Pass The Flaming Brands

There was a meeting in the village about the new housing development. It wasn’t very well advertised by the Parish Council but some kind (and anonymous) soul printed and distributed some flyers for it as well. I went along to find out what this new development might be – but I hadn’t realised that it was going to be a mini-protest meeting.

There’s going to be another 70-odd houses on the rest of the plot that is currently being built. I don’t think this is a bad idea, but for clarity it must be mentioned that the new development is nowhere near my house. Personally, I think it better that the village is growing rather than shrinking. I wouldn’t like to lose the Co-op, the Post Office, the Newsagent (will it ever become a Tesco Mini or whatever?) or any more pubs. (There were 5 pubs when we moved here almost exactly 13 years ago, currently there are just 2 although the third might still recover from its temporary lack of a licencee.)

I was going to voice this opinion, but I became more aware of the general feeling behind me in the room – I was sat at the front as usual. Eventually I decided to keep quiet – when they started marching to burn down the village hall (built with money from previous developments), I would be in a better position to raise the alarm if I wasn’t swinging from the rafters of the school extension (also built with money..)

The Parish Council Planning Committee meeting on Friday would pass on a judgement that will, if past experience is anything to go by, be ignored by the County. Should that ever get written up I’ll post an update. I won’t be attending.

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