It’s a while since I’ve written a post, ‘John A’ having contributed last week’s piece. So here are a few things that caught my eye over the last fortnight while I’ve been doing other things.Our small and crowded island is still fortunate in having some lovely countryside which has been preserved as a result of sensible planning laws. On the other hand it has been recognised for some time that there is a housing shortage. The problem here is that more houses means less countryside, and this is likely to lead to protests. What to do?

Our very resourceful government — in matters of spin at least — had no difficulty finding an answer; a bit of creative re-branding:

The village of Ford in West Sussex was turned on its head last April when the Government  announced it was a “favoured location” to become an eco¬town. One of 10 spots to be transformed into a carbon¬neutral settlement, it would have more than 5,000 sustainably powered homes built on and around it. To encourage residents to take up a more eco-friendly lifestyle, it would be given impeccable new ‘”green” credentials.

Car journeys  would be curtailed by a l8mph speed limit. Bath water would be recycled and fed to communal flowerbeds. Each home would pump excess power generated by its solar panels and turbines back into the National Grid. It all sounded very  worthy.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/5858971/How-Ben-Fogle-helped-save-his-village-from-becoming-an-eco-town.html

And very expensive too. Bog-standard houses are expensive enough to put them beyond the reach of first time buyers, and the urgent need is for low cost housing. Eco-homes come with so many bells and whistles that they are something that only the affluent can afford.

When the then housing minister, Caroline Flint, unveiled the towns shortlisted to be “eco-fied”, she stated that “we will revolutionise how people live”. It sounded more like Nineteen Eighty-Four than the dawn of a green revolution. New developments, given a lick of green paint, could be forced onto towns like Ford, where similar projects would previously have been rejected. The word “eco” would make residents feel guilty if they voiced opposition. It would allow the Government to feel smug about its environmental friendliness, and to steamroller its developments through. Wrap something in green recycled paper and you’ll get away with anything. But Flint hadn’t reckoned on the power of local feeling.

That was a mistake, because the people of Ford seem to be a pretty feisty lot who were quite ready do a bit of campaigning and demonstrating to prevent a vast area of Grade 1 agricultural land being concreted over and their rural community being destroyed. They even attempted a bit of consultation with their opponents: Continue reading »