HELP SAVE DEVON'S COUNTRYSIDE (It is already saved)

[burns_curtis]

--- In diggers350 at y..., "Steve Melia" <steve at s...> (by way of 
Ecovillage Network UK <evnuk at g...>) wrote:

> Two councils in Devon have just 
> submitted plans for a new town 

Great news!!!  New homes for the many homeless or people living in 
substandand housing.

> on a greenfield flood plain 

A flood plain?  Very silly

> and a Concrete Valley of ribbon development 
> 3 miles long and 1 mile wide.  

"Concrete Valley"?? Emotive propaganda words used by fake green 
movements, who are fronts for large landowners.  Others are: 

- "Urban Sprawl".  In occupying only 7.5% of the land mass there is 
no sprawl anywhere in the UK.  
- Another is "Concreting over the countryside".  Similar to the one 
you gave.  

You make people's homes sound like an aircraft runway.

Some of the so-called green movements are not so well meaning.  The 
Countryside Alliance is funded by the Duke of Westminster and the 
Duke of Argyle - two very large and very rich landowners.  Their aims 
are dubious - like primarily keeping their masses of acres and people 
rammed into only 7.5% of the land mass.

The so-called environmental groups, from the Countryside Alliance at 
one end to Friends of The Earth at the other, come in for some sharp 
criticism by Kevin Cahill in his book "Who Owns Britain".  He accuses 
them as acting as a front for the large landowners maintaining the 
status quo keeping urbanites out of the countryside and herding them 
into 7.5% of the land mass.  Media personality Jonathan Porrit, son 
of 1st Baron Porrit, of Friends of The Earth comes in for some sharp 
criticism.

We need more homes, not more greenbelt sprawl.  In 2001 52,000 new 
homes were built in the Irish Republic which has a population of 3.4 
million.  The UK, with a population of 60 million managed a mere 
170,000.  The House Builders Federation indicated that highly 
restrictive planning laws curtail much needed housebuilding in the UK.

There are currently three million people in the UK living in 1.5  
million homes officially classified as unfit, and this situation is  
unlikely to improve in the foreseeable future.  2.5 million homes  
suffer from severe damp, and the cost of remedying these conditions  
is estimated between 46 and 70 billion pounds.

House conditions were found to contribute to "chronic chest disease", 
Hypothermia and digestive condition.

The above was some of the findings of a report commissioned by the 
Joseph Rowntree Organisation published by the National Housing Forum  
in 1996.  The situation has changed little since then.

> Please copy this message to everyone 
> you know who cares about the 
> countryside.

I do care about the countryside and I will not copy this misguided 
NIMBYist post to anyone.  The best way of preserving it, is not to 
leave it to large landowners and landscape rapists and poisoners, is 
to put people back in the countryside, instead of herding 60 million 
of them into 7.5% of the land mass.

Houses, especially highly insulated eco houses, are inert.  Devon has 
tons of land.  Tons of it.  Enough to build a city of 1 million and 
still not make an impact on the environment.