committee member Simon Oldroyd to thank.
It is with great sadness therefore, that we must now say farewell to Simon and his wife Gill, who are leaving the estate at the end of this week, having decided to move on to pastures new in the Cotswolds. Simon tells me that their new home is NOT being built by David Wilson Homes, and there are no swamps anywhere in the vicinity!
Without his unflagging persistence and tenacity, not to mention his in-depth research into the morass of site plans and surveys on which the estate planning was approved by the FoD Council, it is very doubtful that we would ever have got even this far. Throughout everything however, he managed somehow to retain his irrepressible sense of humour! It is hard to adequately describe the huge effort Simon has made on our behalf, and he will be a very hard act to follow for whoever is prepared to take on his role on the TRRA committee.