For those Philistines who want to ruin our heritage here is a voice from the past who had it right ... “We were invited to fight to preserve England. We believed, we fought. It may be well to preserve England, but better to have an England worth preserving.” ~ Clough Williams-Ellis ... later famous as the creator of Portmeirion, the Italianate village on the Welsh coast – and produced a book entitled England and the Octopus. ... Out of such feelings was born the Council for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE), still highly active. And out of the efforts by it and others came the 1947 Town and Country Planning Act, which stopped the octopus in its tracks. Setting up the planning system, its key thrust was to defend the countryside against further sprawl. But now, like so much else gifted us by postwar Britain, it is about to be dismantled. Under the guise of introducing “a simpler, swifter system”, the Government wants planning to “proactively drive and support” development, with planners urged to “approve proposals wherever possible”. As Shaun Spiers, chief executive of the CPRE, bleakly notes: “The default answer to development proposals is likely to be ‘yes’.” ... Clough Williams-Ellis warned of the “danger of making one’s country too unpleasant – the dead point of indifference is passed”. He added: “It’s an ill bird that fouls its own nest, and not merely ill but perverted if it rejoices in the fouling.” That’s where our Government now stands. ... ~ Harry Mead - Northern Echo.
Posted on: Tue, 14 Oct 2014 13:15:30 +0000
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