Friday 23 May 2008

Climping Open Garden weekend - 14 and 15 June

This is going to be a good weekend! It's the Climping Open Gardens festival - new and enhanced for 2008!
  • Scarecrow festival and competition judged on the Saturday by Nick Gibb, our MP (and as Angie won this last time in 2006, I can say he is an excellent judge!)
  • Classic car and motorbike display at the Village Hall - it's Father's Day after all
  • Food Festival on the Sunday in the Village Hall

And we're going to have a CAFE stand there for the weekend too - in a stall at the Village Hall - I'm hoping to get some balloons printed for the kids, leaflets for the adults, leaflets and petitions.

Any offers to help run the stall very welcome! Especially for the Saturday as Angie and I can't do that day (we're opening the garden up!)

Letter to the West Sussex Gazette - Not in My Grandchildren's Back Yard

Sir

I find it galling that the Ford Eco Town proposers' standard response to their critics is that we are NIMBY's lacking 'Vision'.

So let me say that I do have a vision for this green Sussex land. It is a century's time in May 2108, and those reading this letter are here no more; but gloriously the skylarks swirl in the fields above the land, a ban on developing agricultural land having brought these fantastic birds back from danger. There will always be children; and now a group of kids are running across the fields to the farm shop. Fields we would recognise, though the footpaths are marked more clearly for cycles and pushchairs and walkers - and so used far more than today. In the fields around the crops are growing where they have always grown; all organic now of course. But the farmers' markets thrives in a century's time - and the food they sell follows the seasons. The children cannot believe their grandparents' stories about buying food from another continent. By 2018 the supermarkets have found it harder; they don't have that monopoly to beat up the farmers any more - people want to buy locally, and individual shops and markets have come back to our villages. The food they buy was grown in the fields they run through by farmers their parents know.

It is many years now since the world realised that it could not build its way out of carbon dependence, that fooling around with minor sources of energy was not enough. Serious land protection, and making sure that development was done on those old contaminated sites had been the answer. Sure, in 2108 there are still problems, but the generation now living in Climping, and in Yapton and in Ford are happy that our generation left them at least the land as it was.

Is this vision NIMBY - well it is to an extent. But then I don't accept NIMBY as a term of abuse. If your 'Vision' is to let developers concrete over fields of corn, to destroy villages that have been here for a 1000 years, then I want no part of it. For me this protest is about handing on the land to our children's children in a good state. Not in My Grandchildren's Back Yard perhaps? Sounds a better vision to me. Find the difficult brownfield sites - not those that you describe as such using legal challenges and tenuous comparisons, but the ones that local people recognise. The old industrial sites, the closed down garages, the old army barracks - the unlovely and the unloved - and spend the money cleaning them up.

Join the march on 7 June and tell the developers that we are proud to protect the land, to eat its food and to live here in our villages.



Geoff Dixon

Thursday 22 May 2008

Who's counting..?


Did you notice people in day-glow counting today? I had a guarded chat with two of them at Canal Road this evening - it went something like this...

Me: Excuse me - do you mind if I ask what you are doing?
Them: Counting traffic...
Me: Who asked you to do this?
Them: Dunno a private company...
Me: Who do you work for then?
Them: A private company...
Me: And they are?
Them: Not allowed to say...
Me: Don't you find counting cars a little odd?
Them: It might be something to do with this roundabout.
Me: So why are people counting at places all over the village?
Them: Might be something to do with this eco village?
Me: Do you mind if I take your picture?
Them: No...
Them: Can we ask why you are taking our picture?
Me: I just want to share it...  With some friends...
Me: Thanks - have a nice evening.

[[ UPDATE ]] There has been quite a lot of this going on in Sussex over the last few weeks - so I wouldn't worry too much.

They really do care...

Nice to see the people behind Ford Airfield Eco Town provide readers of the Littlehampton Gazette (May 22nd) with a FREE toilet paper sample at the bottom (if you forgive me), of page 22!!!

Woo! Readers of the Bognor Observer have a supersise sample...

It just goes to show - they really do care..?

Dear Editor(s)

I read Harold Hall's interesting letter published in Littlehampton Gazette (15/05/08), he's certainly doing the rounds. I have one question for Mr Hall who is so naively convinced an Eco Town will create a green and social utopia in Sussex. If you are truly convinced Ford Eco Town is the answer to all these problems you highlighted in your letter, then I assume you would be more than delighted to have 5,000 + homes, retail units, a link road and science park dumped at Warningcamp? I look forward to your public response to this question in this newspaper Mr Hall.

Regards

Mr M Smith
Published in Littlehampton Gazette 22.05.08

Wednesday 21 May 2008

An Interesting Letter...

Dear Sirs,

The Yapton/Ford/Clymping Housing Estate (aka Ford Eco Town)

I attended a Parish Meeting yesterday in Yapton. Everyone at the meeting was most distressed to hear what Mr.Trumble had to tell us.

Mr. Trumble Is an extremely well respected member of our community and has given freely of his time for years and years – certainly the 21 years I have lived here. He told us that he writes in his local Neighbourhood Watch magazine.

He told the meeting that he had received a telephone call from someone from your organisation whilst he was snoozing on a Sunday afternoon, and in this telephone call he was berated for writing a piece in the magazine about the so-called Ford “Eco” town. The gentleman “tearing Mr. Trumble off a strip” told him that he had received three complaints about his “political” piece in the magazine.

It was the opinion of the meeting last night that Mr. Trumble was doing exactly the correct thing in stating that the Ford Eco town was not a few houses confined to the old Airfield, but warning people of the impending catastrophe that was being proposed for our three villages. The 10,000 - 2000 houses that are proposed to be built on the fields separating our three villages would no doubt bring about dire social problems, not least an increase in crime, which of course is what Neighbourhood Watch is surely all about.

The Ford Airfield Vision Hub consists of three landowners and three businessmen, a Mr. Hall, a Mr. Penfold and a Mr. Dixon. The three landowners have tried to sell the land in question for development on many occasions but have always quite rightly been prevented from doing so by Arun District Council’s proper planning procedures. By tagging this huge housing estate with the label “eco” they have been able to bypass local council and have taken their proposals direct to Government who of course are desperate to be seen as “green”.

Strangely enough the complaints to Neighbourhood Watch came from the three businessmen involved in the multi-million pound project – Mr. Harold Hall, Mr. John Penfold and Mr. Tony Dixon.

I would be very grateful if you would write a letter of apology to Mr. Trumble and send a copy to me in the enclosed stamped addressed envelope.

Yours sincerely,

Cc Nick Herbert MP, (Arundel) Nick Gibb MP (Bognor & Littlehampton) Caroline Flint, Arun District Council, ,Mr. Harold Hall, Mr. John Penfold Mr. Tony Dixon.

663,328 Empty Houses in UK

www.emptyhomes.com is an independent campaigning charity which aims to raise awareness of the potential of empty homes in England to meet housing need. They devise and promote, with others, sustainable solutions that will bring empty homes back into use.

They seek to achieve these goals by working at two levels:
Nationally - by campaigning, lobbying and communicating for policy change.
Locally - by providing support to local authorities, housing associations, community groups, which want to bring empty homes back into use.

They have some interesting statistics. OK these date back to 2006 - but the figures are still worth thinking about. So where are all the empty homes in the UK? Click here.

And what about all the empty houses in the South East? Click here

Thanks Sylvie...

Even Top Gear are against Eco Towns on Green sites

http://www.pistonheads.com/news/default.asp?storyId=18089 A friend in Cambridgeshire has sent me this link. So it isn't just NIMBY's and environmentalists fighting these Eco Town proposals to build on green fields!

Tuesday 20 May 2008

On a graphic scale


Enough said...

A REVIEW by Tricia

It was a brilliant night at Arundel Town Hall last night. There was a modern-day farce called “Ford Eco Town” performed by the Ford Airfield Vision Hub Players. What a flight of fantasy and imagination it turned out to be!

The evening kicked off with one of the old jokes. The principle boy had us in stitches when he told us that he had no financial interest in the production, even though the audience could see a brown envelope sticking out of his trousers waistband. How we laughed.

Then we heard magical tales of MFI’s and BFG’s and the cutting down of old woodlands and the planting of new woodlands somewhere else. And building a yellow brick road from the A259 south to meet the A27 north and filling it up with cars and heavy goods vehicles from one end to another.

A cheeky member of the audience joined in the fun by asking a Michiavellian landowner how much money he was making out of the plot, but the Michiavellian landowner pretended he didn’t know. But the audience knew that really the sum was just a little too difficult for him to work out because it had so many noughts in it.

The principal boy then told daring tales about damming the River Arun and flooding the whole Eco Town. The 20,000 people who had cars could make thrilling escapes by driving over the brand new bridges but the other 20,000 people without cars would have to stay in the Eco Town and paddle! Well, that brought the house down.

The principal boy joked that our children and grandchildren could catch minnows in the newly concreted ponds that surrounded Ford Open Prison, but one little boy in the audience said that he preferred to catch them in the stream in the fields behind his house, thank you very much.

The Machiavellian landowner came on stage again and told us that he’d talked to a railway person about putting more trains on the tracks, so we could watch them pass while we queued up at Yapton Level Crossing gates, where we only to 19 seconds to wait at the moment. But then the nice man from Café said that he’d talked to a railway person who said it couldn’t be done. Now there was a puzzle for the audience.

What a show!

A similar production is taking place in 15 other halls in pretty villages and towns all over the countryside in Southern England, but hurry hurry hurry, the show must end on June 30th. If you enjoy a good Pantomime, do go and see your local Eco Town Production.

Posted on behalf of Tricia 20 May 2008 14:19

Oh what a night in Arundel!

Last night in Arundel around 200 people from the town and beyond came along to hear the developers speak for the first time in public.

Harold Hall did about half an hour, essentially reading out their website which they'd turned into a powerpoint presentation for the evening. John Penfold and Tony Dixon were silent for this part, as was the representative of the Vision Group - one of the landowners who answered one or two questions later. Gary Pleasants who will be leading the Developer's so-called consultation process was there too, but remained unintroduced to the public.

The audience were asked not to interrupt, but were allowed to laugh at some of the Ford Enterprise Hub's more hilarious claims. In particular their claim to want to consult and involve the local communities got a big laugh - presumably it was soon apparent that there was a huge majority in the Hall vehemently against their proposals. Mr Hall said that they would be announcing consultation dates "next week".

The CAFE Group then had their chance, and Terry Knott introduced Vicky, Derek and me - we spoke on Planning, Transport and Business/Employment issues respectively. I also helped Mr Hall's memory by revealing that their consultation dates were 19 - 21 June. Barely a week before the end of the Government's planning process, hardly demonstrating a genuine interest in what other people think.

The presentations were followed by questions from the public - no questions were asked critical of the CAFE campaign; highlights of the questions asked for me were:

From an engineer who is involved professionally with the development and provision of renewable energy sources, "How far have you progressed with the feasability studies for the energy sources you proposed?" The response from Mr Hall was to criticise the questioner's lack of 'vision' as a professional'. My personal understanding was that they have only got to the ideas stage, and have no idea what it would cost or how practical it might be.

From another member of the public, "How much profit do the Developers expect to make from this?" A good question which they might have simply declined to answer, but instead they simply said that they have not the faintest idea! They couldn't explain how, therefore, they were going to know if they could afford the infrastructure.

When the claim was made that we should build this town for the sake of future generations, one schoolboy spoke up to say that he preferred being able to walk out amongst the natural habitat' and said he didn't want it built on! I've seen a great photo he has taken of some lizards out on the site - so a naturalist of the future!

Other questions focussed on the impact of building in an area where water drainage was key; suspicions that the development would not stop at 5,000 houses; the destruction of valuable arable land; and the adverse impact on the local economy and redevelopment of Bognor and Littlehampton.

Susan did very well collecting contributions and petition signatures towards the cause - this will really help us get the message out, and we've got lots of posters on order now!

Bizarrely John Penfold contributed 50p to the CAFE fund on his way out - I asked if he was hedging his bets so that he could claim to have backed the winning side.

I asked Tony Dixon to sign the CAFE petition, but he declined. Perhaps he has forgotten his statement that 'the mind is like an umbrella, it works best when open'? I saw no sign that the fact that, apart from one or two lone voices who left early, the whole room thought that their ideas were wrong had sunk into the Ford Enterprise Hub team at all.

Monday 19 May 2008

How to safeguard our natural heritage

An interesting front page article on a report by Natural England and comment column in today's Independent

"There is also a strong message here for ministers, as they step up the pressure for the creation of a host of 'eco-towns'. There is a case social for new developments to ease the chronic shortage of housing supply in the south of the country. But these towns must be truly environmentally-friendly. Any developer who has lazily dusted off an old proposal for a dormitory town while lazily adding on a few token 'environmental' features, must be given short shrift. Any hint of 'greenwash' must be rejected. These communities need to be truly sustainable and sensitive to the surrounding natural environment."

Public meeting - Arundel

There will be a public meeting for Arundel Residents, to discuss the implications of the proposed Eco Town at Ford.

The meeting willtake place at Arundel Town Hall, Maltravers Street on Monday 19th May 2008 at 7:30pm. See you there!