In a recent post on here I expressed slight annoyance with Morden Park lacking a bit of je ne sais quoi to make it a more appealing space for the public to use. On reflection this may have been a bit harsh, and for that I apologise!
Earlier today I went for a gentle run (yes, madness in weather like this) around Morden Park, and seeing the place on a day like this - clear blue sky, brilliant sunshine, people enjoying the weekend - made me see the place in a completely different light. I still maintain that running on a mowed grass path in a big wide open space isn't the most inspiring, but with lots more people around the place had a more lived in feel to it.
For the fitness minded there are some interesting facilities available including, apart from grass trails mentioned above, some gravel/clay paths, an outdoor gym, a "trim trail", a basic pitch & put golf course.
The only missing is the roller blading trail mentioned in my previous posting and the set-up would be complete :-)
Regardless of what other facilities I may think is missing there is one thing I can say for certain, I'm glad that Goals Plc didn't get the go-ahead to develop one of their football centres on the Morden Park site ... that in my humble opinion really would have been a crime against nature.
Saturday 26 June 2010
Better Or Worse Than Average?
An article appeared on the Wimbledon Guardian website the other day saying that the number of deaths and serious injuries on Merton's roads is down - read the article here. It's always nice to read about those sorts of trends - even though you could say that even one accident is too many - and it made we wonder how Morden compares with the rest of the country?
So I went to the Up My Street website to have a quick look. Rather than searching for a specific post code I simply searched for "Morden", and the general findings are that Morden is performing slightly worse than the national average on many of the measures - but not alarmingly so, especially when you consider that Morden is an urban area, and the national averages of course includes all rural areas where statistics like crime levels are generally lower.
Of course there are also areas where Morden is performing better than the national average, e.g. theft from vehicles and council tax.
The full results can be found here. Don't forget to have a look at all the headings and measures. Alternatively you can enter your own post code for slightly more specific results.
So I went to the Up My Street website to have a quick look. Rather than searching for a specific post code I simply searched for "Morden", and the general findings are that Morden is performing slightly worse than the national average on many of the measures - but not alarmingly so, especially when you consider that Morden is an urban area, and the national averages of course includes all rural areas where statistics like crime levels are generally lower.
Of course there are also areas where Morden is performing better than the national average, e.g. theft from vehicles and council tax.
The full results can be found here. Don't forget to have a look at all the headings and measures. Alternatively you can enter your own post code for slightly more specific results.
Sunday 20 June 2010
Do You Love Morden?
Those of you who actively use Twitter may have come across, what appears to be a bit of a North London cult phenomenon, Love Camden (or @LoveCamden).
Love Camden is aimed at promoting activities and initiatives in the areas and thereby trying to forge or enhance a community spirit. A spin off from constant references, tweets and re-tweet from Twitter users who love their community Camden comes across as an area with a bit a buzz about the place, somewhere cool, a happening place, somewhere people really want to live and spend time ... and so on.
Wouldn't it be great to see similarly positive messages about Morden?
As someone who lives in Morden I do believe Morden has lots of things to be proud of; great cultural diversity, new housing springing up bringing fresh blood to the area, and generally being a safe place to live and work, plenty of green public spaces etc. So let's spread the word!
If you are a Twitter user the account Mordonian and hashtag #morden is aimed at becoming a resource for local news, updates and events.
Love Camden is aimed at promoting activities and initiatives in the areas and thereby trying to forge or enhance a community spirit. A spin off from constant references, tweets and re-tweet from Twitter users who love their community Camden comes across as an area with a bit a buzz about the place, somewhere cool, a happening place, somewhere people really want to live and spend time ... and so on.
Wouldn't it be great to see similarly positive messages about Morden?
As someone who lives in Morden I do believe Morden has lots of things to be proud of; great cultural diversity, new housing springing up bringing fresh blood to the area, and generally being a safe place to live and work, plenty of green public spaces etc. So let's spread the word!
If you are a Twitter user the account Mordonian and hashtag #morden is aimed at becoming a resource for local news, updates and events.
Tuesday 1 June 2010
Other Reasons To Feel That Morden Has A Bit Of Catching Up To Do
Hard to believe it, but the general election took place less than a month ago. Actually, people in Morden (or the Mitcham & Morden constituency to be precise) can be forgiven for thinking of general elections as a bit of a non event; let's face it, there aren't many safer seats around it would seem ... this suits some people and doesn't suit others.
One area which made the last general election feel somewhat different from previous elections though was how everybody - voters, candidates and media - looked at ways of using digital media and social networking to their advantage. Like many others followed several Twitter feeds from a number of political party candidates, political commentators & bloggers and national & local press. Personally I don't think I've ever felt better informed and up-to-date with what was going on in the run up to an election.
EXCEPT ... all the social media in the world proved pretty useless when it came to keeping up to speed on what my local candidates were up to. For example, I was not able to find a single one of them on Twitter (happy to be proven wrong though), but found candidates from neighbouring constituencies practically without trying.
Perhaps the safe nature of the Mitcham & Morden seat is reflected in candidates' approach to campaigning; maybe some of them just thought "why bother" sort of thing?
Similarly, when it comes to accessing digital media Morden is also a bit behind (although things are slowly but steady getting better). A check on Broadband Speed Checker reveals that a few pockets are starting to reach connection speeds just shy of 20Mb ... not bad, but not exactly threatening the near 50Mb speeds found in other parts of the country.
Whilst this posting may sound like a case of sour grapes that isn't the case. Of the two issues highlighted above the first one is easily fixed and the other one will sort itself out over time. Then the good citizens of Morden will be in a much stronger position to actively engage with the local community.
One area which made the last general election feel somewhat different from previous elections though was how everybody - voters, candidates and media - looked at ways of using digital media and social networking to their advantage. Like many others followed several Twitter feeds from a number of political party candidates, political commentators & bloggers and national & local press. Personally I don't think I've ever felt better informed and up-to-date with what was going on in the run up to an election.
EXCEPT ... all the social media in the world proved pretty useless when it came to keeping up to speed on what my local candidates were up to. For example, I was not able to find a single one of them on Twitter (happy to be proven wrong though), but found candidates from neighbouring constituencies practically without trying.
Perhaps the safe nature of the Mitcham & Morden seat is reflected in candidates' approach to campaigning; maybe some of them just thought "why bother" sort of thing?
Similarly, when it comes to accessing digital media Morden is also a bit behind (although things are slowly but steady getting better). A check on Broadband Speed Checker reveals that a few pockets are starting to reach connection speeds just shy of 20Mb ... not bad, but not exactly threatening the near 50Mb speeds found in other parts of the country.
Whilst this posting may sound like a case of sour grapes that isn't the case. Of the two issues highlighted above the first one is easily fixed and the other one will sort itself out over time. Then the good citizens of Morden will be in a much stronger position to actively engage with the local community.
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