Parliament?
Inconvenient
Shoreham’s excellent MP had a written answer provided by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister about areas of outstanding national beauty. The man also known as the man who said “Labour created the green belt and we plan to build on it” made this response: here.
I will pass no judgement as I do not know the specific circumstances and I, for one, am for Falmer’s stadium (see the last entry on his list). But I will ask you to continue to tell everyone you know who lives in Hull to vote him out!
An aside: during the Council meeting where the Council Tax settlement was voted upon in Adur District Council the Leader of the Council had prepared an answer in case a member of the public attended who attended the previous year. The question was words to the effect: “What would our Council Tax settlement be if we had the same central government grant as Prescott’s Hull?” The answer, surprising not because of the answer but because of the figure, is that Adur’s Council Tax bill could be cut by 87.2%.
A caveat on that: Hull is more deprived (of a good MP too!) and does have more social problems (which shouldn’t necessarily go with levels of employment, but often does) so we should expect the local Council to need more funds (but not 87.2% more).
February 24th, 2006 at 8:25 pm
As an aside, and next door in Worthing: Worthing Central Ward is considered one of the most deprived in the country (I believe it is in the top 10)…
Unfortunately, no Labour MPs around to rain down largesse.
February 25th, 2006 at 2:27 pm
If not on the green belt, where do you suggest we build houses - because we actually need to build houses somewhere and very soon or the situation will become worse.
February 26th, 2006 at 12:06 pm
The green belt is supposed to represent a border to urban-esque development. If we can genuinely argue, only a few years later, that the belt is actually negotiable, then what is its point?
As a non-homeowner but someone who would like to get on the so-called ladder, it would be in my personal interest to get house prices down by any means. That said, I would not advocate the use of green-field sites all the time there is plenty of brown-field space. There are even areas which are not in the green-belt which have not even started being developed.
And, while it is not popular to say so, the situation where we have net immigration cannot be sustained if we wish to retain a countryside.