My NN: Environmental activist Marly Lyman shares his favourite Northants places

Abington Park, Pitsford Reservoir and Vietnamese restaurant O-Ren are all in his list

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Marly Lyman is a community organiser with Northampton’s Umbrella Fair Organisation and a member of Extinction Rebellion. He was the first protestor to climb one of the threatened trees at Wellingborough Walks, helping to save many from the axe.

He spent his early years in Crewe and moved to Northampton aged six and still lives in the area today.

Tell us about your favourite place in Northamptonshire?

“My favourite place is probably Abington Park. My earliest memories of the town are there, I remember the playground and getting ice creams and I also used to go there alot as a teenager to hang out with my mates. Now into my 30s it is where I go to meet up with best friend and we go and have a walk and a chat and catch up and I just think it is quite a therapeutic and nostalgic place.” 

What do you think is Northamptonshire's best asset and why?

“Our green spaces. I think they are massively undervalued and underappreciated and I think they are at risk of being overdeveloped as well if we are not too careful. The wildlife in the county is really stunning and I think that because we are constantly just approving new roads and new building sites it’s a worry that the thing that is most beautiful about Northampton is the thing that is at risk. 

“There are some developments that have massive opposition from the public that are ignored and the development happening anyway and there are some places where no one has heard that something is going to happen and then suddenly you see them clear areas and bring in bulldozers and it is quite depressing to watch.

“It is partly the houses, which are being built as cheaply as they can be, but it’s the warehouses. Why are they building them when we have loads of empty ones?”

Wellingborough Walks