What a great start to the first of three days on the common. Launa (9), Matthew (7) and Jemma (11) with their grandfather were the first people I spoke to whilst I was setting up. They had all been down to the harbour painting seascapes. What a wonderfully cultured bunch.
During the first day I spoke to sixteen commoners (as they shall be known), of which ten were between 7 –11 and five were 50+.
The older commoners were mostly concerned that my presence signalled that the site was going to be used for housing development. There was a genuine passion for this green space and the commoners were very happy to talk to me about the recent history, ecology and current use of the site. Good and bad. The re surfacing of the paths had been popular and the general feeling was that they didn’t want anything much to change. One lady was very keen to volunteer over at Tamworth Fields (an adjacent play pathfinder site) and I was encouraged that despite the large area that Milton common covers there was a real sense of pride and ownership.
Two of the negative aspects that were often repeated were about it not feeling safe (particularly at night) and the litter.
The young commoners that I met were nearly all 11 years old and enjoyed riding bikes, going crabbing and just hanging out on the common. They all got really involved in coming up with ideas for ‘improved play possibilities’ and made interesting contributions to the ideas map. The ideas ranges from treasure trails to tree houses, humps and bumps for bikes to places to shelter when it rains.
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