There's an interesting story in this weeks Mercury page 25 by Graham Tutthill, and its all about the concerns Liberal Democrat councillor Clive Meredith has about the thousands and thousands of new homes scheduled for the district. Up to 14,000 are scheduled. The concern is where are the jobs to go with them. Clive was being interviewed as a new Consultation process on the issue is due.
"Housing provision should be employment led" says Clive
We suffer from a chronic shortage of quality jobs and without these jobs how are all these mortgages to be sustained...how is a good quality of life to be sustained. Are we just scheduling in dole queues.
The other concern too is the obvious one of mass concrete-isation of the area.
"any more than 6,000 homes will involve building on green land" says Clive
I am personally pleased to hear someone else saying something that Ive been banging on about before as it has always struck me as a scenario for nightmare. I would personally hate to see thousands of homes as its just fantasy planning with the awful prospect that the character of the area will be destroyed forever.
The picture shows Clive Meredith with Jan Tranter at the recent tented ASDA event in Pencester.