The post you are reporting:
Stuart, mention was made of the War Memorial. My view is that the issue is separate from the present CGI one among the group. The impression I have is that the village is not in a situation to discuss it while the CGI proposals are on the table, as it is all too overwhelming.
Paul recently wrote of the prospect of hundreds of thousands of visitors to a War Memorial on the Heights, each year, add that to the hotel and the conference centre, and then the 94 houses proposed for Braddon, combine all the traffic, and you'll see that it is all to overpowering for the communities up there.
My worry is that DDC are not giving fair treatment to the residents and are potentially destroying their community life, as they have proven to be capable of doing with Sholden and Whitfield.
We did have a delegation from Sholden at the second meeting, who expressed their support, and the last words the lady from Sholden said to me were: "we will win!"
She was referring to Sholden too. People still have hope, they are hoping what they see as a terrible destiny can be reversed.
I received this exact same message from Whitfield in November 2010 or there about, that many people there hope the present economic crisis will prevent DDC's development plans from going ahead to the extent the Planning Office have proposed.
I did bring this up at the time on the Forum, but Paul Watkins spoke of knee-jerk reactions, no matter who they came from. I wasn't just speaking for myself!
I am not sure if DDC Planning is aware that they may be ruining the lives of whole communities, and possibly forcing people out of despair to abandon their home village and migrate elsewhere.
We must stand up for the cause of Freedom and Democracy, for civic society where people and communities count and have the right to take part in the decisions that regard their future.
Where people are not treated as on Animal Farm, where an outcry against such massive intrusion in the peaceful life of a community is not a "knee-jerk reaction".
We must not allow ourselves to degenerate into a society of local government tyranny, where massive investment schemes involving developers and money to the Council completely wipe out all objections, whether on future employment, the right to continue enjoying a peaceful environment, concerns of increased traffic and pollution or any other concerns.
Hence, it is essential that DDC start an open dialogue with the Western Heights community, yet not based on speculative development, on an imposition already decided in the Planning room (see Corporate Plan 2012-16), but on the expressed will of the majority of people.
The petition has spoken clearly: in two hours, hundreds of signatures from all over Dover, from Britain, Canada, Australia...
We would have had thousands of signatures in 10 hours, in just two streets!