End of the road for village life? Residents in plea to keep traditional values
Villagers have urged planners to take a look at the kind of May Day celebrations that could end forever if a dual carriageway scheme goes ahead in Northamptonshire.
Residents of Quinton, five miles south-east of Northampton, used yesterday's Bank Holiday to celebrate the impending spring with traditional maypole dancing and the crowning of their May Queen.
But a gloomy shadow was cast over the event by the knowledge that, as things stand, their May Days are numbered because of plans by the Joint Planning Unit (JPU) to authorise the building of a road right through the site where the festivities have been held going back 102 years.
Organiser Helen Padbury said: "Plans show it goes straight through grade one farmland and right over the village green.
"My 300-year-old listed cottage is in its path but I've been told it would simply be compulsorily purchased. The JPU said it is for the good of the country and there will be some winners and losers.
"But the whole village will lose out if this celebration vanishes.
"It's not just the tradition but the community spirit that comes from everyone pulling together to organise and contribute to the event.
"It's a completely uncommercial thing which some people here today have been taking part in for years.
"We are a two-street village who see this as a really important part of our lives."
The proposed new dual-carriageway would link the M1 with the A45 as part of plans to provide the infrastructure for about 18,000 homes in the area over the next 20 years.
Peter D'Amery, Quinton resident and the village crier, said: "A lot of people are of the opinion that a few hundred houses here wouldn't do a lot of harm. But 18,000 of them is complete overkill.
"For people who moved here, May Day is what village life is all about. They now find out it will soon, in effect, be a town and this will all end."
The villagers are hoping that the strength of protest about the homes plans can still influence the final decisions on where to place them.
Quinton residents led protests when villagers from across the county descended on Northampton to march on the JPU offices in Bedford Road last September.
Although many accept that new houses need to be built, they are urging the JPU to look at other options such as brownfield land first.
The JPU's plans suggest the homes could be built between Grange Park, Wootton and Little Houghton.
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Friday 25 May 2012
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