As part of the government's apparent intention of allowing rural areas to become countryside theme parks for the second home brigade......after months of campaigning by desperate local people...the closures of several small but vital local Post Offices were announced this week. This represents a disgusting disregard for the needs of rural communities, and a transparent refusal to carry out a genuine consultation process. It seems that as small villages become slowly re-populated by shiny brand new 4x4 driving (badly), second home dwelling tosspots who moan about cow shit in the road and beep when behind tractors....community resources such as local Post offices and schools which are vital for farming communities......are becoming under used and so " not viable".
Game and hunting laws become ever more draconian, and there is even talk of licensing Air Rifles..........
Second homers contribute nothing to the community and have a very negative impact.....even "off-comers" as my Dad would call them, people who move here permanently from urban environments, with some idealised view of the countryside, are changing the character of our small formerly farming communities....casting judgement on centuries old traditions of which they have no understanding, patronising the local communities and grabbing funding for their elitist and nepotistic interests which were meant for inclusive projects to engage isolated parts of communities.
Local people can no longer afford to buy houses near their families. For those who work in vital services this presents a huge problem.
I have alluded to this before....mark my words.....as resources become scarcer it will eventually boil down to the survival of the fittest...and in this area the fittest does not mean newly arrived wallpaper designers and lifestyle coaches in barn conversions who try and stop people using guns for pest control, try and gate up green lanes and drive their 4x4s like they own the feckin road........
There is a groundswell of unrest brewing....prepare for the imminent birth of The Indepedent Free State of Cumbria Militia....
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strangeways
- 2008-07-01 @ 10:56:59
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funkdifino
Pro - 2008-07-03 @ 22:20:23
I sound a bit ridiculous I suppose as until January of this year, I had been living in Manchester for the past 23 years...but I came back often and always felt very rooted here...despite the desire for the anonymity, clash of cultures and excitement of the city when I was younger.
Manchester was good to me...but I've always been a country girl at heart ...and I do believe it may be safer in the future.....-
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middleagespread
- 2008-07-03 @ 22:49:18
You don't sound ridiculous. We've been suffering the same erosion of small rural communities here in Dorset too. Here we get the City dwellers gobbling up any available accomodation which leaves communities virtually empty during the winter months.
How lovely, i hear all you townies saying. But when shops close, and other small amenities which are a lifeline to the rural economy. Also public transport which used to link these small communities are no longer there as the 2nd home owners thunder around in their 4x4s.
Additionally, local prices have soared and continue to climb, making it impossible for locals to purchase a home.
Purbeck council have addressed this (to a small degree) by not allowing non-locals to purchase ex local authority houses. But that doesn't go far enough.
I don't have a solution to this problem, but would love someone to come up with an answer.
I suppose this is the price we pay for living in an area of outstanding beauty. Maybe if we all made it ugly it would immediately solve the problem and they 2nd homers would relinquish their dwellings and become curious visitors again.
By the way i spent part of my growing up in Cumbria, and loved the lake district and the weekend hikes we were forced to do as kids.-
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funkdifino
Pro
- 2008-07-04 @ 13:31:42
I guess there are just too many of us ......and housing generally has become such a difficulty since Thatcher sold off all the social housing.......as recession looms and food production becomes more and more important, we need to protect our rural areas from large scale commercial farming as well as second homers.....thanks for comment xx
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Survival of the fittest..... if the sea waters rise it'll be you and your poacher holding off urbanites as they try to run for the hills! Don't worry, they won't last long without Waitrose.