A VILLAGE DIVIDED

On the day before the meeting to discuss the new houses currently being built at the bottom of our lane I had occasion to speak to two people, both friends of mine and of each other, who are totally divided upon the subject.

Shorty before breakfast the local shop owner and former councillor called to deliver our coal and a lovely sundial purchased from his establishment, and after very kindly situating the sundial in our garden he joined us for coffee.

He is, it seems in favour of the new houses on the grounds that the village needs more homes. He told us that local builders will not build smaller properties as they find them difficult to sell and the profits are much smaller.

I was afraid that we might disagree completely until he told me that it was his opinion that the land, and the sheltered homes built on it should not have been sold in the first place; my own view exactly.

He would like to see many more houses built here, and here we do disagree. Already in our village there are several five plus bedroomed properties, many of which have been on the market for well over a year. This being the case why do we need more?

There are elderly people living in our village who have been on the housing list for a place in sheltered housing for up to five years, yet the housing trust who sold the land and the homes on it maintained that there was no longer any need for them in our community; a blatant untruth!

This is a common practice when Local Authorities and Housing Trusts wish to sell of land in their ownership. I have seen this happen many times and those who have read my previous blog entitled “Avie's Small World” will be familiar with my long battle with Hounslow Council, The Duke of Northumberland and his Estate Manger, to name but a few, in and effort to prevent such occurrences from happening near my last home.

Later in the day I encountered another neighbour and discovered that she takes the opposite view, to my visitor. She insists that no new houses of any sort should be built in the village, and while I deplore the ad hoc building of large expensive houses in rural areas, I do feel that there is a need for some new affordable housing for both young families, and sheltered housing for elderly people who wish to remain in the village they have lived in all their lives.

Recently the Local Authority refused permission for the building of twenty five of these mansion type properties in a field just outside the main village. The proposed site was not only prone to flooding but was in such a location that one of the finest views in the County would have been ruined if the build had gone ahead. Most applauded this decision, I was one of them. However since that time the same Authority have refused permission for two smaller developments of affordable properties on sites which presented no such difficulties. I wonder why?

The two sides represented by my friends are echoed throughout the village and the argument is becoming acrimonious.

Both of my friends asked me to attend the meeting tomorrow night and both expect me to take their part, a difficult situation since I agree with neither of them entirely.

Many of the people who oppose the building of new, smaller homes live in the grander houses in the village and are like myself retired. They do not want more children in the village, they do not want their elite little community sullied by houses less grand than their own and I consider this attitude deplorable.

Those in favour of the houses want many more homes to be built all around the village as many of them are landowners who stand to make a good deal of money in selling part of their property to the developers, an equally deplorable stance.

I have seen what unfettered building can do to a small village and it is not good. The people who buy the houses work in town, they shop in town and they send their children to school either in town or to public school. They take no interest in the community and the village becomes little more than a dormitory.

Tomorrow, my son and I shall attend the meeting and even though we are aware that our opinions may not be popular we shall, none the less we shall voice our opinions on this tricky situation.

It is my view both standpoints currently being debated are short sighted and in supportable and I shall not flinch from saying so! Wish me luck.