TWO things uttered by this absolute philistine of a man - who
unfortunately happens to be the UK’s new planning minister - have caused me to
get up on my first day off in months to write this blog post. I am angry that I
couldn’t lie in bed and enjoy my cup of tea at a leisurely pace but I am even angrier
that the person who is our planning minister has actually, truly, without the
tiniest hint of irony, said:
1) “The built environment can be
more beautiful than nature … - sometimes buildings are better”
and
2) “There’s a right [a basic moral
right, like education and healthcare says Boles] to a home with a little bit of
ground around it to bring your family up in”
This latter “right”, is why Boles wants to build on greenbelt land.
WHERE DO I START?
Lets start with No1. Well, Mr Boles, this is a matter of taste. I
admit that some of the built environment can be breathtaking beautiful – and
depending on what landscape it is compared to, then yes, it could be ‘more’
beautiful. Ultimately however, the built environment is a construct by man and
it is hubristic and vain to believe that such things are inherently more
beautiful, with more soul, than what the earth and mother nature has given us.
The attitude expressed by Mr Boles is exactly why there are more social
problems in areas with less green spaces, why patients who don’t look out on to
green spaces take longer to recover than those that do, why our forests are in
such disrepair (NB the governments slow uptake on Ash imports – oh hello
chalara fraxinea! Welcome!), why many built impermeable sites are prone to
flashfloods –ruining many a life, and so on…
Mr Boles, and anyone who agrees with him, please see the 1973 film
Soylent Green about 1 hr 15 minutes in and just watch for a few minutes.
Sol: “Didn’t I tell you Thorn?”
Thorn: “How could I know? How could I ever imagine?”
No.2: This pre-war notion of
the backyard as a moral right is so utterly preposterous in this present day
and time it is practically backward. Once upon a time, yes this was seen as a
right – but this right is what has caused so much development on precious land.
What happens when all the green belt land is gone Nick? Where will you build
then? What you seem to be forgetting is that NATURE IS OUR BACKYARD. Stop these
individualistic capitalists pursuits because they will only result in an
overdeveloped UK where the rich have the green gardens and the poor have
nothing. If we think about a right to land we should think about the right to
ramble through fields, to play in parks, for a child to know what a woodland is
in reality and not in a history book. This is far more moral and equitable than
providing back gardens for a limited amount of the population – because lets
face it, without scrapping the precious things listed above, there is just no
possible way that every family in the UK can have a garden. It is not a moral
right to have a garden. It is a moral right however to expect good quality
green infrastructure and public spaces. That is something than can be, and
should be, more readily achievable than providing a small amount of individual
land around ones home.
Rant not nearly over but that’s all I can manage for my Saturday
morning off.
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