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tjj
tjj
3606 posts

Re: East Coker/ Hinkley Point
Oct 05, 2011, 16:40
I'm not bored with this thread Seacat - everyone who has posted here has been marching to the same drumbeat (East Coker is also in the heart of Thomas Hardy country).

I've mentioned before the ongoing campaign by developers (and by local people to stop them) to build on land adjacent to Coate Water Country Park on the outskirts of Swindon, the land has a partially buried stone circle and is overlooked by ancient Liddington Hill. The land also has very strong connections with the writer Richard Jefferies who was brought up there. Unlike East Coker, however, Swindon is not a beautiful or tranquil place - it started as a small insignificant market town; Brunel built his Railway Factory there and it grew into a railway town; then it became an over-spill town to accommodate bombed-out Londoners and Polish refugees after WW2; finally the M4 was driven through, very close to Coate Water as it happens - destroying all in its path, woodland and archaeology. So why should anyone care about a few more green fields on the edge of a town described by many as a shite-hole. I care because Richard Jefferies is part of Swindon's heritage as are what's left of the streams and meadows that used to surround the town - its a town about people, working (or not) people, sometimes poor people. And they have said they've had enough.

This is a circular debate though as it comes back to a ever expanding population who need houses, services, energy, water and jobs - it is that expanding population needs to be addressed. I don't know how that can be done humanely - should old people be pressurised to commit suicide when they reach a certain age, should younger people be told they can only have one child (as in China), should immigration laws be very much more stringent. There are no easy solutions.
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