Living in a place like Lymington, stuff that doesn’t even appear on the radar of many town dwellers achieves a certain visibility. Like buildings. Building them, knocking them down or just knocking them about a bit.

It’s true that Lymington has been branded as snobby and held up as some kind of paragon of nimby-ism. Now whilst that is true to a degree, and not wishing to sound like Kevin McCloud at his most verbose, the town has to look like a Georgian town. If it doesn’t, then it’s little different from many cloned market towns in this country with the same shops and the same gridlock come summer. Yes the main shopping street might appear to require climbing gear to get from bottom to top, it might have an old-fashioned (ie not farmers) street market every Saturday, but in essence people visit because it is not like many other market towns. In some degree it still clings on to it’s historical character.

So is all the talk of preserving the architectural integrity and character valid? Well, to my mind it misses the point. If Lymington changes too much then it will lose many of its visitors. If it loses too many of its visitors it will lose more of its businesses. It really is as simple as that. So when the current re-developers of the riverside site on the now demolished Webbs factory came up with a new plan, it raised more than just eyebrows. The artists impression was of a series of five storey buildings right on the river front, amounting to over 300 dwellings in total. Regardless of the improbable access for that many dwellers and cars of dwellers being just one small road literally a few feet from the level crossing, how was something as modernistic as that supposed to fit in with the historical quay virtually next door? The more cynical amongst you might suggest that it wouldn’t have to fit in because the development was so high that the quay wouldn’t be seen. It would appear that there is some leeway on the part of the developers, admitting to have ‘lost their way’, but perhaps you would excuse me being just a tad cynical as to how much of a detour they end up being willing to take. Anyways, for those concerned enough to type their objections, gen up on the latest developments (sorry) and get started here.

Whilst there is a lot of local opinion against that development, there is very mixed opinion on another ongoing saga. No, not the 18″ that had to be taken off the height of the new development at Avenue Road/Lower Buckland Road, in one word ‘Wetherspoons’. To drink cheap beer on not to drink cheap beer? Actually I suspect that should probably be ‘cheaper’ rather than ‘cheap’. Once again the Quaint Georgian Town has been accused of snobbery. I have gone through some of the aspects of this change of use application before and shall not revisit them. But it looks like the weight of opinion would seem to be swinging in favour of Wetherspoons albeit that one online support group would appear to be run by someone in Portsmouth. Not sure whether more people drinking in Lymington would make much of a difference to Portsmouth, but there you go. Regarding this issue I have been contacted by Richard Stokes who has put some thoughts on his somewhat eclectic site here. I can’t say I endorse all his views or opinions on the subject, but I still suggest you read them. Never hurts to at least attempt to understand as many aspects as one can now does it?

On Tuesday 6th April 2010, our friends at the Park FM celebrate their first anniversary of ‘The Park On-line’ launching as an Internet Radio Station. And it only seems like yesterday that there wasn’t any sort of local regular programming dedicated to the Forest. Where does the time go….

*Cough*. Back from sepia-tinted revery. They really have to be commended on how far they have come, and if you listen you’ll realise that not only will they be shortly broadcasting in FM, they have plans for a video channel. Of course if I was any kind of a proper writer, I’d have asked them where that would be. Probably not Sky HD, but may be their own YouTube channel? No doubt we will hear when we need to know.

Now they have moved to the new HQ in Lymington (yay) all is go and the magic number has been confirmed as 96.9FM by Ofcom. If you are feeling just a tad left out that you didn’t know all the Park FM news, why not become a fan of their Facebook page . It’s quick, it’s easy, it’s oh so now! If you don’t have a Facebook account then you’ll wonder what the heck I’m on about. But then I’m told that’s quite a normal reaction when I communicate, so don’t feel bad.

Just in passing, listened to Louisa and Stephen yesterday afternoon, nice job guys. So back to the plot. They have beautifully crafted six hours of special programmes, featuring archive interviews from over the last 12 months, so lend an ear tomorrow (Tuesday) and listen to a little bit of history!

You know all about The Park don’t you? OK, maybe not. It’s run by New Forest Community Media, a not-for-profit and volunteer-led organisation which was launched in March 2007 to provide an Internet news and pod-casting service. It’s currently run from their nerve centre in Brock and provides music and local interest stuff. If you’re worried about hearing nothing but sea shanties and a capella folk sung by bearded men in Fair Isle jumpers, don’t worry the music is contemporary veering a little towards the easy listening. As I type this they have played Shaggy, Madonna, the Pointer Sisters and Snow Patrol. I’m not saying that’s a representative sample, but it does suggest it’s pretty unlikely they’ll feature Megadeth in their regular scheduling.

Anyway, the point in mentioning any of this is that they have just been granted a licence to broadcast by Ofcom. The normal persons version of this is they get to send their programs over the airways as well as online, thus giving the New Forest an easily accessible community broadcaster. Good news in my book.

Cat Lake, Managing Editor for NFCM, said: “This is a great reward after two-and-a-half years of hard work.  This licence will enable us to operate a full FM radio service serving the New Forest which brings local communities together. ” Seeing as one of the charms of the New Forest, the many small communities also creates one of it’s biggest problems, viz communication, The Park looks to be a good fit. What’s more having talked with some of the Park people, I have not doubt that their concern to promote community interaction within the Forest is entirely genuine.

If you need proof that it’s A Good Thing, then the fact that the leaders of both Hampshire County Council and New Forest District Council agree has to lend credence being as how their respective organisations normally agree on so many things…. they were even at the opening of the station together. But regardless of whether you live in the area, or are one of the numerous visitors to this site contemplating a move here, go to the listen again section of the website and check out some of the guests from the breakfast show. It’ll be informative and who knows, you might even learn something you didn’t know.

The Park’s strapline is “Community radio for the New Forest” and to quote a famous philosopher, it does exactly what it says on the tin.