Over the course of the weekend we made a couple of excursions locally. Usually our walks occur as brief detours on an otherwise purposeful outing, but on Saturday I proposed a wander to the site of the new ASDA supermarket on Springfield Road. There is really very little left to see here. The vast plot of land taken is now bare, and the skeleton of the new store has risen in the southeastern corner of the site. The waste transfer station, the owner holding out for a council ransom, still obscures much of the store. There is no sign of development of the shopping mall and offices which were promised, but work seems to continue apace on the seemingly enormous car park.
Slicing through the centre of the site, Springfield Road survives - just. Its western end is now a parking area for site officers and security staff, who made a huge scene when I appeared with a camera last week. As the lane progresses towards the railway, it regains its quiet and overgrown origins as it passes the waste transfer site, where ASDA have no interest in the road any longer. The iron gate to the railway tracks still creakily swings in the wind. Quite what will become of the Public Right of Way once ASDA control the approach is beyond me. Turning back, the open views from Bristol Bridge to Grange Avenue are both surprising and rather shocking. Like a huge strip of the town has been swept clean and flattened. The presence of the site staff make this once tranquil spot quite menacing and unwelcoming. We head back to civilisation, with no police involvement this time.
