BUILDERS SHENANIGANS

Until recently a couple of rows of sheltered bungalows stood by the stream a little further down the lane. These bungalows had been empty for some years as the site on which they were built was prone to flooding.

Now why would anyone build homes for the elderly on a piece of ground know to flood at least once a year? A question asked by everyone in the village since the homes were built and to which there has been no satisfactory answer.

About three years ago, at great expense to local Community Charge payers, alterations were made to the drainage and the brook was dredged and its banks widened and when this was done the flooding stopped.

Did the local authority then refurbish these perfectly sound little bungalows? No they did not!

Instead they sold them and the land on which they stood to a local builder, who intended, he said, to build six three bedroomed houses for young local couples to purchase at affordable prices and some small bungalows for the elderly.

The bulldozers moved in and on the very day that the demolition began we discovered that the plans had been changed. Instead of six small affordable homes ,three five bedroomed houses were to be erected, high end properties for wealth types who fancy a country retreat!

Well of course most of the village is up in arms as there is a real shortage of affordable housing to rent or buy in this pretty village, incidentally there is also a shortage of sheltered housing now that the bungalows have gone.

This is not the first time such an event has taken place and one must assume that the Local Authority is complicit in this change of plan, since without council consent the new build could not take place.

Recently, the same Local Authority who have allowed the plan to go ahead ,declared themselves firmly against such developments in rural communities and pledged that in future all new builds would be of the small affordable type and would be in keeping with the architecture of the villages concerned. So, what happened? Well take a wild guess.

Corruption in high places is endemic in our society, one only has to examine the happenings at FIFA headquarters in recent years to observe that the perpetrators no longer feel the need to disguise their doings, often carrying out breathtaking acts of fraud in plain sight.

Disgusted by this blatant volte face the villagers have called an emergency meeting to discuss the matter, but in the meant time the work goes on.shenanigans