SamBally
Dance with me until the sun rises!
- Joined
- Apr 13, 2021
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I am not particularly a fan of Jeremy Clarkson but he was recently refused planning permission to open up a restaurant with a 70-space car park at his 1,000-acre farm near the village of Chadlington in Oxfordshire. The farm he owns and boundary fences and surrounding hedgerows that he is solely responsible for their upkeep. It was turned down on the grounds the restaurant would be out of keeping with the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and 53 people objected out of a population of 1,000.
It makes my blood boil, living in a semi-rural area myself, when these locally elected council jobsworths put the interests of a small minority of middle-class NIMBYs before the majority. 12 years of austerity has seen rural bus services slashed to the bone. If you don't drive or don't have access to a car in a rural area you are buggered and particularly if you are either an OAP or a young person seeking employment further afield.
Clarkson would have created REAL long-term jobs in an area desperate for them and further driven tourism which would have contributed financially to the wider economy. Apparently, a vocal minority, out-of-town second homeowners, has been complaining local businesses like the pub and village shop have been "swamped" by people since Clarkson bought the farm. These same people are perfectly happy to drive 10 miles to another town to shop at Waitrose, polluting those towns with the fumes from their inefficient 4 x 4s, yet get bitter and twisted when they are asked to contribute something themselves that will benefit the wider community. They want everyone else to do the hard graft and everyone else to carry a country lifestyle that MOST people can only dream of having!!
It makes my blood boil, living in a semi-rural area myself, when these locally elected council jobsworths put the interests of a small minority of middle-class NIMBYs before the majority. 12 years of austerity has seen rural bus services slashed to the bone. If you don't drive or don't have access to a car in a rural area you are buggered and particularly if you are either an OAP or a young person seeking employment further afield.
Clarkson would have created REAL long-term jobs in an area desperate for them and further driven tourism which would have contributed financially to the wider economy. Apparently, a vocal minority, out-of-town second homeowners, has been complaining local businesses like the pub and village shop have been "swamped" by people since Clarkson bought the farm. These same people are perfectly happy to drive 10 miles to another town to shop at Waitrose, polluting those towns with the fumes from their inefficient 4 x 4s, yet get bitter and twisted when they are asked to contribute something themselves that will benefit the wider community. They want everyone else to do the hard graft and everyone else to carry a country lifestyle that MOST people can only dream of having!!
