|
Area One (5)
Visitors
contact |
Look at Romsey Town Design Statement for Romsey Whitenap Prepared by a team of volunteers in the area under the auspices of the
Streets and Street Furniture All the street surfaces are tarmacked as are the footways. Along many of the roads, the footways are separated from the road by a stretch of grass often as wide as, or wider than the footway. These grass strips give a spacious feeling to the roads as well as protection to pedestrians. In the stretch of Botley Road between Whitenap Lane and Northlands Road, there are no protective grass strips. Botley Road is lit with tall lamps. These have been replaced in 2005 by lamp standards that are unfussy and set further back from the highway than the older ones and give good illumination. Elsewhere the lamp posts have circular lamps on the tops of narrow tapering steel columns. The lamps are sodium and are capped to reduce light pollution. They are unexceptional. The level of most street lighting is low enough to leave dark areas from which the stars can be seen on clear nights. There is one set of traffic lights at the eastern end of Botley Road. Parts of Whitenap Lane and Botley Road contain overhead cables. Their presence alters the skyline of these two roads, and introduces clutter in the form of posts from which they radiate.
The various junction boxes and substations necessary for public utilities are reasonably discreetly placed in Whitenap. However the arrangement of street furniture at the junction of Northlands Road and Botley Road (outside Mace Express shop) produces a cluttered effect. The front of the shop has improved significantly of late and hopefully the rear store area and fencing will be brought to the same standard as the front. The street name plates, like the lights, are functional and do nothing to enhance the look of the area. There are complaints that they are not two-sided, so drivers can only pick out street names from one direction. The only public service buses run along Botley Road, the rest of the estate being without provision. The bus shelters are thought to be acceptable. The volume of traffic to Mountbatten School is such that the whole of Whitenap Lane is a one-way street, which therefore requires street signs at each junction. This need brings a considerable number of posts and road signs into the lane and these detract from the country feel of the Lane.
Design Recommendations
Trees, hedges and other landscape features
Trees form an important part of the landscape of Whitenap. Along Botley Road there are many mature oak trees, which may date from the early days of the turnpike trust in the mid-eighteenth century. Thought should be given to succession planning, as it is occasionally necessary to remove one or other of these trees and they form an important feature in the landscape. In the north-east corner of Botley Road recreation ground is a stand of poplar trees on which grows substantial amounts of mistletoe.
There are a number of flowering trees along Northlands Road by the bungalows, some of which act as hosts for mistletoe. Some are in need of attention and may soon be in need of replacement. There are a number of small trees on the triangle of land in Maple Close and elsewhere on the estate. Hedges
There is a hedge along Botley Road opposite the cemetery which gives way to a shelter belt of trees. The recreation ground is bounded on the east side with a hedge that separates it from Whitenap Lane. The hedgerow continues in front of the houses that lie to the west and south of the Lane, although the species change from those of native hedgerow to laurel. Most of the gardens on the opposite side of Whitenap Lane between Botley Road and Whitenap Close have front hedges. Once the junction with Northlands Road is passed, there is hedgerow along most of the north side of Whitenap Lane, right up to the A27. Many of the plants in these hedgerows are very tall and gaps are developing. On the southern side of Whitenap Lane, by the raised pavement outside Mountbatten School the hedge was being lost but some small hedgerow plants were planted and it is hoped that they will maintain the area sufficiently to save that ancient hedgerow. There is a lengthy stretch of hedgerow in Botley Road eastwards from Halterworth Lane. It is in various ownerships and some is well maintained, while in other places it has been allowed to grow out, making the footways very narrow. The front gardens on the opposite side of the road have a variety of hedge styles and include holly, privet, lonicera, yew, forsythia. The net effect of these trees and hedgerows, taken with the countryside around Whitenap, is that the area is rich in wildlife. Residents enjoy plenty of bird song both day and night. Owls live in the Foxhills area. Deer and bats are seen there and elsewhere. Birds include woodpeckers, long-tailed and other tits, various finches, robins, blackbirds, pied wagtails, starlings, doves, sparrows, fieldfares, pheasants and buzzards. In addition herons, crows, magpies and gulls live in the area. Apart from the stream at the back of Five Elms Drive and The Covert, there is no surface water in Whitenap. Design Recommendations Boundary features Much of Whitenap is spacious, with wide vistas and open plan front gardens. The older parts of the area have traditional front gardens, mostly hedged and there are low walls in front of the bungalows in Northlands Road, as there are in Elmtree Gardens and parts of Sycamore Close The only substantial boundary features occur around back gardens where privacy is required. Thus in the Five Elms Estate the back gardens that adjoin the street are surrounded by stepped walls, six foot high, in bricks that match those of the houses. These walls therefore integrate into the estate. The approach to the houses in Whitenap Close is along a straight piece of road that is lined with wooden fence panels which create a dead feel to that part of the road and help to isolate the houses in the Close. In other places where there are wooden fences, it is not uncommon for them to have shrubs growing in front of them, which softens their impact. Design Recommendations |
 |
TOP Streets and Street Furniture Hedges and Boundary Features Area 1 |