A melancholic walk in the snow.

Every year when the first fall of snow is on the ground, I get my camera out and walk the fields and lanes of my local village Clayton. I know how lucky I am to live on the edge of a big city. From leaving my house I can be away from the noise of the traffic in under ten minutes.

This years walk though, which I did a few weeks ago, was tinged with sadness and a lot of concern. As I looked around the fields and across the valley towards Thornton I realised that, if the developers got their way, this could be the last year of me doing this. A planning application is in for ninety nine houses to be built at the end of my road which will take up most of these fields. Local action groups have been set up, petitions have been submitted but at the end of the day I fear that our weak Council will give in and grant permission even though the infrastructure isn't there to take such an influx of people. My side road alone can expect another 100 cars using it every day and that is assuming that each new house only has one car. These days most have two or even three! The traffic at both rush hours is horrendous now so this can only get worse. You can also add to this the fact that the doctors and the school are both already at capacity.

Also, in the past week, I have learnt that another application has been place to build a further one hundred and fifty houses on the green land between Clayton and Thornton which will just about join both villages together so I can see another campaign getting off the ground.

Anyway back to the walk. I was surprised how many people were out; most walking their dogs but a few like me who were just out there enjoying the snow and the fresh air. I gingerly walked down one of the country lanes but I was a bit wary of meeting any traffic as they are pretty steep and very few people know how to drive in the snow. Thankfully most people had more sense than to try as I only encountered one car and that was at the top of the hill. I have no idea if it got down safely or, more importantly if it got up the other side!

Sadly by the end of the day most of the snow had thawed and the remainder was gone the following day but it was good whilst it lasted. A great walk to end the year with.