Heritage again

I have just spent a very usefull hour walking Druitt Gardens on an official visit to view the final stages of this exciting project. And what a wonderful job CBC have done, I saw 20 or so nursery tots running about under supervision with their yellow jackets on having a whale of a time. Visitors commented to us (we were in suits so a bit obvious)what a fantastic difference and improvement had been made as a result of CBC taking advantage of Sustrans grant and how please they were at the new look of the gardens. From a gloomy depressing overpowering landscape to an open refreshed and interesting parkland easily accessible and safe. From the tree sculpture to the non light pollution lighting and the tree planting, the balance achieved by CBC is brilliant and there is more to come. (Just this week we have been approached by a theatre company to enquire about outside performances of Shakespeare plays in the gardens.) So what has this got to do with heritage you may ask? Well some(very few) persons are not happy and are quoting the heritage of Christchurch as a reason for leaving the gardens as they were. Having seen for myself the fantastic transformation of the gardens to a brilliant community facility I have to question just why the are using heritage as a reason to be so opposed to CBC doing anything to improve our town centre. In fact it occurs to me that whatever we do to better the experience of living in or visiting Christchurch is fair game to a disparate group of individuals. If heritage is to be the issue then let all the individual heritage groups join together to form an holistic approach of how we can use our fantastic history to the benefit of the Borough and it's residents. I am very happy to initiate a positive direction which brings into play for instance our corporate attitude to English Heritage and other agencies with a view to ensuring our heritage is a key issue in maintaining the vibrancy of this historic place. So in simple language get together and be stronger, proactive and work alongside the corporate initiatives from CBC for the betterment of the community as a whole.