Garden Grabbing is to Stop
It has been announced by the government and as far as I am concerned its about time!!
Garden grabbing though has been the only outlet for the smaller builder and developer and so hand in hand with this is the release of greenbelt land to enable this hugely valuable industry to continue, thus providing the homes and the work needed.
I welcome the change with the garden grabbing law, for too long the corrupt councils have allowed internal development to go on based on who has influence and how that influence is applied, our villages are destroyed and towns made into bricks and mortar jungles as each bit of green is built upon.
For years I have taken off from airports and looked down at the villages and towns, almost all of Britain is countryside and its a myth that development is swallowing it all up, the current trend has been to squeeze good quality and valuable English village space and town space and fill it with houses because we are led to believe its the only area left to build on. That is rubbish, most of britain is owned by the few, most of Britain is out of bounds to the general population, the countryside is vast, just take a look when you leave an airport, look down, masses of countryside with little rat runs where we have to live and drive.
Bring Back Gardens
Stop infilling the only areas that we have to live in on a daily basis and start pushing back village and town boundaries for spacious development with green areas that are covenented so they cannot ever be developed.
Britain has enough land to do this and it would benefit everyone, just because we are crammed into narrow corridors of britain doesn’t mean there is no room, its a fallacy. There are millions and millions of acres available by just pushing town boundaries back a little, not towards each other but into the contryside, but cut the density and allow homes to be built with proper gardens.
garden grabbing
In Ireland you cannot build outside a town boundary unless the house is accompanied with half an acre of land, they still allow development but it is strictly controlled in towns and the new plots look great with lots of trees and bushes, hedges and of course wildlife.
Britain must get out of the concept that development is the end for wildlife, bees, insects birds they need habitat and in the past the traditional English, Welsh, Scottish garden was full of flowers and of course in some cases weeds but it was vital to wildlife, don’t you think that squeezing all this has contributed to the downside in their numbers, for Sparrows and Blue Tits and Bees there is more food in a traditional garden that in a field that has a crop on it for just 2 months of flower and is completely barren during Winter.
Bring back development in a sensible way, and watch how mother nature populates it again.
Thanks very good for report, I follow your blog:-) interesting points on garden grabbing, i concur with most of them and as a small developer that annoys the hell out of me.
I dont think it will stop, garden grabbing will continue as councils still will have control, nor will new land be offered in the right way, too much corruption and more control to those who have the power to say yes or no.
Villages have been destroyed over the decades with filling in of any space big enough for a house, how did this type of policy ever get a hold, ah yes its the local councils of course!! Most local councils are filled with people looking after thier own agenda and the agenda of their mates, planning is passed based on relationships rather than proper policy.
Its a dirty bag of dirty things in the hands of dirty people.
Watch garden grabbing continue unabated!
Hi HI First time hopped here on your site, founde on Google. Thank you for your response. I really appreciate the advice and share your opinion on garden grabbing. Where I live the council planners are tight knit with just a few developers, they build at will on gardens whilst everyday people cannot get permission, I have even known of people who sold plots after years of trying to get planning only to see houses there a year later after the ‘Chums’ get thier hands on it.
Garden grabbing will be just the same for these small close knit groups as the council planners will have their favs still, and yes funny enough our planners are very suntanned too????
I agree that constant new development within small towns and villages is a problem, especially the extra strain on the already congested roads. Anyone who lives in Colchester will agree that the newer developments around Cowdray Avenue and North Station are simply adding to what are already densely populated and congested areas. That said, I don’t agree pushing developing further into the countryside is the answer, it’s just spreading the problem to a different area which will (eventually) lead to exactly the same problem which we have at the moment! If we continue to build new developments at this current extraordinary rate we’ll eventually end up with nothing more than a super-city! The whole of Great Britain being one giant city! OK, so that may be a little over the top, but I can honestly imagine that happening as I do not see there ever being an end to the development of new homes.
The location of where new properties are being developed is not necessarily the problem; the problem is that the developments are generally unnecessary. Many of the newly developed flats and houses within Colchester sit un-occupied because there is limited demand for these properties. The recent developments around the North Station area are aimed at commuters, providing easy access to National Rail services to London. However, many of these properties current sit unoccupied.
There are hundreds of existing properties within the Colchester borough which sit un-occupied due to deterioration; we should be utilising this space to build new properties. All you have to do is walk around the outskirts of Colchester town centre and you will see many properties which are un-occupied, boarded up due to deterioration. If these properties were brought back to use somehow it would almost eliminate the need to build newer developments left, right and centre! The following quote from Colchester Borough Council says it all:
“If all the empty properties in the area could be brought back into use, it would cut housing waiting lists and reduce the need to build new homes on greenfield sites”
As I said, I agree that the building of new homes within over populated towns and villages is a problem, however I do not believe spreading this into the countryside is the answer.
I look forward to your thoughts.
Chris
My cousin recommended this blog and she was totally right keep up the fantastic work, am completely in agreement with the views here and the garden grabbing scandal that has been around for years, the local council have grown fat from garden grabbing, lots of suntans eh
!
I couldn’t agree more with your post. Whatever happened to leaving the kids out in the garden to play? In a new build, gardens sizes no longer reflect the size of the property, if you are even blessed with anything larger than a postage stamp you are doing well and if you find you have enough space to catch a few sun rays in privacy then you really have done very well indeed. Councils and their planners only seem able to build on green area’s (Colchester’s very own flood plains along Cowdray Avenue) or within built up and congested area’s. Since when did man live in such a small confined space. In parts of South Africa the local by-laws stipulate that all properties come with a minimum of 5 acres and no sub-letting or division of the land is allowed, the villages are huge and sprawling and funnily enough road rage / BBQ rage / Noisy neighbour rage simply don’t exist!!!
So, a bit like the Roman occupation then.
I am so glad that these views have been aired in such an informed way. I couldn’t agree more with Shaun’s views on Garden Grabbing, the more we infill the urban spaces with low quality developments the less our communities flourish. The town infrastructures are creaking under the weight of strain put on them through over population. Schools no longer represent good standards of education through the swamping of class sizes, roads are full of pot holes through over use and the sense of well being is eroded through neighbours living cheek to jowl.
It’s about time someone made a few laws that gave back the common land and reversed the enclose acts of 1750 – 1850. For 300 years we the common man have had our rights to roam and have our own space systematically removed by parliament (the landed gentry) for our own good. Well let us decide what’s best for us and allow people the space to breath.
I agree with the above, the words farmers and council officials should always be found in the same sentence as the word corrupt!!
The problem with the above is that it will likely lead to more corrupt farmers making millions with more council planning officers inheriting villas.
I blame the EU. Obviously. Redundant farm land that needs only the appearance of being worked for the owner to get the generous farming subsidy – it does not need to produce anything. This means that the land price is sky high as the income from unworked or superficially worked land is higher over time than a one-off payment from a developer. Therefore, developers have no choice but to take up land inside the boundries of towns/villages. Top that off with bent council officials, drunk on back-hand payments in brown paper envelopes, and you give rise to the problems we face.
The solution? The extreme solution is to wrestle control of land trading away from corrupt council overlords and to remove ourselves from the EU – retaining only the free trade element as per its original purpose.
The sensible approach is to remove councils from the trade process and setup a regulated national body, transparent and policed, to deal in available open land with the sole purpose to prevent overcrowding already streched local areas and to see a mild expansion outward. Oh, and ban farmers from shamelessly pleading poverty from behind their gated houses with 2 Jags on the gravel driveway.