Some regrets (From Penarth Times)

Some regrets

THE jubilee celebrations have been the occasion, the excuse almost, for some of us to reminisce over changing aspects of the last 50 years.

Though I no longer use Dingle Road Station regularly, I find the loss of the newspaper kiosk adjoining this unmanned station regrettable, both for the loss of the facility, and for the affability of the gent who operated the kiosk, who can now sometimes be seen at another newsagents in town.

I recall a kiosk on Cliff Walk too.

One might regret the disappearance of land devoted to say, allotments, towards the end of Cliff Walk, or at what is now the Cowslip Estate.

As for Cogan Recreation Ground, it was a substantial area of green with a large pond before the leisure centre.

The extensive new housing opposite Cosmeston Country Park seems to be a 'swings and roundabouts' situation, with the loss of the old cement works and the cement dust which this caused in quite a large area around, but also the loss of enjoyment there.

With Penarth Dock, I'm beginning to find the housing there, in aggregate, too densely constructed, and open space is rapidly disappearing since the most recent additions.

Cardiff Bay too will seem a success story to most people, though a few 'reactionaries' might remember what preceded it, mud flats and all, with nostalgia.

Many changes made locally in the last 50 years have been necessary, or inevitable, some of them desirable.

Overall though, the loss of open space and the gradual and relentless increase in housing, however well-built, on green field sites must be of some regret, just as elsewhere in Britain.

Michael O'Neill Railway Terrace Penarth