Environmental stewardship is a key WR concern. We should be living within our means, not plundering the next generation and those to come. At the same time, we must ensure the next generation have somewhere suitable to live. Planning policy, especially for housing, typifies that dilemma, with warm words about sustainability easily corrupted into developers’ContinueContinue reading “Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone”
Category Archives: Housing
The Ties that Bind
The city regions of Wessex and South Wales have recently come together to draw up plans for a Great Western Powerhouse stretching from Swindon in the east to Swansea in the west; Tewkesbury in the north to Weston-Super-Mare in the south. The cities of Bristol, Newport and Cardiff have commissioned a report from consultancy firmContinueContinue reading “The Ties that Bind”
Cottages or crops?
The Wessex Regionalists give a cautious welcome to the government’s announcement of a new Building Better, Building Beautiful Commission, chaired by Wiltshire resident Sir Roger Scruton. The Commission aims, in the words of its launch statement “to champion beauty in the built environment”, and has a commendable commitment to preserving local character in new buildings.ContinueContinue reading “Cottages or crops?”
Thou Shalt Not
Thursday last week saw a plethora of different elections across the UK and among these polls was a referendum in St Ives. Local folk voted by 83% to 17% in favour of a policy to ban the building of new second homes. Faced with a housing market described as ‘financial cleansing’ of the locals, that’sContinueContinue reading “Thou Shalt Not”
Useful Idiots?
This week saw a rally at Westminster in support of housebuilding. There’s no denying the heartache if you’re not adequately housed, but many demanding a cull of our countryside are being dupedby those who stand to benefit financially from a yet-more-bricks-and-mortar solution. There’s no sound case for adding to our housing stock if we can’tContinueContinue reading “Useful Idiots?”
Building: the Resistance
The resistance to building is building. There’s now a national alliance, Community Voice on Planning. Here’s what’s currently centre-screen on their home page: “Please don’t forget our DAY OF ACTION on 12 APRIL. The theme is ‘Listen to the People’s Voice on Planning’This is a sample of some of the Events that we know ofContinueContinue reading “Building: the Resistance”
On Whose Side?
Population Matters Magazine, in its current issue, includes an article by Ian Grace, described as a professional planning officer with more than 30 years’ planning experience. It’s always good fun to watch when someone inside the system breaks ranks. The article makes points that are well worth extracting:“…If you want to house 100,000 people, youContinueContinue reading “On Whose Side?”
That Figures
The Campaign to Protect Rural England is good at collecting statistics. It may be no more than a gnat on the side of the development elephant but at least it knows how to document the scale of the deception being practised upon us by the London regime. However, there is rather more to the dataContinueContinue reading “That Figures”
Green as Gravel
Natalie Bennett, Leader of the Green Party in England & Wales (& Cornwall) was one of the panel on BBC Radio 4’s Any Questions? this week. To the amazement of anyone concerned about the ecological crisis we face, she launched into an impassioned defence of massive urban development and a rejection of those measures thatContinueContinue reading “Green as Gravel”
Pop Goes the Weasel
“Governments with money centralise and claim the credit. Governments without cash decentralise and spread the blame. Those are not the views of a hardened media cynic. They are what I was told by one of the Tories’ top policy wonks before the election.”Nick Robinson, BBC Political Editor, December 2010Surprised? Why? The masters of the universeContinueContinue reading “Pop Goes the Weasel”
Wessex Regionalists 