The one thing even more likely than the flood to put people off buying at Glasdir is the appearance of the housing on its spine road, Stryd y Wennol. I doubt Taylor Wimpey would have planned it but this has a higher proportion of housing association properties, some allocated under development gain, others sold to an association in the face of embarrassingly slow early sales. So, in spite of the potential of views along Gwennol towards St Peter's, here we have a long stretch of cheaper units with what are decidedly untidy frontages that give totally the wrong impression.
This is not to decry social housing tenants. Far from it. But the reality within the Walled City is that many—most, actually—of the Stryd y Wennol fronts have collected sundry footwear, children’s toys, children's bicycles and even ill fitting, cheap artificial grass covering chippings. It all looks unsightly and it gives an unfair impression on the quality of housing farther in. The trouble is, impressions count. Stryd y Wennol just looks like the introduction to a sink estate of the future. In an effort *not* to create problem estates, mixed housing stock is currently the vogue but… does it really work?
Glasdir was supposed to be an environmentally sound masterstroke. They're so-called eco-homes and award-winning ones, at that. Call it the Poundbury of the north. Poundbury is the new Prince Charles-inspired eco-village that lies a few fields away from the town of Dorchester, Dorset, England.
The reality within the Walled City, however, is that the appearance of Stryd y Wennol gives Glasdir less of a feel of Poundbury and much more of townships associated with the new development sprawls of Ellesmere Port or Runcorn or Skelmersdale. If you'll excuse the pun, a sink estate in the making?
A typical scene on Stryd y Wenol. Three children's pushbikes, two children's scooters, three deckchairs, sundry toys and behind the hedge a broken child's goal posts-and-net; and peeping above the fence next door, a pink steering wheel of another child's toy. Elsewhere, there was a bucket, a bowl, a scouring pad, deck chairs, more toys, more bikes, Wellington boots, shoes, a tyre and even child car seats...
This is not to decry social housing tenants. Far from it. But the reality within the Walled City is that many—most, actually—of the Stryd y Wennol fronts have collected sundry footwear, children’s toys, children's bicycles and even ill fitting, cheap artificial grass covering chippings. It all looks unsightly and it gives an unfair impression on the quality of housing farther in. The trouble is, impressions count. Stryd y Wennol just looks like the introduction to a sink estate of the future. In an effort *not* to create problem estates, mixed housing stock is currently the vogue but… does it really work?
The reality within the Walled City, however, is that the appearance of Stryd y Wennol gives Glasdir less of a feel of Poundbury and much more of townships associated with the new development sprawls of Ellesmere Port or Runcorn or Skelmersdale. If you'll excuse the pun, a sink estate in the making?
