There were sparrows in our local supermarket this morning, flying around happily;)

http://www.thisisgloucestershire.co.uk/story-13263865-detail/story.html

The craftiest tactic in all this is the wheeze of allowing local communities to share some of the profits from developments. Someone, somewhere, said to the Tory policy makers – we’re fed up with risking prison for handing out bribes, can you please find a way to legalise it?

Prehistoric stuff is particularly at risk in all this, as “setting” is so important. There are going to be a lot of losses and the local communities will be fighting on the developers’ sides and against people like us... Sick or what? But very, very clever.

Take Avebury. The UNESCO Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention recommends a Buffer Zone to protect the immediate setting of each World Heritage Site, important views, and other areas or attributes which support and protect the Site. Despite that and despite EH’s opposition, Bond’s Garage got redeveloped and the Parish and District Councils voted yes. (Mainly on the promise of low cost housing being built). What are the chances of that not being just the first of many assaults on WHSs if there’s the added factor of hundreds of thousands of quid being available to the local and district councils if developments go through?

This has been a very interesting discussion and like any good debate - challenging at times. What no one has mentioned though is the burden that new developments places on our rivers, which I also consider to be sacred. The River Kennet for example always 'runs' dry near to its source in the summer - I've mentioned before that it used to service the new housing development on the southern edge of Swindon. I suppose we have accepted by now that the water that comes out of our taps has flushed a few toilets in it the past.

The time is not far away when water will become as expensive an utility as power - yet it always seems to be left out of the ecology argument of wind farms/solar heating, etc. Not hard to see why clean, clear springs were held in such reverence by our ancestors.

Well there has been an awful lot of discussion around on this subject of Our Sacred Land and I see John Vidal has also said something in the Guardian this morning.....
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/sep/06/national-trust-planning-reforms

about the National Trust's epetition launch against the planning reforms.
Not an organisation which you might see as predominantly prehistoric but at least it does a lot for protection of heritage...

http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/

This thread is starting to piss me off a tad, unfortunately. I'm all for interesting tangents and related discussions, but, if anyone wants me to close it, just say it, please.

Namaste

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Aq5-WSFuo8

:-)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/hands-off-our-land/8756477/Planning-ministers-in-pact-with-developers-over-reforms.html

Unfortunately, I have again been seriously considering locking this thread as it seems to have now become a boxing ring for old grievances. To me they are irrelevant, but from what I've read, they will never be amicably settled, so can people please 'let it lie' ?

Ok. This is an interesting article. I'm not sure about the accuracy, as many people work hard in organisations with heavy bureacratic restrictions placed on them, much to their continued frustration, but they keep on keeping on, so to speak, because every effort counts and important principles are at stake. I'm not very informed about the reality of this subject, especially from the point of view of anyone doing valuable work within these agancies, so opinions on the points raised in this article would be very interesting:

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/wildlife-groups-are-failing-to-protect-nature-2354309.html

OM SHANTI

It is beginning to get tiring all this in fighting. I think I'll go climb some hills and let my feet do the talking. If being daft raises a laugh or two then I'm glad I'm not clever.

I'm sure that a couple of minutes ago I saw a blank post addressed to me by some comic genius caled 'easymass', and now it's completely vanished.

???

Well, well, well...the plot sickens.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/hands-off-our-land/8763931/Hands-Off-Our-Land-the-300000-new-homes-already-in-the-bank.html

This link in the article is particularly enraging and saddening:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/hands-off-our-land/8745082/Hands-Off-Our-Land-key-areas-under-threat-in-pictures.html

It's very intersting how these days The Telegraph, of all papers, is producing some very cogent and principled articles re. the activities of this Governments policies, and not just in relation to this topic.

WTF ?!?! Is he really that stupid to think that people will fall for this, or is seriously taking the piss:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/hands-off-our-land/8777899/David-Cameron-I-promise-to-protect-the-countryside.html

You really couldn't make it up.

Apologies for opening this thread up again, as it's all been said now and I don't want to bore people, but I just have to post this very telling article, which is a sadly fitting thread end :

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/sep/26/planning-system-authorised-blackmail

This article is a very good summation of the entire situation we are facing:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/poets-corner-the-battle-for-ts-eliotrsquos-village-2362671.html

Dear Supporter,

With the official consultation deadline fast approaching, well over 160,000 people have added their voice to our Planning for People petition. This is a fantastic response, thank you for signing up.

There are three days to go, so please encourage your family and friends to add their names, to make sure the Government really gets the message that their proposed planning reforms need rethinking. We will be delivering the petitions to Downing Street on Monday 17 October, along with our official response to the consultation.

There is no deadline for writing to your MP to share your concerns. Once the consultation closes there will be a lot of work going on behind-the-scenes to iron out the details of the planning framework. By raising the subject with your MP, you remind them just how important this is to you.

Take a look at our Planning for People summary, which sets out the changes we want to see in the planning framework.

Our work continues too, as we enter into constructive dialogue with Planning Minister, Greg Clark, looking at the policy in detail. We will be paying very close attention to the planning framework as it evolves, doing everything we can to ensure that, by the time it becomes law in April 2012, planning is for people, not just a blunt tool to deliver economic growth.

Thank you, once again, for your support.

Please do keep spreading the word.

Andrew, James, Ingrid, Ben, Ian, Tamasine, Kate, Rob, Holly, Cass, Sarah and Claire

The Planning for People team

(Slightly) better news?

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/ministers-join-rebellion-against-more-building-in-countryside-6264082.html

What a suprise...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/nov/20/house-builders-lobbied-cabinet-planning?fb=native&CMP=FBCNETTXT9038

See? I told you there was a reason for not having windfarms I in Northern Scotland! Cos it's TOO damned windy and the damned things combust!

http://m.stv.tv/news/scotland/west-central/286170-wind-turbine-bursts-into-flames-as-hurricane-force-winds-hit-scotland/

Just like I've been saying. (Not the flames - I had no idea about the flames! :D )

G x

They don't give a damn about the majority, only about delivering what their mates want ...

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2011/12/25/jim-paice-agriculture-minister_n_1169274.html

For a country that's broke (yeah, right..see also: Daimond Jubilee, Olympics) this is going to cost a phenomenal amount, and for what ? Literally minutes off a train journey, regardless of the damage to areas of outstanding beauty, related local wildlife and the environment in general.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2084959/HS2-Tory-shires-furious-high-speed-rail-link-gets-ahead.html

Gideon, the egotistical economic halfwit, plans a fresh onslaught on the Green Belt:

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/ministers-get-ready-to-go-for-greenbelt-grab-8081392.html

(formerly Sea Cat)