Eco Towns; Govt got it in for airfields
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Eco Towns; Govt got it in for airfields
Is it me or is there a preponderance of airfields both civil and military in todays announcement-
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7328138.stm
And adding up the numbers it comes to a huge amount of new houses
Wouldn't mind so much if the odd space and portion of runway could be set aside for a flying homestead USA stylee
Anyone else feel a bit miffed?
Sir George Cayley
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7328138.stm
And adding up the numbers it comes to a huge amount of new houses
Wouldn't mind so much if the odd space and portion of runway could be set aside for a flying homestead USA stylee
Anyone else feel a bit miffed?
Sir George Cayley
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NIMBYS set to support airfields!
Just as I suspected the New Labour facists used the change in the planning laws to include all of an airfield site as "brown field" land (and not just the technical site) was just the start of this "eco-town" thing.
I bet a lot of people are going become very keen on airfields when the results of having an eco-town dropped on there doorstep dawns on then!
I bet a lot of people are going become very keen on airfields when the results of having an eco-town dropped on there doorstep dawns on then!
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Sir George & Others,
This is an absolute outrage and the labour government have again done things by stealth.
I strongly supported the AOPA and PFA campaigns against the reclassification of airfields as brownfield sites. We even managed to get ITV South to run a feature based around what it could mean to places like Old Sarum and Tarrant Rushton. The news feature created a lot of noise and eventually the goverment planners put the reclassification of airfields as a misprint and said it would be amended.
I will phone the ITV presenter tomorrow. This needs a stink to be caused in my opinion. Labour is now so powerful and so sneaky we need a change in government - no one seems to ever want to stand up against what appears to be consistant abuses of democracy. They simply don't listen to anyone anymore... Look at the European Referendum that got buried.
Sorry if I sound p*ssed off, but I am.
Disgusting behaviour. Robbing Socialist B*stards.
This is an absolute outrage and the labour government have again done things by stealth.
I strongly supported the AOPA and PFA campaigns against the reclassification of airfields as brownfield sites. We even managed to get ITV South to run a feature based around what it could mean to places like Old Sarum and Tarrant Rushton. The news feature created a lot of noise and eventually the goverment planners put the reclassification of airfields as a misprint and said it would be amended.
I will phone the ITV presenter tomorrow. This needs a stink to be caused in my opinion. Labour is now so powerful and so sneaky we need a change in government - no one seems to ever want to stand up against what appears to be consistant abuses of democracy. They simply don't listen to anyone anymore... Look at the European Referendum that got buried.
Sorry if I sound p*ssed off, but I am.
Disgusting behaviour. Robbing Socialist B*stards.
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Oh and by the way, before anyone comments on the "eco" town bit... My company specialises in alternative energies and power systems. You can't make a town "ecological" by adding a few solar panels and small wind turbines... THEY DON'T WORK in this type of application PERIOD... Eco towns are not "green", it's simply a shoddy excuse for mass home building when, if they got the immigration policies right we wouldn't need half of them in the first place...
Normally very very level headed and calm..... Sorry to rant...
Normally very very level headed and calm..... Sorry to rant...
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I think Weston on the Green (by M40, Oxfordshire) may be affected, judging by the description on the BBC website of the site '3 miles SW of Bicester, which incudes an 'airstrip'. Some airstrip! Can't see another 'airstrip' that fits that parameter, between WOTG and Bicester.
niknak
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Well do something about it
.
All you have to do is put your money where your mouths are.
Go ahead and buy the relavant sites which are so dear to your hearts, provide the investment which the developers of such sites do and provide the boost to the local economy which such developments will.
Even better, ask for local opinion, who would prefer the local ex MOD base to be a piddly little G/A facility providing one or two jobs, or develop it into a thriving community which would develop and provide a massive boost to the local economy?
Sadly, opponents of Eco Towns are for the most part out of touch with the realities of living in the real world.
.All you have to do is put your money where your mouths are.
Go ahead and buy the relavant sites which are so dear to your hearts, provide the investment which the developers of such sites do and provide the boost to the local economy which such developments will.
Even better, ask for local opinion, who would prefer the local ex MOD base to be a piddly little G/A facility providing one or two jobs, or develop it into a thriving community which would develop and provide a massive boost to the local economy?
Sadly, opponents of Eco Towns are for the most part out of touch with the realities of living in the real world.
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On that basis Niknak, GA is finished and we may as well pack it in right now.
You need to be a bit more constructive.
If everything was done according to your rules, more or less every airfield in the UK would have houses on it. Houses will always make more money for a landowner, so why don't we just build houses EVERYWHERE?
You need to be a bit more constructive.
If everything was done according to your rules, more or less every airfield in the UK would have houses on it. Houses will always make more money for a landowner, so why don't we just build houses EVERYWHERE?
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Nik Nak - despite my comments above, the country does need more housing.. I think that what we are hacked off about is that this requirement has been packaged up as an "ecologically viable development" so the thick general public sees it fitting in with their "green" sentiments when actually its been done by stealth with no proper consultation and despite a huge amount of opinion about reclassifcation of airfields as brownfield sites.
The UK's green spaces are under threat from more and more development. The right way of increasing the housing stock is through proper consultation and by more effecient use of areas within town boundaries before destroying our beautiful country side. I also heard an interesting discussion on Radio 4, essentially if immigration was properly managed, population over the next 25 years would actually reduce thus alleviating the pressure on the UK's resources of which housing stock is one of them.
Drop the word "Eco" its total b
cks
The UK's green spaces are under threat from more and more development. The right way of increasing the housing stock is through proper consultation and by more effecient use of areas within town boundaries before destroying our beautiful country side. I also heard an interesting discussion on Radio 4, essentially if immigration was properly managed, population over the next 25 years would actually reduce thus alleviating the pressure on the UK's resources of which housing stock is one of them.
Drop the word "Eco" its total b
cks
As usual, we need both approaches: The outraged to provide the energy and the constructive to provide the direction. My thread on Standing up for GA displays the ignorance of some people (or is it just me?
) within GA as to what is being done on our behalf. IMHO we can't just rant, we need to come up with something constructive.
This government is appalling in its behaviour. We all know that; that's why I imagine the majority will be voting Tory next time round. Whatever we do, the government will probably not listen, just as it didn't really listen to the AOPA and PFA.
Eco-towns? We need to save a lot of airfields from being turned into a governmental experiment. I predict these places being neither eco nor towns. As Pudnucker says, it won't work, mainly because the technology is too expensive to be economic for most people. In addition, as someone pointed out on BBC Breaksfast this morning, developing Coltishall as an eco-town is senseless if everyone has to commute into Norwich for work. Instead they will become a kind of 1960s inner city housing estate for the 21st Century with no community soul.
But I think Sir George inadvertently hit on a solution. Perhaps turning airfields like Coltishall into communities based on aviation would be a constructive idea. I know things are different in the US because the general public has a more positive view of GA, but there must be scope for airfield communities over here. Perhaps such communities would be impossible due to planning constraints? I'm sure this idea has been done to death on Pprune, but it just seems to me that it might save some airfields yet still satisfy the government's housing targets. These hubs of aviation could include FTOs, maintenance facilities, and also facilities designed to introduce the public to GA. I would happily live in such a place, perhaps not for the long term, and there must be enough people out there who would do the same.
Pie in the sky I suppose...
) within GA as to what is being done on our behalf. IMHO we can't just rant, we need to come up with something constructive.This government is appalling in its behaviour. We all know that; that's why I imagine the majority will be voting Tory next time round. Whatever we do, the government will probably not listen, just as it didn't really listen to the AOPA and PFA.
Eco-towns? We need to save a lot of airfields from being turned into a governmental experiment. I predict these places being neither eco nor towns. As Pudnucker says, it won't work, mainly because the technology is too expensive to be economic for most people. In addition, as someone pointed out on BBC Breaksfast this morning, developing Coltishall as an eco-town is senseless if everyone has to commute into Norwich for work. Instead they will become a kind of 1960s inner city housing estate for the 21st Century with no community soul.
But I think Sir George inadvertently hit on a solution. Perhaps turning airfields like Coltishall into communities based on aviation would be a constructive idea. I know things are different in the US because the general public has a more positive view of GA, but there must be scope for airfield communities over here. Perhaps such communities would be impossible due to planning constraints? I'm sure this idea has been done to death on Pprune, but it just seems to me that it might save some airfields yet still satisfy the government's housing targets. These hubs of aviation could include FTOs, maintenance facilities, and also facilities designed to introduce the public to GA. I would happily live in such a place, perhaps not for the long term, and there must be enough people out there who would do the same.
Pie in the sky I suppose...
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Gotta have lots of new houses just to put all the new immigrants under a roof!
Can we start with all the Eastern Europeans living in "Tent City" Peterborough.
Conington would make a good spot for the East Midlands Eco City, what with the A1M on one boundary and the East Coast Main Line on the other.
The lorries coming up from the Channel ports could drop them off at Sawtry.
Seriously though, this new concept of providing houses in bulk under the "green banner" and the Government's turn around on "not" designating airfields as brownfield sites, has got to be one of their sneaker moves!
Can we start with all the Eastern Europeans living in "Tent City" Peterborough.
Conington would make a good spot for the East Midlands Eco City, what with the A1M on one boundary and the East Coast Main Line on the other.
The lorries coming up from the Channel ports could drop them off at Sawtry.
Seriously though, this new concept of providing houses in bulk under the "green banner" and the Government's turn around on "not" designating airfields as brownfield sites, has got to be one of their sneaker moves!
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Oh Dear!
A second letter to my MP on this subject, the first reply from the govermment rubbished my statement that the rule change was to enable them to build on airfields.
LEICESTER AIRPORT
There is an online petition against the Pennbury Eco-town at http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/PennburyEcoTown/
Please get as many people as possible to sign up and save the home of what is probably the oldest aero club in the world.
Also more info http://www.save-england.net/ (although the site seems to be down at the time of writing).
There is an online petition against the Pennbury Eco-town at http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/PennburyEcoTown/
Please get as many people as possible to sign up and save the home of what is probably the oldest aero club in the world.
Also more info http://www.save-england.net/ (although the site seems to be down at the time of writing).
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We aren't quite as short of housing as the powers would have you believe. There are plenty of empty units all over the place. New ones that aren't selling, newish ones that aren't renting and old ones that need work.
Part of the problem is that new builds are so B awful that nobody wants to stay in them for long - thus stoking the price spiral. Flats are being built, with no outside space or amenities, that don't sell or rent. Planning is not happening......... new stuff is ill-considered and old stuff is not updated because planners are a PITA to deal with.
Mass building of nasty PC boxes on green spaces won't help - they will still be awful. They will be cramped and not have adequate parking. Councils need to be proactive and actually commit to improving the lot of their voters.
Fat chance.
Part of the problem is that new builds are so B awful that nobody wants to stay in them for long - thus stoking the price spiral. Flats are being built, with no outside space or amenities, that don't sell or rent. Planning is not happening......... new stuff is ill-considered and old stuff is not updated because planners are a PITA to deal with.
Mass building of nasty PC boxes on green spaces won't help - they will still be awful. They will be cramped and not have adequate parking. Councils need to be proactive and actually commit to improving the lot of their voters.
Fat chance.
flyingfemme you've got a good point. There are plenty of brownfield sites crying out for investment, but they're regularly being ignored because of clean up costs or, when they are developed, they are improperly developed by greedy developers.
Take Ipswich as an example. In their collective wisdom, and with the Council's support, developers have built 500-1000 apartments around the historic Wet Dock. These blocks look the same as you'll find anywhere else in the UK. Dull, metallic and painted brick orange. Almost all the apartments are 2 bedroom and an average price was £200,000. The local 20-something first time buyers can't afford those prices, families can't fit into 2 bedroom apartments, and few of the apartments have car parking spaces (remember this is the centre of the town so there's nowhere to park on the street). A lot were bought by investors, but many remain unsold or empty.
The end result is a massive over-supply of inappropriate accommodation, dropping prices and very low occupancy. The papers this week are reporting that apartments that were bought for £265,000 last year are now selling at auction for £130,000. The local law firms are dealing with dozens upon dozens of repossessions as buy to let landlords can't find tenants to pay the rents they need to repay their bank loans. It's a complete of planning and development. Typical of the UK.
Incidently, my wife and I were offered a 2 bedroom apartment in one of the more upmarket blocks for £145,000. The next door apartment, identical, had been sold for £225,000 last year...We bought a cottage in the country instead.
Take Ipswich as an example. In their collective wisdom, and with the Council's support, developers have built 500-1000 apartments around the historic Wet Dock. These blocks look the same as you'll find anywhere else in the UK. Dull, metallic and painted brick orange. Almost all the apartments are 2 bedroom and an average price was £200,000. The local 20-something first time buyers can't afford those prices, families can't fit into 2 bedroom apartments, and few of the apartments have car parking spaces (remember this is the centre of the town so there's nowhere to park on the street). A lot were bought by investors, but many remain unsold or empty.
The end result is a massive over-supply of inappropriate accommodation, dropping prices and very low occupancy. The papers this week are reporting that apartments that were bought for £265,000 last year are now selling at auction for £130,000. The local law firms are dealing with dozens upon dozens of repossessions as buy to let landlords can't find tenants to pay the rents they need to repay their bank loans. It's a complete
of planning and development. Typical of the UK.Incidently, my wife and I were offered a 2 bedroom apartment in one of the more upmarket blocks for £145,000. The next door apartment, identical, had been sold for £225,000 last year...We bought a cottage in the country instead.