[diggers350] Re: HELP SAVE DEVON'S COUNTRYSIDE (It is already saved)

[msbrown at cwcom.net]

Your message was approved by me (list moderator) because I thought your 
argument was worth being shared. You make some interesting points, and good to 
hear the statsitics and learn of your quotes.  However, I disagree with you.

Since you obviously take the line of the Housebuilders Federation, would you 
consider that the main motivation in their argument for large scale housing 
projects is profit maximasation, and not fulfilling the opening up the vast 
swathes of our green and pleasant land to live and work in.  But probably what 
is the biggest failure in your argument is your non-recognition ofr the fact 
thatthese type of large scale developments will only further distort the 
housing market against the interests of those most in need (i.e. those for whom 
the cost of owning their own home is already beyond their reach). Preferential 
building of free-market homes for sale always disadvantages the poor. 

Not only that, what we need in environmental criteria so that development in 
the countryside 9for which, yes, there is an obvious need) should be subject to 
strict environmental conditions, such as The land is Ours' 15 Criteria for 
Sustainable development.

Yours most forcefully,

Mark.S.Brown (TLIO) 


Quoting burns_curtis <john.burns-curtis at bigfoot.com>:

> --- 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.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor
> 
>  
> 
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to
> http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ 
> 
> 
>