LAST week an all-party committee of MPs called for the government to state that 'its policy is to halt the migration of people from urban to rural areas.'
The chairman (Mr Andrew Bennet, Lab) said: 'It is very important that we don't go on building on the countryside . . . people cherish the countryside because it is not a built-up environment.'
Why then is West Devon being pressured to built 1,500 new homes in the next ten years? Almost all on green fields (Times, May 18).
Estate agents' estimates vary, but it appears that less than 50 per cent of houses sold have been to local buyers.
So, if 1,500 new homes are built, 750 will go to incomers; and if they have two children each, in less than 20 years another 1,500 homes will be needed! Two cars per household, 6,000 more cars. Traffic snarl up.
Add new schools, roads, drainage, jobs, two new supermarkets — the countryside devoured!
Sadly, the gentlemanly Civic Society looks like folding up for lack of support. Does not Tavistock care?
Perhaps it is time for an un-civic society to be formed, to fight with gloves off. Failing that the publication of the new Local Plan later this summer could be the last chance for all parties in Tavistock to work together to make their views heard and acted upon.
In hope more than anguish.
Ted Gibson
2 Stannary Bridge Road
Tavistock