To;
I have just been sent your report on the Vearse Farm developments.
I don’t mind our town growing by over 3000 people over ten years but what I do mind is the middle class second home nature of this development and the appallingly lazy architecture.
I see no community or cultural centre nor any new facilities in the town to cope with the extra people. I also see absolutely no social or affordable housing which is what this town needs, not second homes.
We also don’t need any new supermarkets nor removal of car parks in the town centre.
What we need is real vision for the future of this town and I am not seeing this at Vearse Farm. Just an opportunity for a number of companies to make profit.
I am hoping that the Neighbourhood Plan will give the community of Bridport the chance to alter these plans to
It is very sad that the process so far, which hasn’t been handled well by WDDC, has caused so much distress to the people of the town. I am glad you sent this document because I was unable to see the exhibition at the Town Hall due to being away for work. Everyone I know who has been to see the plans have expressed deep unhappiness.
I think there is some moral responsibility here that no one involved seems to be grasping, but then morality never goes hand in hand with profit.
Tina Ellen Lee
Sarah Bevan Bsc (Hons), Msc, MRTP
Senior Planner
Savills (on behalf of Hallam Land Group), UK
Dear Ms Bevan
I have just been sent your report on the Vearse Farm developments.
I don’t mind our town growing by over 3000 people over ten years but what I do mind is the middle class second home nature of this development and the appallingly lazy architecture.
I see no community or cultural centre nor any new facilities in the town to cope with the extra people. I also see absolutely no social or affordable housing which is what this town needs, not second homes.
We also don’t need any new supermarkets nor removal of car parks in the town centre.
What we need is real vision for the future of this town and I am not seeing this at Vearse Farm. Just an opportunity for a number of companies to make profit.
I am hoping that the Neighbourhood Plan will give the community of Bridport the chance to alter these plans to
suit what this town needs rather than what is currently being imposed.
It is very sad that the process so far, which hasn’t been handled well by WDDC, has caused so much distress to the people of the town. I am glad you sent this document because I was unable to see the exhibition at the Town Hall due to being away for work. Everyone I know who has been to see the plans have expressed deep unhappiness.
Finally the plan to remove St. Mary’s Primary School from the Skilling Estate will cause huge problems for the many disadvantaged families who live there and who at the moment can walk their children to school. Many don’t have cars and there is no public transport system. With the buses in this area being cut it seems no one has thought through the problems that this will cause. Meanwhile St Mary’s is now being denied some of the benefits that are being given to the other primary schools because of its uncertain future e.g. the recent solar panel plan for schools.
I think there is some moral responsibility here that no one involved seems to be grasping, but then morality never goes hand in hand with profit.
Yours
Tina Ellen Lee
Dear Mrs Lee – you are so deluded…
I think you have it so wrong… I live in Bridport and would rather not see more home handout home full of more unemployed wastrels who can’t be bothered to work and turn vearse farm into another H block. As for St. Mary’s I agree it should not be moved.
Hi Roger,
Tina Lee has replied to you !
I wish to address your your insensitive remarks about wastrels. I would not be tempted to call the children of the more and more impoverished middle classes as wastrels and my guess is you are therefore referring to the longterm unemployed. The local stats say that on average unemployment is .07% but for the majority of people in the flats who are mostly on zero hour contracts with irregular hours and minimum wages, even amongst the most conscience, it is impossible to make ends meet. The most important question for you to confront your prejudice is why is it these people are in this condition? On average across many decades when there has been high employment, the work-shy never amounted to more the 2% of the population. Remember that when the mills and factories and rope walks were shut down, Thatcher was encouraging industry to either off-shore their production or disinvest in industry and reinvest in the financial markets. The grandchildren of the local men and women who were laid-off are not guilty of anything other than being the victims of an excessively cruel and uncaring system. And by the way, do you know that if there minimum wages increase, they must report this to Magna who then put the rent up, thus trapping them in permanent poverty. I believe your energies would be put to better use by learning the facts, appraising them with a modicum of humanity and deciding how you can help them.
Dear Roger,
I am sorry that you feel that way. I have worked with people in Skilling over the last couple of years and as in all communities there are a small number that make it hard for others, as in the rest of Bridport, we are a mixed bunch thank goodness. The majority I have met are good, hard working, people many of whom have had difficult lives that I wouldn’t want to have had to cope with. If we are going to increase the size of our town by over a third over the next 10 years I would personally prefer to live somewhere within a community made up of people of all walks of life and to know that some of them have been able to find a home because it has been made possible for them to do so by being affordable. I would be happy not to live in a totally middle class unengaged and unaware community that doesn’t care nor understand that some of our society finds it very difficult to survive. Good wishes Tina
Dear Tina & Robert,
How utterly deluded you are in your causes. I mean why do we want to increase the town size anyway? – ohh I know, of course.. because people like you want to rehouse droves of helpless dregs down here wasting resources and causing trouble so that we have to feel endless pity for. The real reason you both care is only because it gives you both a feeling of altruism when you step out of your middle class bubble to help them to grab some limelight. Although I accept life is genuinely tough for a tiny group of people here due to very extreme circumstances, the majority of it is down to their own poor life choices, that the tax payer has to pick up the pieces for – I bet if some of them got off their lazy arses, studied a bit, got a decent job, had some motivation, they might be in a better position in life. We all know that most of these cretins should be grateful some company has kindly taken a risk and offered them a Zero hours contract so they have a chance to do something other than watch Sky all day and blow their benefits on scratchcards. As for Thatcher I was fortunate enough to meet her once and I can tell you now she did mostly good – breaking up the unions etc. Can you imagine this country run by a bunch of fluffy and gutless liberal socialites like you lot, who want to rape the middle classes of everything they have.
I think you are wrong Roger, being married 23 year old with a young family with a full time job as a web developer looking at Vearse Farm as a hope to get on the housing ladder. I know personally a lot of young people in the same boat as me looking to buy or even rent in Bridport.
What else can I do:
– Rent is not affordable in Bridport and is rising by the month
– Houses are not affordable in this *area* and the average is more like those of london
– Mortgages are really hard to get for a first time buyer, of course you would not know that
– My family has lived in the area for many generations as fisherman, carpenters and builders. I would have to seriously leave this area to get anywhere close what I can afford to buy
– The government need people like me to stay in Bridport as strong local economies are better than just people like me moving away to a city.
On top of that I know a lot people who rent the affordable housing and although I do not agree with not having jobs and mothers that have children only to get in these houses. We as a community need to provide the young children of these wasters (your words) with a decent place to live as it is there birth right to have a good standard of living, as they are indeed the future of this country no matter what background they come from.
Lastly perhaps I am wrong but you mention “because people like you want to rehouse droves of helpless dregs down here wasting”. You said “here” like you live next to the farm or in the area I hope your are not just fighting this due to where you live.
The clue is in the name; Verse FARM. The land is intended to produce food, not to become a commodity and cover with concrete.
I can only assume that something of this scale (similar to Poundbury) will be pushed through using back-handers and golden handshakes.
Whilst the majority of Bridport residents will thoroughly disagree, once the development is underway, the inevitable shrug of ‘what can we do about it’ laziness will kick in.
Without wanting to sound antagonistic, something pretty drastic will have to happen to make these people actually engage their brain and think; ‘ hang on a minute, should we be building on agricultural land and flood plains’. Will something drastic enough happen to counter the vast sums of money involved? I doubt it.
Is there a way that the FARM could be community funded and run as a ‘self-sufficient Bridport’ type venture? Probably not, because in reality the people driving this project are the people who have made housing so unaffordable in the first place. Thus the FARM is not now being valued as it should be, but as its potential square meter area (of concrete).
I do hope the people driving this project wake up one day and find there is no milk or cereal or meat or veg. or anything else this country could be self sufficient in, because all the productive FARM land has been concreted over.
This is a crime in my opinion, why is no one being held accountable?