Friday, October 08, 2010

Letter to Wakefield Express re ongoing LDF discussion.

(Not published in Wakefield Express).

Whilst it should be welcomed that Wakefield district is to get thousands more households - there is a pressing need for more housing - it really needs serious questioning as to where they are built, the scale, quality, infrastructure and services but, most importantly, the ideology behind the proposals in the Local Development Framework, ie, environmentalism.

'Where they are built' is a case in point with Councillor Jeffries proving there is no depth too low for her to prostitute herself; namely her recommendation that we pooh-pooh any Health and Safety objections we may have when it comes to putting mass housing on a former chemicals plant. This is rich coming from her as her party did so much to enshrine Health and Safety legislation in the first place. One wonders whether she is as outspoken when it comes to the many public events and even day to day activities that are hamstrung by such legislation.

Current policy has very little to do with facilitating better quality living standards to the public and is much more about containing them or, at best, placing them within a binding framework. Even worse, should we mere ordinary folk be free minded enough to determine our own lifestyles and activities we are highly likely to fall foul of any number of Anti-Social Behavioural Orders.

The council may lay claim to having put their proposals to we public but as has been pointed out this has been consultation in name only; the council gets to tick the box marked 'public involvement' and they then carry on regardless. Truly, they put the con in consultation.

There was never any intention to reshape current thinking as it is cemented in place by the great and the good of the UN, EU, national and local Government as well as promoted by an array of well- and taxpayer funded quangoes. This pretty much gives the lie to Lead Councillor Box's jibe at a previous letter writer concerning democracy. Little wonder he's been given a lackey's badge by those he truly serves.

Lessons haven't been learned from the recent financial turmoil and soon to hit recession. Although it's popular to blame the situation on 'greedy bankers' the underlying message is that we all want too much out of life, that we've gone too far. Many of us my have genuine grievances against our financial institutions but when it comes to raised aspirations maybe we should all call ourselves bankers.

Equally to blame in this scenario are those excessive Americans. Yet they too mostly suffer from land use restrictions and the scrabble for scant packages of land pushes the price of housing up to levels that people just cannot afford. Hence the sub-prime mortgage fiasco - people are paying over the odds for compromised living standards.

The council may claim this part of the LDF to be closed, a done deal, but this is far from the case. These things are written by flesh and blood human beings and supposedly agreed upon by the demos - us - but, as witnessed, this is far from the case. We need a genuine public discussion as to how and where we wish to live, not some compromised version passed down to us.

It's high time our elected, so-called representatives and dubious authority were told to 'patronise off!' and we reclaim the idea of modernity; humanity unbound, free and progressive.