Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Law

We've been renting a house and now it's about to be sold; but the purchaser is delaying the exchange of contracts, with good reason:

The house has a fabulous view southwards, across fields and woods to the silver river and the sea beyond. This is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, which is also a Site of Special Scientific Interest, so it should be highly protected. However, the field immediately in front is owned by a farmer who wants planning permission to build six houses on it. He's tried several times before, and although he's on the local council himself, he's been turned down each time, so far.

I jest to the owner of our house: "Have you tried dropping a few rare species in the field?"

"There are rare species. The Authority wrote a letter to him saying that they would be conducting a field survey. When he got the letter, he mowed the whole field - right down to the ground. Then he sprayed it all over with weedkiller."

5 comments:

James Higham said...

In each of our lives, little battles rage and some not so little.

Sackerson said...

This isn't my battle, but it seems ironic that someone so close to the land is happy to destroy it.

James Higham said...

Dog in a manger.

Henry North London 2.0 said...

Money makes the world go round

Farming land is precious Building houses on land like that is sacrilege

Anonymous said...

Henry - revealed preferences suggest otherwise. Check out the price of farmland and the price of building land*.

(* Yes I know it's an artificial situation due to planning absurdities, but nonetheless, farming land isn't all that precious in a developed economy - we can and do easily pay others to grow stuff for us)