Your Waverley Park Experience

I would like to start off by commending the Waverley Park Collective for their hard work so far. The website is great and the map/experience section are beneficial to the project. The work in monitoring traffic volume etc. in the area was also very well done. The group has been a great asset to the community and even though we weren’t personally involved, the summer play days and Halloween/Christmas decorations were great ideas and nice to see the community come together in this way.

I can understand why the latest proposals have created much tension in the community. I accept that the whole point of this exercise was to gather ‘ideas’ and ‘experiences’, however, I cannot help thinking there was a preconceived idea to this project. This started on the zoom meeting with Nick Wright -who is paid to consult on the area and does not live here- stating in the first minute that “The dead end space at Peveril is a golden opportunity to do something with”. Although I trust Nick has the best intentions for the area, it is not the most open or unbiased way to begin brainstorming ideas. It does perhaps suggest that there is already a motive for what a small group of the collective want to see happen to the area, and at the very least shows a naivety to the needs of the residents around this area.

57 out of the 115 ‘experiences’ so far have stated a direct impact of traffic/speeding on the lives of residents in the area (not including replies about the topic). Not one ‘experience’ has stated that they do not regard the traffic as a problem. Traffic/speed of traffic is understandably the main concern of the residents of Waverley Park; however, I can’t help but wonder why certain comments in the experience section regarding a plan to stop traffic affecting the area was removed. The experience section of the page does ask “How could we make it (Waverley park) better?”. Although perhaps again unintentional it does suggest that this idea for a solution to the traffic problem does not suit the narrative of this project.

The only way Waverley Park can become more ‘liveable’ is to come together and find a solution to the traffic problem. If there is money there to finally make the area better and safe for everyone to live in, then we should stop wasting time on ideas that are only causing division and come together to sort the problem that everyone is facing.