Village Development

This is Councillor Edwards personal view and until there is any confirmation from central Government must be viewed as speculative and not fact..

I don’t really have a problem with development it’s an inevitable consequence of a successful country. I think what councillor Edwards is saying is he doesn’t want it here and many of us probably agree with him. I’d rather be dependant on the local town as I certainly don’t want Tesco’s building in or just outside the village and I would really rather prefer it if they closed the Driffield store as well. Not a popular view with those of you who rely on its cheap imports and bully boy purchasing methods, but it is supermarkets that are destroying the rural economy. Tescos or Walmart will eventually rule the world but until that time we need to make politicians and councillors see that expansion and growth can be good for a village if it is controlled – Parish Councils have no teeth and are too close to the problem to be objective, county councils have too many vested interests and the Government in the form of piggy Prescott is the boss. To allow this man to dictate where, what and how many we build results in a recipe for rural degradation and is like asking Osama Bin Laden to dictate our immigration policy. Tesco’s, the spawn of the devil, will build where ever there is a population to feed. They will buy from where ever they can brow beat a “good deal” and they will destroy our own rural economies in the wake of the government housing policy. As a by product they will also slow down the development of emerging nations. Those of you who use the supermarkets and that’s probably all of us are responsible for this decline in the rural economy - Not in my back yard applies to houses, windmills and supermarkets – but it’s ok in someone else’s yard.

Ed. Posted 26 July 2006

I was surprised at Dave’s suggestion that there was a potential for 500 - 800 new houses in and around Hutton Cranswick. I spoke to him and he assured me this was his own personal opinion from his own observations.

There are no plans or suggestions within local or county officialdom that this amount of housing will ever be built.

Mike Wardell

Posted 26 July 2006

Dear Editor

I was very interested to read Councillor Edwards letter to you in the August bulletin. I was also very intrigued by your comments, regarding the big supermarkets, and in particular, Tescos.

It was obvious from your editorial that you have a more insightful view of the large supermarkets, which I know as the “Multiples”. These are really the top 4, Tesco, Morrison, Asda and Sainsbury.

I have worked in retail my entire adult life, and always only in small independent companies. I had the pleasure of working for Jacksons, many years ago when they where in fact called “Grandways”, and as a local independent they where a force to be reckoned with. Alas, as you will know, Jacksons has now been swallowed by the bigger fish – Sainsburys, much to my chagrin, and probably many others likewise.

I now work for a small family owned retailer, and have on several occasions we have gone toe to toe with Tesco, and I must admit, on every occasion we have lost. Their tactics have been despicable, and have ranged from poaching staff, by walking around our stores handing out cards to our best staff saying “You have impressed me – come and work for us”, to offering every customer in a small town which we operate a supermarket, £8 off every £20 spent, simply to try and get us out of business.

We are not out of business, but, I have seen several of my colleagues lose their jobs and livelihoods as Tesco took more and more of our business away, and I am not sure about the future. They are so powerful that they are now in a position that they dictate prices to their suppliers, they have a buying cost far better than any other retailer, and hence made over 2 billion pounds profit last year. That’s almost £4000 every single minute of the day they make in profit! This profit is only made by squeezing the suppliers dry, and killing off the competition. For every £8 spent on absolutely anything in the UK, £1 is spent in Tesco.

I fear that Mr Edward’s comments about whether Tesco, Wilkinson and Yorkshire Bank will open in Hutton Cranswick may actually be the future. Tesco now have over 30% of the big supermarket share, and so the only place for them to go is to open more and more smaller stores. The Spar could very soon end up being a Tesco Express, offering Wilkinsons style non-foods, and Banking, but that would then mean the end of Southwicks, the butchers and the farm shop believe me!

I have read in previous bulletins about people not being happy about the farm shop expansion. My thoughts are, please support any local independent business, as you will definitely miss them when they are gone. So I thank you for your comments Mr Forgham, and hope that between us, we can scourge the land of this “Spawn of the Devil”.

Matthew Wood.

Sir,

In your last ( August 2006) issue of ‘The Bulletin’ I was concerned to read the letter from Mr Edwards regarding future residential development in the village. The picture he portrays could be alarming to many if it were accurate. Fortunately it is for the most part wrong.

Anyone who reads the actual draft proposals of the East Riding of Yorkshire Council (ERYC) relating to development in the villages of this area will immediately see that the Local Planning Authority have produced this policy proposal to reduce the proportion of development that takes place in the villages. The details supporting the proposed policy clearly show that the ridiculous scenario put forward by Mr Edwards does not even figure as a remote possibility. The intention to reduce the proportion of development in the villages is clearly stated and supports the other policies which will place greater emphasis on development and redevelopment of the larger urban areas and towns where more of the new housing will be placed.

The ERYC recognise in their report that historically too much development has taken place in the Villages particularly in our area. This is something that Central Government has also noted. To ensure this does not continue, a number of the smaller and less well serviced villages will have no proposed further development at all. It is recognised that some villages have higher levels of services, facilities and a need and it is proposed that in a number of these villages it will be appropriate to make some further allocations. Hutton Cranswick is one of these villages which is no surprise. We have been defined as a ‘select settlement’ and before that a ‘Minor Center’for 35 years for these very reasons.

The proposals do seem to need some clarification and we will all have the chance to put forwards our views on them very shortly in the public consultation stage. There are even a number of opportunities that could be of benefit to Hutton Cranswick within the proposals. It is, for example, suggested that support and development of services will be concentrated on the villages such as ours that continue to take further development.

The current local plan process is without doubt the best we have had. It would be a great shame if we lost the opportunity to make a positive contribution to the process and failed to obtain the benefits that could be gained for our village just because of an irrational and alarmist reaction to alleged proposals that simply do not exist.

Paul Lisseter

Dear Editor

In the issue of the East Riding Mail dated Saturday 15th July 2006, there was an article called new Homes For Villages. It was no surprise to me to see that Hutton Cranswick was named as a First Priority Village for building; after all we are joint 5th place in a Sustainability Matrix Report. East Riding of Yorkshire Council is saying that it will make small Communities more self-sufficient, and less reliant on towns such as Beverley and Driffield. There are a few issues I have with this and these are: - unless the likes of Tesco, Wilkinson’s, Yorkshire Bank Etc are prepared to build Stores or Branches in or just outside a Village, then Villages will always be dependent on towns such as Beverley and Driffield, that’s just common sense. And they say that by building all these extra houses it will help keep Rural Communities alive, who in the Council comes up with such statements, the town hall cat? When will they learn it’s by building and expanding villages by a large number of houses that kills the Rural Community. The Council also says that affordable housing is needed to protect villages from population loss, Hutton Cranswick is not a village that is suffering from a loss of population, in fact it’s the reverse, Hutton Cranswick is growing in its population along with many of the other Villages.

When will the authorities just come straight out with the truth, if you take East Riding of Yorkshire as a whole it is a vast area, but if you take the amount of inhabitants then it’s a different matter, Leeds houses more people than the whole of the East Riding of Yorkshire, then if you do the sums it all makes sense, the population of the Country is increasing, people live a longer and healthier life, put these factors together then it makes the need for all forms of housing important, and that’s from social housing right through to executive housing. So its areas such as East Riding of Yorkshire that the Government and Developers are looking for to build extra houses to cater for the housing needs of the country. Cities all across the Country are now suffering from a severe shortage of housing, there is a shortage of space to build the houses required in most cities, so it will be areas such as the East Riding of Yorkshire that Developers will look at.

The council also state that by having some affordable housing it will mean that young people will have a chance of staying in the village they grew up in, there are a few issues with this and that is: - if its Social Housing it will be either council or housing association, and the regulations are quite clear that they can not discriminate, it has to be the person who needs the house the most and not because they grew up in the area, and if it is affordable housing, that will mean cheaper housing but it will still depend on who is prepared to put in a higher offer.

There is the potential of being able to build 500 – 800 houses in and around Hutton Cranswick and if that happens we then cease to be a large village and become a small town.

Dave Edwards.

Posted 26 July 2006