Right, now I really want to let rip and lose my temper at the government for what they are doing to my county! Go here.
Build, build, build, it's all they flipping do. And what? Any more jobs to go with that? No, and there aren't enough for the volume of people who live there anyway. Mmm, let me see, Labour think it is a terribly good idea to build all over green field sites, to expand villages into towns with no real community or infrastructure, and to basically completely destroy everything!
If you read my previous post on over population you might be thinking "you can't have it both ways Fire Fairy", and of course, a greater population does mean more homes are needed, and it doesn't sit well with me, it never did. But, it wouldn't be quite so bad if they actually built affordable houses, that were comfortable but not huge. Take the village where my parents and brothers live as a prime example. All of the new houses that have been built there since we moved into ours in summer 2001 have been hideous sprawling mansions, with no character, behind gross electric gates. The residents do not get involved in village life, give nothing back to the community, and their beastly homes take up a disproportionate amount of land i.e. three six bedroom monsters with private gyms take up the same space that approximately twenty reasonable sized homes for the average Joe would take. So, now that these huge houses have taken up so much valuable space, where oh where will all these new houses the government want built go? It's annoying, because they push first-time buyers out of their home towns by building so-called plush pads, and then they discover they need to build more and more houses elsewhere, and by doing so communities slowly begin to disintegrate and lose their identity.
Space is not being used wisely! Sure, we don't all want to live on top of each other, and we see examples of this in very built-up areas, where new developments are crammed into even the tiniest of lots. What about disused buildings that have fallen into disrepair? Why isn't more being done to renovate them, providing homes in spaces that were originally allocated as such? Often brown field sites are not always picked before green field sites which infuriates me greatly. Not only does it have a negative effect on all things naturally beautiful it is ultimately destructive to animal habitats, trees and plants. Flood plains are becoming over-burdened, we are encountering problems with the water supply, and traffic is also growing at an alarming rate, further burdening our planet with pollution and potential disaster.
I'm so annoyed about this because our area of the country constantly feels trampled on. From the sewage works being built in my old home town to take the rubbish for the city a few miles away, () to the new football stadium being built on a green field site by a tiny village, instead of the sensible option to build it on a brown field site next to the city station. The views of the residents of these places were treated with utter disregard by the government.
One news story that did raise a smile for me though, was about a developer who has had to build a special house for bats found on the site where he was building flats (not in itself a wholly negative thing, as he is replacing two houses). But still, go bats! Note this amusing quote from the developer, "I just feel that perhaps we have gone a step too far in the protection of one bat which as of today no one has seen. As of today we have spent £20,000 to £30,000 building a structure for a phantom bat that is heated on the say-so of an ecologist who found some droppings in the house." And his point is? The bats deserve protecting if their habitat is being destroyed by yet more development. And 800 droppings are fairly good evidence of the existence of bats that haven't been seen. Are these builders working by candlelight? I doubt it, so it's no real wonder considering bats are nocturnal. Even if the bats no longer dwell at the property, creating a habitat for them can be no bad thing. After all, they have just as much right to lofts as humans and spiders do :)
There are glimmers of hope on the horizon in the form of novel bat houses... Ok, it's just a story that made me grin muchly, but I feel tired on behalf of my homeland for all these new buildings being smacked upon it. When will it end? Can it end? Is it just us, or is the rest of the country experiencing the same problem? And is it all really necessary? And have I now just found myself in a depressing conundrum with my opinion on over population meaning one thing, but the reality of over development meaning another. More for me to ponder about... I shall also daydream some fantastical solutions - I mean we could always emigrate under the sea like Homer Simpson visualises...or we could move to space a la Pixar's Wall-E, although I'm not so sure about the sedantry lifestyle... Or maybe we could all run through the next antique wardrobe we see and find ourselves in Narnia... *sigh* If only...
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