Welcome to the blog for the St. Edmunds Residents Association (sera). We are a group of residents for the area which we have named "St Edmunds" It stretches from York Road to Palmerston Road and from Wellingborough Road to Billing Road, Northampton. We hope to work to improve the area and foster a sense of community to the benefit of all. Please join in and help make the venture a success.
Saturday 29 September 2012
Anticipating the Park
A beautiful sunny morning looking into the 'park' from Palmerston Road. Make sure you have the sound on when you watch it here.
Tuesday 25 September 2012
A 'sortie' to some pocket parks.
Three members went on an exciting trip on Saturday to several pocket parks in the county. The weather was perfect and some photos can be viewed here
Sunday 16 September 2012
Here is a web-site that encourages local community action. Just what we need:-
It can be found here. The site is non-party political.
and starts---
Why Councils should use the Sustainable Communities Act
The Sustainable Communities Act presents a unique opportunity for councils.
Councils have a choice – they can use the Act’s new process or they can ignore it. The philosophy behind the Act is that there are too many centrally imposed duties on councils and so they it allows them to be free to choose whether or not to use this process and be accountable only to their electorate, not central government.
Here are some important reasons why choosing to use the Act will benefit councils:......
Thursday 13 September 2012
Here's an item that connects with our plans for our churchyard 'Park',
you can read the whole article here
Not seeing the city for the trees is good for us, suggests new research: vegetation density is more important than park size
Eric Jaffe, writing in www.theatlanticcities.com, describes a new piece of work from Finland.
Last month, he writes, we explained how parks can restore much of the mental fatigue imposed on our brains by the busy city. The psychological evidence for this concept, known as the "attention restoration theory," is quite clear. What would be great to know, as I noted at the end of that post, is precisely how many trees it takes to recover the cognitive strains of urban life.
Well sometimes the gods of semi-obscure-hybrid-behavior-nature-academic-publications listen to your calls. In an upcoming issue of the journal Landscape and Urban Planning, a group of Finnish researchers describe recent work that just so happens to address our exact curiosity.
They conclude that restoration reaches peak potential when every inch of the city — which they term the "urban matrix" — escapes our vision:
Our results showed that perceived restorativeness in urban forests was strongly affected by closure of view to the urban matrix through the forest vegetation. This means that perceived restorativeness was higher inside the forest with a closed (i.e. no) view to the urban matrix as compared to semi-closed and open views.
For the study, the researchers identified nine patches of boreal forest in greater Helsinki...
you can read the whole article here
Not seeing the city for the trees is good for us, suggests new research: vegetation density is more important than park size
Eric Jaffe, writing in www.theatlanticcities.com, describes a new piece of work from Finland.
Last month, he writes, we explained how parks can restore much of the mental fatigue imposed on our brains by the busy city. The psychological evidence for this concept, known as the "attention restoration theory," is quite clear. What would be great to know, as I noted at the end of that post, is precisely how many trees it takes to recover the cognitive strains of urban life.
Well sometimes the gods of semi-obscure-hybrid-behavior-nature-academic-publications listen to your calls. In an upcoming issue of the journal Landscape and Urban Planning, a group of Finnish researchers describe recent work that just so happens to address our exact curiosity.
They conclude that restoration reaches peak potential when every inch of the city — which they term the "urban matrix" — escapes our vision:
Our results showed that perceived restorativeness in urban forests was strongly affected by closure of view to the urban matrix through the forest vegetation. This means that perceived restorativeness was higher inside the forest with a closed (i.e. no) view to the urban matrix as compared to semi-closed and open views.
For the study, the researchers identified nine patches of boreal forest in greater Helsinki...
Wednesday 12 September 2012
Development update at 2-4 Edith Street
Today a number of residents, along with Councillors Stone and Strachan and planning case Officer Mr Geoff Wyatt and applicant Mr Keith Howard had a meeting to discuss the development of 2-4 Edith Street.
The plans as originally submitted were for 10 Studio flats and most present felt it was a gross over-development of the site and taking none of the existing residents and their needs for both parking and privacy into account.
Following a discussion of his plans by Mr Keith Howard, the residents and councillors put in their objections and a crucial visit into the garden of a neighbouring property made it clear immediately to both the officer and applicant that there were issues regarding the increase in height of the property at the back with it overshadowing neighbouring gardens.
It was agreed therefore that these initial plans would be immediately be withdrawn and a further decision would be made for a future application by the applicant Mr Keith Howard.
I would like to thank all present for their assistance with this and this is an instant victory for the local residents. It is clear that the site will have development in the future and this is not the issue, but it has got to be a sensible development and not detriment to the surrounding area.
The plans as originally submitted were for 10 Studio flats and most present felt it was a gross over-development of the site and taking none of the existing residents and their needs for both parking and privacy into account.
Following a discussion of his plans by Mr Keith Howard, the residents and councillors put in their objections and a crucial visit into the garden of a neighbouring property made it clear immediately to both the officer and applicant that there were issues regarding the increase in height of the property at the back with it overshadowing neighbouring gardens.
It was agreed therefore that these initial plans would be immediately be withdrawn and a further decision would be made for a future application by the applicant Mr Keith Howard.
I would like to thank all present for their assistance with this and this is an instant victory for the local residents. It is clear that the site will have development in the future and this is not the issue, but it has got to be a sensible development and not detriment to the surrounding area.
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