The above is from The Oswestry Town Plan, “an informed and influential guide to developers, setting out what matters most to local people” which expresses The Town Vision in which “important open spaces are protected and enhanced”.
So what does it show? An important open space that should be protected, for sure. But the setting of the hill fort? Absolutely not. Settings aren’t perfectly round. Nor can they be drawn on a map (they shouldn’t be confused with buffer zones round World Heritage Monuments) – they exist within the judgements of Planning Inspectors not on maps. Thus whoever drew the circle had neither the authority nor the ability to represent it as the setting – and didn’t claim it was.
So WHY did they draw that line just there, perfectly round (and offset so it is further from the hill fort in the North than the South?) What “informed and influential guide to developers” was it providing? In what way was it “setting out what matters most to local people”? We don’t know. But to repeat, it isn’t the setting for the reasons given and also because a setting as tiny as that for “one of the greatest archaeological monuments of the nation” would be a grotesque joke. By any basis of judgement the setting of that monument is far larger and building houses almost touching that circle as if it did portray the setting would be terribly wrong, don’t you agree campaigners and councillors? ‘Course you do! And yet ….
.
How did that happen? Where did the developers (and perchance some councillors) get the idea that building houses just there would be acceptable and would reflect what matters most to local people?
The Heritage Journal 
7 comments
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19/11/2013 at 08:06
Diana
A Very interesting angle………quite obviously the red ring was drawn”on the computer, in the office on the map” and, as pointed out here,( and is happening the length and breadth of the land in many offices by real people doing “real” jobs), WITH NO REFERENCE TO THE REAL WORLD PEOPLES’ VIEW OR THINGS OF REAL VALUE. Shame on the person with the red pen……
19/11/2013 at 08:18
heritageaction
(Point of info., the red was our approximate transcription of the green. We coloured it red to signal that. Only the green appears in the official Plan document.)
The only “shame” would be taking the green circle as having any relevance to any decision.
26/11/2013 at 10:07
Tish Farrell
Facebooked and tweeted this.
30/11/2013 at 12:27
Tish Farrell
http://wp.me/pKVAM-t7 Just written this on my blog Valuing the past: how much for Old Oswestry Hill Fort.
30/11/2013 at 15:20
Diana Baur
Make yourself a cuppa, sit down somewhere comfortable and read Tish Farrell’s blog on Old Oswestry Hillfort. I guarantee you will not be bored!
01/12/2013 at 08:51
heritageaction
Agreed! Super writing.
01/12/2013 at 10:47
Kate Clarke
Further Old Oswestry commentary at http://bit.ly/1ezzxPL