A Plot on the Landscape

But not sure it’s worth the paper it’s printed on?

We received our local newsletter last week, which is a (very) small publication with details of local happenings, election news and such. This edition did have something of direct interest to us, in the form of a letter from the Chairman of the Parish Council.

The published letter was concerning planning an development in the area, and it seemed to be “talking to us”. Now, if this sort of thing carries any weight at all I doubt it, which almost makes it as frustrating as encouraging when in our situation, but this is an extract:

We have recently responded to the East of England revised plan for development in Bedfordshire - the report will be published in July 2007.

We care about our residents but the development programmed for Milton Keynes is causing great concerns to our lovely villages and many other villages in Bedfordshire. At Broughton Gate 1,500 dwellings are being built; at Fen Farm John Lewis will be opening a distribution centre in 2009, employing 280 personnel at Home Farm in Cranfield there is a development in process of 400 dwellings and there is concern that there may be 3,00 extra dwellings built in Aspley Guise so I can only hope that our residents from Hulcote and Salford will try to keep our villages rural and undeveloped as much as possible. Any small development should be for residents only, i.e. siblings etc as we do not have the sustainability, water, sewage infrastructure in place for any development at present.

With the help of our MP Nadine Dorries and many other Government members and opposition Members of Parliament, our voice is heard loud and clear. Our County Councillor Roger Baker and District COuncillors Alan Bastable & Ken Mathews have been very helpful in the pasts and will continue in the future.

So, as you can see the letter is very against development, with exception of our sort of project, for family and siblings. Even now we’re unsure what weight, if any, the local Parish Council and Councillors carry in these matters. It feels frustrating we want to develop and improve out little corner of the Village, but the initial response has been nothing but negatives and set backs, words of warning and advice to take the most “softly softly” approach we can.

It seems insane that we’ve seen nearby (literally within a few miles) green fields being obliterated for new developments to expand Milton Keynes, both residential and HUGE commercial/industrial in nature. Yet all we want is to use our own land to make it look nicer and improve the way it’s used to set the family up in local (good quality) housing, and we’re just swimming against the tide.

General feeling now with myself and Abi is a combination of determination and extreme frustration.