On destructive development, on food that isn’t food, on two-legged sheep, on the demise of thought and the war for the future
Never let it be said I’m afraid of lengthy headlines if they’re appropriate and relevant to the topics under the spotlight. I really should learn not to ask questions or voice worries sometimes. Invariably if I ever mention to someone that we’ve had, say, a vacuum cleaner or washing machine for a very long time, it breaks down within a week or less. Two days ago I was chatting with a neighbour across the street, a lovely old lady, and commented on how beautiful the large open space behind her row of houses is. And it is. You get a fantastic panoramic view of the Dales, and the entire area right now is festooned with daisies. It’s land that, in the merciless capitalist predatory age we live in, doesn’t ‘do’ anything. It simply is, and all the more wonderful for it.
But then today a letter from the council drops through the door announcing the £70 million development of this green lushness into new housing–40 per cent of which will, in today’s nonsensical lingo, apparently be ‘affordable’, presumably meaning the other 60 per cent won’t be—and new retail outlets. There will be some ‘public space’, whatever that means. Probably a few benches and potted plants.
The language of the letter is all too familiar: after careful consideration… a deal has been struck to benefit local people… this will be the making of us all… we’ll all be happy… blah, blah, blah. It’s the usual bullshit arranged in closed rooms between suits all of whom have an aversion to green space because it doesn’t make money. This is why it shouldn’t be hard to understand why so many of us distrust the politicians creating eco-towns: a true eco-town would fly in the face of all that’s holy and sacrosanct about capitalism. But the done deal in our local area makes no mention of the environment being a consideration in the new development; if it were, truly, they’d have recognised the value of all that greenery being left alone. Even the distant view of the sloping hills and valleys is valuable in a way that politicians are blind to.
There’s not even a crumb of comfort to be found in any mention of sustainability in the documentation, no referencing of solar panels or triple-glazing or new allotments. Nothing.
The people behind the decision were, of course, elected but made no mention of what they intended to do when in power and sat round a table making great plans together. It’s depressing, and very sad. We’ve lived in the area for a total of five months now and already it seems within five years we’ll be saying, like so many old people, “I remember when all this was fields…”.
This is a multi-page entry: page 1 page 2 page 3 page 4
tags: activism, affordable housing, developments, eco-towns, environment, eschatology, extinction, food miles, green spaces, hope, local authorities, politicians, radicalism, self-sufficiency, supermarkets, the matrix
1 comment on “On destructive development, on food that isn’t food, on two-legged sheep, on the demise of thought and the war for the future”
May 11th, 2008 at 3:57 pm
Powerful post Andy, and much good food for our thoughts.
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