Glasdir—now maturing

Take a walk around Glasdir (what was once Rhuthun Parc—ugh) these days and it's looking much more mature. It should because, after all, the first houses are now about four years old. And, in spite of the depression and a struggle to sell them in 2009, they’re now selling well. There are no doubt three factors behind this:

• They are in (or near enough to) Rhuthun/Ruthin, always a plus. Rhuthun remains somewhere high on people's list of places to live, and rightly so
• They're been a number of recent Taylor Wimpey sales pushes & offers plus some part exchange programmes. Glasdir now makes regular editorial space in both the Free Press & Daily Post
• The houses offer very good value, for new homes.

There's a good mix of housing stock of varying sizes & prices, which promotes a useful and instant social diversity of ownership or renting. Some of the houses within the estate are attractively designed and look pleasant for a modern development. We doubt they'll win the Quayle Award but they have won environmental awards in 2009, 2010 and 2011. And, for families, Glasdir offers an ideal environment of a new estate with plenty of young or younger families. But there are still some downsides to Glasdir living.

One is the way in which houses are overlooked, both by the large sentinels at the very front of the estate, at the estate's threshold, and by some within, for example, the yellow three storey apartment blocks now almost ready for habitation off to the left of the spine road in a small courtyard.

Most front gardens are small and the rears not much bigger. This can be a downside when you have a young family.

Taylor Wimpey's still pushing the idea of "three storey living" and the advantages in terms of the use of space at a reasonable price that this brings. The downside is the amount of stairs children (and adults) need to climb. Stairs account for over 20,000 *reported* injuries p.a. for children between four & 15.

The ponds at the very front have an air of being unkempt. Some of the grassed areas are a little thick.

But the main drawback might still be the site's location. Cheap it certainly is but when it comes to the where it is, Glasdir may still be seen as neither one thing nor the other. It's not quite near enough to town to enjoy the benefits of close urban living and a short walk to the grocer (presumably Tesco). And it's not sufficiently far away from town to enjoy the full benefits of country living. The traffic on the northern link road sees to that.

Much of the remaining development will be to a lower density and offer more pleasant surroundings. But there are already surprisingly quieter corners within the site that are sufficiently tucked away from the northern relief road and Clifford Jones to offer some surprisingly tranquil spots. As Rhuthun has got used to its new interloper, as the controversy surrounding its initial development fades, so it seems Rhuthun has begun to live with Glasdir. There are far worse places to live than here.

The big question remains: has Glasdir helped or contributed to Rhuthun's sustainability?