On 29 May, Paul Bailey, UKIP candidate for Meon Valley, sent us the following email:
“It seems that many of the newly proposed housing developments across all counties are an edict from government and there is nothing that ordinary people can do about it other than try to limit the damage. Of course the word “development” is just a euphemism for ravagement and exploitation, and the so-called developers are often not building housing estates for the fun of it but rather to capitalise on as much profit as they can regardless of the consequences.
“I must emphasize that I am not against people having the right to a decent home, but I do think estates should fit in with the existing environment and infrastructure . At UKIP we cannot understand why developers do not move onto more brownfield sites, often corroded and empty: why not redevelop what is already there?
“So what can we ordinary people do to save our Towns, Villages and Countryside for future generations? Well, when developers were planning to chop down twelve ancient trees to make way for a new Tesco supermarket in the writer Laurie Lee’s neck of the woods, a lot of people protested by climbing up into those trees, and he wrote a little joke verse that went:
I think that I shall never see
A Tesco lovely as a tree
And if we are forced to cut ours down
‘Twill shame the gateway to our town
“It was not, by his own admission, one of his best but the trees were saved, and I like to think that passionate public opinion can influence the most stony-hearted politicians.”
Paul Bailey, UKIP candidate for Meon Valley
