Hard standing, walls and hedges in Winchester Road

With the exception of Oakleigh Gardens (see above) and a few houses in Botley Road and Chambers Avenue, there is a general absence of boundary features. Indeed, Queens Close and the Eight Acres estate were purposely laid out with open plan gardens. However, many owners have replaced some of their garden frontage with hard standing, to allow for extra parking. This can be unsightly and in Winchester Road in particular many front gardens have been lost altogether.

The design of Symes Road allowed for no boundary markers, save where an area of grass meets the public footpath. As a consequence, there is no definition of what is public and what is private amenity space.

In the rest of the area, houses are bounded by low brick or stone walls, by plank fences or hedges, with gates of many designs. Original and identical brick gateposts are retained along the north side of Botley Road (Nos. 10 - 20). Winchester House in Winchester Road is screened from the railway by a line of firs.

Design Recommendations

The preference is for existing boundary features to be maintained.

Circulation/parking

Whilst those streets in the area built since the 1960s were planned to take account of the need for car parking provision, older streets suffer for lack of it. The lower end, north side of Botley Road, in particular has lost part of its pavement in order to provide a stretch of designated on-street parking. This not only detracts from the view of the residents and looks cluttered but the parked vehicles also cause narrowing of the carriageway to such an extent that vehicles can often not pass safely and driving out of Tadfield Road is extremely difficult. Furthermore, the safety of pedestrians crossing between footpaths along the Tadburn Stream is potentially compromised.

The problem of parking in Chambers Avenue has been partly alleviated by the building of unattractive but practical concrete ramps above some of the gardens on the northern side and digging into the hillside front gardens on the southern side. However, there are still places where on-street parking, for example at the junction of Saxon Way, is both unsightly and unsafe.

Lamps and overhead cables

Overhead cables dominating the skyline

Throughout the area there is a mixture of street lamp designs. No one street has a uniform design and many are still not down-lighters. Footpaths, particularly those along the Tadburn stream, are badly lit. In all the older streets in the area, overhead cables are a particular intrusion.

Street Furniture

Electricity sub-station Junction box disfigured by graffiti

A standard pillar box, and a bus shelter are situated on Botley Road, near its junction with Hillside Avenue. Electricity sub-stations are in Botley Road, Rosedale Ave, Eight Acres and Chambers Avenue. Grey distribution boxes, at the roadside, some decorated with graffiti, and inspection covers at cable junctions are evidence of the cable TV and phone services which were installed throughout the area in the 1990s. The routes of the cables can still be seen in those streets where the pavement surface has not since been upgraded. Inspection covers for this and all other domestic services are visible on every street, as are the yellow fire hydrant signs.

Fencing along the banks of the Tadburn stream occurs intermittently and somewhat arbitrarily. Some early chain link fencing is still in evidence but, more recently, substantial lengths of black steel and grey iron palings have been used. These are not only obtrusive but aesthetically mismatched. Bridge railings are of iron, painted light green.

Two steel posts can be seen midway along the alleyway between Queens Close and Tadfield Road. These originally formed the gateposts into the pig farm and marked the boundary of the parcel of land identified in the tithe awards on which Queens Close was subsequently built.

Footpaths

The only designated public footpath (no.3) comes into Tadburn Valley at the railway bridge by the allotments, following the line of the Tadburn Lake across Botley Road and along its southern side as far as the back of the garages in Symes Road. The surface is mainly of tarmac, except beyond Hillside Avenue where it becomes sand and gravel.

Ownership of the tarmac footpath along the northern side of the stream, from Rosedale Avenue to the far end of Eight Acres, is unknown. As a result, there has been no formal programme of repair for this much used path, which is steadily deteriorating, as tree roots begin to break through.

An old right of way, which pre-dates most of the housing in the area, runs from the ‘Sun Arch’ on Winchester Road, alongside the railway embankment, across the end of Tadfield Road and through a short alleyway into Queens Close, at the end of which it joins the footpath along the Tadburn Lake. The initial stretch of path from Winchester Road is unadopted and is therefore unlit and full of ‘potholes’. It is much used by residents of Tadburn Valley for walking to the bus stop and the doctors’ surgery.

Design Recommendations

	Any traffic calming measures and designated on-street parking bays should be designed to complement as far as possible the existing design. For example, parking bays should be of a different, but not totally contrasting, surface to the roadway, pavement or nearby buildings.
	Down-lighter lamps should be introduced throughout the area as budgets permit, with each street having a uniform design of standard and lamp.
	Overhead power lines should be replaced by underground cabling wherever practical.
	Where possible, fences along the river bank should be of uniform design.
	Opportunities for enhancement of the Tadburn Lake should be considered to reflect its importance. This may require the various agencies involved in the upkeep of the Tadburn Lake, its banks and footpaths, to agree a joint management plan for its development and enhancement as a leisure route.
	The footpath linking Winchester Road with Tadfield Road should be upgraded, enhancing the environment of this important linkway without encouraging motorised access.