CLARE RAYBOULD, TWEEDMOUTH RESIDENT, WRITES:
Saturday, 3.00pm and I was having a lovely time in Northern Edge, catching up with good friends, when my stomach sank and my heart started beating faster. Not from the caffeine, but from one short sentence that H had said….’have you heard about the new car park they’re going to build at your end of the Bridge?’
Back in September 2022 I had heard that NCC were considering putting a car park on the old Robertsons’ memorials yard but within a few days I was in the midst of a terrible personal situation and I didn’t have the time or energy for anything else. And when the formal application went in the next year, it completely passed me by because another family crisis had blown up and I was spending a lot of time in the Midlands to be with my elderly parents. When I heard nothing more about the car park, I assumed that the Council had come to its senses (yes, I know, I know) or had bowed to public pressure.
So I was incredibly surprised, appalled and furious when I was told that another application had been made, and that by then, we had just over 2 weeks in which to object and hopefully stop the ruination of our lovely bit of old Tweedmouth. But mostly I was furious. There had been no letter of notification to any of us living right next to the site and there were none of the usual notices of application stuck up anywhere nearby. If it hadn’t been for the local press how would any of us known?
The needless trashing of a lovely (if now neglected by the Harbour Commission) spot. The thought of seeing from the street (and yes, from my kitchen window) not the rosy glow of the bridge in the afternoon light but the back of someone’s ruddy great motor home. Or five. Or six. No more walking over the bridge and watching the rowan trees putting out buds in the spring, or seeing their delicate white flowers or attention-seeking red berries, as the seasons change. No more imagining the people who a hundred years ago and more worked on the site, in the fun little building with the odd finials. No more admiring the way that people back then managed to turn the most utilitarian buildings into things of beauty.
Fortunately, there are a lot of us who are prepared to fight to save not just ‘my’ view, but the view that lots of us really love as we cross the bridges, or stand on Quay Walls, or walk or drive down Main Street and Union Brae. We are doing as best we can, in the short time we have. Please, if you agree with us, that this destruction is too high a price to pay for a supposedly ‘temporary’ car park to ‘compensate’ for parking spaces lost whilst the Maltings is re-built (if building ever starts, it seems to have been dragging on for years) go to the County Council’s Planning Portal [link here] and make your objections known, or write to the planning department directly. You can find more information about the application and its impact at the Berwick Heritage website [link here], which was set up by ordinary members of the public trying to protect our heritage.
Clare Raybould
Well said Clare – the default attitude is to ‘develop the site’ rather than consider it as a green space necessary to preserve the unique charm of the area. It’s a crass way of thinking, and as the harbour commission is surely for the benefit of the town, why does the town get so little say in it? The poetry of the place that you have just expressed so well is not being considered: all is reduced to numbers.
I urge everyone who reads this to object – let’s make our voices heard.
Have I missed a consultation on this? Even the position seems wrong, too far away to properly serve the Maltings and the turn would be on a blind spot where four roads converge, would the Highways Agency even permit this. There’s so much more I could add including what will happen to the statue and buildings by the bridge but for now thank you Clare and the Bridge for bringing this to my attention.
I love Berwick and love walking over the bridges from the town into tweedmouth and if im feelign up to it walk round to Spittal from town.
The river and quayside is exactly how it should be, if more parking it required then surely elsewhere could be looked at rather than spoiling the view and an already busy area and street.
Go away with your ridiculous idea of car parking at the end of a beautiful 400-year-old bridge which has stood the test of time. What an insult that would be to all the very hardworking men who created this beautiful bridge and got paid next to nothing for their labours. The Robertson Memorial business was acceptable as shown by the years it was in Tweedmouth and probably would have still been there if not for greed but no way would car parking be acceptable. So go back to your drawing boards and think again.
Ronnie Hartley
Lifelong Twempy
Leave this area free of traffic – many people come and enjoy the view from the Tweedmouth side of the bridge . The tree has been there for a long time and I hope they’d perhaps fix the Angel as we have come to know her and leave her there too . Cars there would be an eyesore – it would end up full of camper vans and it is not a good junction at the end of the bridge . Towns folk should be properly consulted not left to hear about this after the event ! Our town let us decide