The only hope you have of getting the village back to being a village is to put the car park in, and the only logical place is the Common.
The lower section south east of Southra is the obvious place for it...its not used for anything else, the locals will have to grin and bear it. It won't happen of course, too many greedy people live around there. Those houses south east of the railway station should never have been built - they use to be old marshalling yards (also a great place to catch newts and tadpoles) that shoud have been made car parking back in the early 60's. didn't happen - greed again.
You could get to 1 car per household if you had a decent public transport system. When i was back last November I used the morning train to go to Bath from Cardiff, via Bristol.....what an ugly place that is!!! The trains were abysmal, the service rude, the food on the stations over priced and largely inedible, the best thing was they seemed to be on time. Why do you put up with it? In Sydney there would be a riot and heads would roll if public transport was as bad as it is in South wales.
The village doesn't own the castle because there were too many people indiffernt to it when it was owned by the Dinas Powys Trust. The person who owns it probablt y odesnt want it anyway - he/she has done nothing with it - get some lottery money and buy it back. He/she would sell. It has no right to be in the hands of a private person - that land is public land - who the hell thougth they had the right to sell it?
Where's Sunnycroft? If it's on the other side of the railway lines then you have lost me. The great divide in DP between old and new isn't recent. It's been happening ever since the gypsies lived over there in the 40's. Only time we crossed the line as kids was to go to wellwood Drive, which was considered a de facto part of the old village.The only place that could have been thought of as the social centre of the Murch was the old Wheatsheaf pub. (I think thats what it was called.) Now I spose its the library. Town planning? I don't think so
I still love the place though - its just I really fo care. !!!!!
I went to school with Chris Franks and had frequent arguments about Welsh Nationalism and seperation, which i was totally opposed to. Perhaps he could take his mind off the Plaid Cymru grand plan designed for the glory of selective Welsh Nationalists and get back to the important matters of village life style. That Welsh Assembly is a joke.
Richard Jeffery