From The Cross

One of my tasks for next weeks event is to print up a range of photos to illustrate the areas of concern for the Neighbourhood Plan to address. So despite having a lot of pictures from around town there are some views I haven't covered. This is one of them.

As rain clouds were beginning to appear driven in from the west by the high winds, I rushed off to town and went straight to The Cross. Yesterday I had talked to the tenants of a building overlooking the top of the High Sreet, where this new road and roundabout was created in the the 1980s. A deal was done to save the Medieval Hall, seen here at the top of the High Street, when the Stroud Preservation Trust took on the building for £1 but its other half was demolished to make way for the new by-pass and the roundabout.

The gap in the buildings has become a blot of=n the landscape and the lead to the building of a small new shop complex with its own car park and named Cornhill. Now that site's owner has bought up the adjacent land including a notorious old pub which has been closed for some time and they have plans to redevelop the whole area. This is of concern to many local people and is exactly why we need a Neighbourhood Development Plan to create guidelines for what the community want to happen in such cases.

So I needed to get a picture from which I can produce a large A2 print which we can use at the public meeting as a reference in any discussions. I went to the occupants of the first floor of a rather elegant 1930s building (which I blipped here a few weeks ago), who allowed me in to take some pictures this morning, but sadly only through the glass as the windows wouldn't open. I may have to go back and get some other angles on the site but I was pleased to be able to take such a picture showing the old High Street which is now pedestrianised.