Reach Out Residents raise issue over changes in Hucknall

Hucknall has seen many changes over the years.
Public meeting to discuss the development plans for the Rolls Royce site.
Sally Wyatt from the Reach out Residents addresses the meeting.Public meeting to discuss the development plans for the Rolls Royce site.
Sally Wyatt from the Reach out Residents addresses the meeting.
Public meeting to discuss the development plans for the Rolls Royce site. Sally Wyatt from the Reach out Residents addresses the meeting.

In the coming months councils will be making a decision that will bring very big changes not only to residents’ everyday lives, but also to one of our beautiful green areas.

I wonder how many of us have, in the past, or now, taken our children down by Farleys Brook, in the Farleys Nature Area, in the summer to paddle or pick blackberries and enjoy a drink of fresh water from the spring. It is easy in the cold winter time to forget these things

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Yet Hucknall has seen Wigwam Playing Fields, a favourite of many in times past, built on. It looks likely that Gedling will be building on the edge of Hucknall/Linby which will probably affect footpaths that way.

Now Rolls Royce have submitted plans to build industrial units and 900 houses. This will involve putting in an access road across the footpath along Farleys Brook. No longer can children run ahead along the path beside the stream as my children used to do. They will now come to a busy road which they will have to cross to reach the Spring.

We all have memories of the air show that was an annual event in Hucknall. Never again will we see historic planes in the skies entertaining us in Hucknall with the Red Arrows and spitfires soaring in the Hucknall skies.

A film was made ‘The One That Got Away’ which was the story of a German airman, Franz Baron von Werra, who escaped and nearly got away with a plane from Hucknall airfield. This was a true story from the Second World War.

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There is a lot of history on the airfield and now all this is to be lost.

Reach Out Residents which is a residents’ group for all people who live in west Hucknall, have been looking at this planning application which is expected to go before the planning committee on 19th March.

At the next Reach Out meeting we will be hearing the latest news about this on 11th March at 6.30pm at the Hillcrest Centre, Holgate Academy.

When I think back to Hucknall when I first moved here 45 years ago, I see a town that has expanded but there is so much good here too which hasn’t changed. Hucknall has a really good community spirit and there is a lot of caring that goes on.

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The town centre is a lot quieter than when I used to go to the Friday market with the pram. But with more people working, there is not the opportunity to wander round the market and shops on a Friday that there was then.

Hopefully with Costa and others moving into the town and the rebirth of the Byron project at the cinema the town will begin to draw people in again

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