Shouting at Prof. Piehead

When will I stop harping on about the need to preserve our green belts, you might ask.

There’s a simple answer, when idiots stop coming up with hare-brained ideas to destroy it.

It is not very often that I actually shout out loud, especially not unnecessary expletives, when I am out enjoying the countryside with my canine friend while listening to the radio.

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But the other day I had no choice. A debate about the apparent need to build a million new homes a day for the next millennium was raging across the airwaves.

Up pops Professor Pie-in-the-Sky with a simple, or so he thought, solution to find the land required for these houses. What was it? Take away the first mile of green belt land everywhere in the country and there would be land a-plenty.

At the time I was wandering through a field close to Greenhead Lane on the way up towards Fence.

For anyone with any knowledge of that area, Professor Piehead was suggesting that houses should be built all the way between the bottom of Barden Lane and the bypass.

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I am not for a moment doubting that people would want to live in such a pleasant area. But if you were to plonk a couple of thousand houses there, would it still be as desirable?

I doubt it very much indeed.

What the professor from the University of Nonsense was saying, in effect, was that every single town in the country should allowed to grow by a mile in every direction.

But I still maintain that there are enough derelict sites within the current town boundaries to accommodate the need for new houses.

Look at the work that has been done close to Burnley General Hospital and you will see what I mean.

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Look at some of the new homes which have replaced old mills in places like Barrowford and what is about to happen in Barden Lane and you will get the picture.

Our towns don’t need to grow outwards ... they need to deliver new homes that people can afford.

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