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LETTER: ‘How much housing is enough in the Blackmore Vale?’

WHEN is enough, enough?

Housing seems to be out of control in local areas. Every way you turn, there is another estate or another field pulled up.

Who are all these people that need these houses, I hear asked.

A lot of us in the local area have moved, or lived here, because we enjoy the small towns and villages. But these towns and villages are now under threat.

Our schools are packed, no one can get appointments at their doctor’s and our roads have now come to a standstill in many towns.

The infrastructure simply was not built for this.

The developers take options on land around every town, and the landowners have been just as greedy, knowing they will gain a great deal of money by doing this.

Surely the landowners are also responsible, selling to the highest bidder but having no interest in conservation of the local area?

Developers greedily build inside the planning lines and outside them. They know no council can stand in their way – what they want, they will get.

After which, these developers walk away with full pockets, leaving the council to sort the failing infrastructure, which undoubtedly means higher council tax.

I am unsure of the point of councils these days. If they refuse a planning application, the developers move up the chain until they get the ‘yes’ they want. So why bother having them if they have no power to protect their villages and towns?

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So, the question to everyone remains, when is enough, enough? Answers on a postcard please.

I know we are British and though we complain to each other, we rarely do anything about it, but at some point we must say: ‘Stop, let us decide how many new homes we want each year in our communities’.

Or could communities buy the land with councils, to protect it, or develop it as we see fit?

Maybe the Blackmore Vale could ask our MPs and councillors how much housing is enough.

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I am the editor in chief of Blackmore Vale media, which includes the New Blackmore Vale, New Stour & Avon, Salisbury & Avon Gazette and the Purbeck Gazette, having been a reporter for some 20 years. In my spare time, I am a festival lover, with a particular focus on Glastonbury. I live in Somerset with my wife and two children.