Development
The Problem
No matter where you go in our country, people in towns and cities are up in arms about housing developments proposed or built in their towns. This is understandable. These often huge developments change forever the character and nature of the places we call home – the places in which we have grown up, the places that define us, the places with which we have ties that cannot be broken.
But these objections go far beyond the emotional. Many of the towns in our country are Victorian or medieval in their origin and have infrastructures that pre-date mass car-ownership. They are simply not geared to modern life, with road layouts determined by ancient pathways and long forgotten boundaries, rather than commuter traffic or the logistics of supplying a 24-hour supermarket.
In justifying the unfettered expansion of our towns, governments and local authorities wheel out that all-justifying, media-friendly buzz-word – ‘sustainability’. They insist that these developments must be located near to existing public facilities and therefore, ‘bolted’ onto our existing towns. Assessments of the capacity of local schools, health facilities and roadways (usually carried out by Planning Consultants in the pay of the developers) are constantly optimistic, frequently incorrect, and often fraudulent. This results in overwhelmed public services and a woefully inadequate infrastructure, resulting in a lower quality of life for everyone in that area.
This approach also compromises the new homes we build. Requirements to respect local architectural styles and materials and the necessity to fit around existing infrastructures severely limit design freedom. This results in expensive to construct, repetitive and largely dull houses that resemble twee caricatures of our towns. They force their occupants into a lifestyle more akin to Victorian times, rather than that associated with modern, high-tech, open-plan, light and adaptable buildings that many of us find appealing, but are the preserve of only the very wealthy.
This is a perfect example of the sort of short term, blinkered and half-thought through decision making we have come to take for granted in our country, which has resulted in the wholesale ruination of so many of our towns.
It is impossible to ignore the claims that our country is over-populated, especially when standing on a crowded train, stuck in an interminable traffic-jam or waiting in a long queue. This is in itself partly due to the shortcomings of our town planning over many years. When huge populations of people are located on Housing Developments in one area, places of work are on Industrial Estates are in another, and shops on Retail Parks in yet another, large numbers of people travelling from one place to another at the same time will invariably result. The unfettered expansion of nearby towns into large urban sprawls now means that a trip across town is not possible on foot, and buying bottle of milk now requires a drive to supermarket, rather than a walk to the local shop.
Undoubtedly, we need to build new homes – to house a growing population and generate economic growth. However, there IS a way we can do this, with a positive effect to our economy, and without ruining our towns.
Another Way
When one takes to the sky and views our green and pleasant land from an aeroplane, it is clear that there is an abundance of free, open space between our urban conurbations. Here could be built new, small, modern towns, that respect the environment and engage with it.
The infrastructures for these towns could be geared to the demands of modern life. The town centres could be designed around services, leisure and socialising to avoid the ‘ghost-town’ image that has accompanied the internet shopping revolution. Accessibility could be ‘designed in’, and attractive, inspiring modern architecture and landmark buildings could be implemented, without fear of offending an existing design language.
The houses in these towns would benefit from the latest energy efficient materials and be designed around our needs, not the limitations of bricks and mortar. Modern, low-cost building techniques could make these buildings truly affordable, and adaptable to our changing lifestyles and circumstances.
Nearby facilities for commercial activity and light industry, suited to our new economy could be built, and new schools could be geared to the latest subjects, facilities and teaching methods our children will need to succeed in a competitive global economy.
The utilities that serve these buildings could embrace modern technology make use of waste heat from power generation, intelligent electrical ‘load balancing’, rainwater harvesting, grey water, and high speed data networks.
You can’t change existing towns in this way. Innovations like this are very difficult to retro-fit into existing, old buildings and infrastructures - but can be easily incorporated into new towns. If managed as part of a coherent Industrial Policy, British Companies could become world leaders in developing, manufacturing and utilising the new technologies. This is not a pipe-dream, we could make this happen. We just need to make the right decisions.
Not only is this change important for the quality of life of our people, it is imperative for our economy. The United Kingdom has been overtaken by our international competitors in education, productivity and prosperity. They have renewed their schools, factories and infrastructures to embrace the latest technology and they have reaped the rewards. This is nothing new, we did it first, and we must do it again.
When our descendents look back at us in 100 years time, will they do so with pity, at an unimaginative, lazy people, who built boring houses, and eeked out an existence by patching up a creaking and overburdened infrastructure built by our more illustrious forbears? Or will they see an ingenious, resourceful and adventurous people, who had the imagination to conceive, the ingenuity to design and the energy to build something better?
Cllr. Stuart Hutton (UKIP, Nantwich South).
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