Barton Village Nature Park

This Nature park is bounded on its southern side by the Northern bypass, the A40. This is about the only definitive boundary surrounding the site. The western boundary may be a man-made ditch or a natural stream (its too difficult to tell). There is a nominal fence on the other side of the ditch but whether this is the boundary is nopt known. Beyond the ditch and the fence are more woods leading to Barton Fields Allotments.It is possible to reach the park from a number of places. Firstly, Hengrove Close off Barton Village Road. When you get to the end of the close the entrance is completely obscured by some very vibrant shrubs which give the impression of belonging to someone’s front garden. Anyone looking at this “entrance” would be wary of using it out of fear of trespassing or intruding on someone’s property.Oxford city council’s website mentions there is an access point off Harolde Close which which can be reached from Aldebarton Drive off Barton Village Road.The third access point which is the one I used to like using, is a footpath that runs alongside the A40. (This isn’t as dangerous as it sounds). Instead of turning north from North Way (by which I mean the local road not the motorway because both are known by the same name) into Barton Village Road, visitors should just about be able to see a path alongside the motorway but fenced off from it.The path alongside the motorway is itself adjacent to a strip of woodland so this should be a very scenic route into the park. But it’s not.Barton Village Nature park should be regarded as an attractive wood and green open space.But, let’s be honest, this park is blighted by quite a bit of rubbish. The strip of wood adjacent to the path next to the motorway, has quite a bit of rubbish and that’s before visitors even get into the park itself which also has quite a bit of rubbish. It has the most litter/rubbish out of all the nature parks I’ve visited.There is a lot of renovation work in progress in this ribbon of wood along the motorway, in the park itself, and in the area from the park to the nearby allotments.So, perhaps once the environmental renovation has been completed, the city council will get rid of the rubbish. At the moment the rubbish is too prominent to be ignored.This ought to be such a joyous place to visit. It deserves to be treated with more respect.