Feel REALLY gutted....

[Beulah]

I read the Parish plan for my area.......

The local council has identified the quiet, tiny village I live in for "housing development and improved infrastructure"... (read: there is no infrastructure apart from a school)

50-100 houses are planned for the field behind my house....... (read: street lighting in a village that has none)

It's funny because there's been a sense of the rats deserting the sinking ship...my neighbours both sides have said they were planning to move a month ago, and I had a dream that loads of street lights were going to be installed.

It feels bad. I can't concentrate on my work at the moment!!

[matt c]

Do you live in the country side?

[Beulah]

Do you live in the country side?

Yes. We moved away from the "madding crowd"...looks like we'll have to up sticks again.......

[Parallax]

I feel for you, I really do.

Maybe, if you could get your point of view across early enough, it might not turn out quite as bad as you fear. Get along to the council meetings.

I could be in a similar situation soon but with not quite so many houses - about 12, but I suspect that is only the start!

Steve

[Beulah]

I feel for you, I really do.

Maybe, if you could get your point of view across early enough, it might not turn out quite as bad as you fear. Get along to the council meetings.

I could be in a similar situation soon but with not quite so many houses - about 12, but I suspect that is only the start!

Steve

I might have to do that - unfortunately the Parish Council have agreed to the plans!!! Might be a case of fait accompli..

I seriously am in shock.

[yeti monster]

I live in what was until recently, a 'market town', which limited the amount of new builds. Suddenly we are no longer a 'market town' and hence, a zillion leggo houses have sprung up, with the descendants of long time farmers, cashing in by selling off their land. I refuse to sell any of our land for development.

[Doc]

It must be bad for you, I cannot really imagine what you are going through as I was born in London, and have lived in Leicester and Nottingham, so don't really know any country style living.

Don't get me wrong I've holidayed in some fantastic remote places so to have dark skies everyday must be brilliant.

Lets hope Sam that they are only considering it.

[TheThing]

That is such a shame, especially when there is so much land in need of redevelopment in most cities!

Can you rally the troops round? Get your neighbours up in arms? You might not be able to stop the build, but maybe they can install better streetlighting or have it turned off at midnight.

[Chris Stacey]

I have a feeling I'm going to be feeling the same as you soon Sam. I have lived in plenty of towns/cities, but moved to a lovely little village a few years ago. I bought the house because of the farmers fields which are directly behind me, from my back garden fence stretching a good few miles into the distance. Developers have started building in the field to the East of me though, and I have a feeling it will only be a matter of time before they get their hands on the fields behind me too.......I spoke to the farmer, he said 'no way', not a hope in hell of him selling, but then qualified the statement with 'not much I can do if they go for a compulsary purchase order though'......gut feeling tells me it's just a matter of time....

[angusb1]

The only way of even getting close to being able to guarantee there being no houses on land you care about is to buy it and even then it can still be compulsorily purchased. It is often cheaper to build houses on farmland than brownfield ex-industrial sites as these often need to have costly cleanup operations carried out on them before they can be used for residential housing. We have a growing population in this country and most of it wants to live in an area with streetlighting as it makes them feel safe. Sad but true.

[Doc]

Buy an house where your back garden faces the sea, they can't build on that

[shaunster]

Well living on the south coast around here they build on any garden lawn going spare, its getting stupid. Theres allready traffic problems like crazy at rush hours here, they just bulldozed an urban farm here and built 50 houses and 20 flats on it...

[Psychobilly]

Every postage stamp sized piece of land seems to get built on with us as well... unless its a tower block it wont effect me though .. trees are my biggest problem...

[vince 66]

There's to much building and destruction of the countryside going on in this country the same thing has happend here in Worcester thousands of houses built thousands of acres of green fields destroyed and and they hav'nt stopped yet. Still re developing out into the surrounding villages makes me sick.

[Shibby]

50-100 houses? It could be worse. Look at what they're about to build right next to me: Great Haddon | Home

[themos]

I have a different view but then we'd get into politics and get angry at each other.

[insomnia]

50-100 houses? It could be worse. Look at what they're about to build right next to me: Great Haddon | Home

I live just the other side of the new Cardea development in P,boro. A new development so big that it will have its own school and supermarket.

I own 1 sq ft of land in Scotland, see if I can build on it.

[Bodkin]

That's really bad news. A similar thing happened to me in France. Are you actually in Beulah? I have been looking at the Powys Unitary Development Plans for Llanwrtyd Wells and surrounding areas because we are looking to move that way and there is no council approval for that scale of new build (a maximum of 11 new houses in Beulah I believe). If you aren't in Beulah that is irrelevant, but you have my sympathy for the loss of the skies!

[Beulah]

Bodkin, no - Beulah is my username.

Good luck with your plans to move - we're looking Westwards, too.

Well living on the south coast around here they build on any garden lawn going spare, its getting stupid. Theres allready traffic problems like crazy at rush hours here, they just bulldozed an urban farm here and built 50 houses and 20 flats on it...

I saw that when we went down to Poole, in Dorset. I used to live in the area and hadn't been there for 12 years. The shock of the noise, traffic, buildings everywhere and the fact it took an hour to get to Bournemouth by bus was immense - I could not wait to get home.

To live in peace and quiet is not much to ask for...

[acme]

Same here a famer sold the paddock behind my house, it had a perimeter of 40ft trees, 6 new luxuary homes built and guess what, they have just started to lopp all the trees down so now apart from a 100ft strip of national forrest between us I have new neighbours to shower floodlights into my back garden.

I did complain at the planning stage but got nothing from the local councillor who sold part of his land to the builders for access.

Acme

[Beulah]

Same here a famer sold the paddock behind my house, it had a perimeter of 40ft trees, 6 new luxuary homes built and guess what, they have just started to lopp all the trees down so now apart from a 100ft strip of national forrest between us I have new neighbours to shower floodlights into my back garden.

I did complain at the planning stage but got nothing from the local councillor who sold part of his land to the builders for access.

Acme

And I assume the councillor lives outside of the proposed building area?

[Beulah]

50-100 houses? It could be worse. Look at what they're about to build right next to me: Great Haddon | Home

3,500 houses?!

[MG1]

You may feel that you've not been consulted and that it is a done deal, but you should have received a letter from the planners and have the right to object.

I wouldn't necessarily go in all guns blazing, but by talking to the parish council and if necessary your planning officer you could try and at least get them to acknowledge the damage to your amenity of dark skies. There are some very good low light polluting fixtures now available and it could be written into the acceptance that the developer must provide these as part of the 'deal'

They really don't cost much more and do have a serious impact on the wasted photons we regularly put out to space.

Unfortunately with changes the conservatives widely publicised in their manifesto we can expect considerably more rural village extensions for the foreseeable future anyhoo. Funny people didn't notice this when they were all too busy trying to oust brown! (hope that wasn't too political mods)

So, go online to yr local planning authority website or use the planning portal (google it) and you will be able to establish exactly what is being built and the timescales for consultation. If they breach these you can lodge a complaint with the planning inspectorate.

Hth

Mike

[Beulah]

You may feel that you've not been consulted and that it is a done deal, but you should have received a letter from the planners and have the right to object.

I wouldn't necessarily go in all guns blazing, but by talking to the parish council and if necessary your planning officer you could try and at least get them to acknowledge the damage to your amenity of dark skies. There are some very good low light polluting fixtures now available and it could be written into the acceptance that the developer must provide these as part of the 'deal'

They really don't cost much more and do have a serious impact on the wasted photons we regularly put out to space.

Unfortunately with changes the conservatives widely publicised in their manifesto we can expect considerably more rural village extensions for the foreseeable future anyhoo. Funny people didn't notice this when they were all too busy trying to oust brown! (hope that wasn't too political mods)

So, go online to yr local planning authority website or use the planning portal (google it) and you will be able to establish exactly what is being built and the timescales for consultation. If they breach these you can lodge a complaint with the planning inspectorate.

Hth

Mike

Thanks Mike. It is VERY early days...when I first moved here there was a building ban on the field behind my house for at least 8 years...that has passed and I suspect there are plenty of greedy developers hovering like vultures.....

[MG1]

I'd also check out the CPRE website and see if there is a local contact you can talk to...

There is also the society for the protection of dark skies (or something similar) who have written quite a bit in astronomy now.

If you have any local astro buddies, rope them in too, the more the merrier but my advice is still look for an acceptable and reasonable compromise rather than setting out to stop it from the outset.

With any luck they'll find slo worms, great crested newts, badgers and various rare species of bats and you'll be okay.

On the plus side, as soon as the quality of sky is ruined you'll be guaranteed cloudless nights for months on end!

Better start saving for a good LP filter! (sorry....)

If the houses do come, drop me a line when you want the tescos objecting to. We've managed to keep a few out of my part of Bristol!

Good luck

M