This story on the BBC website comes at the same time I have noticed a “for sale” sign covering 10 acres of farmland just to the south of Ruddington on the A60. Now, farmland being up for sale when it is advertised as “arable land” isn’t too worrying. But when the sign has got names like FHP Living on it, and no mention of arable land, you have to start wondering what the hell they are going to build on it.
Actually, with a name like FHP Living involved you don’t have to think too hard – it’s only a matter of time before a sign appears which declares “Coming Soon – A development of affordable 3- and 4-bedroom homes”. That will then be followed by months of road works on the A60 as the services are installed in the most incompetent and lazy way possible, and then a dense cluster of ugly shoeboxes will appear and the countryside will have taken another kicking from Nottingham City Council.
I’m fairly certain that when this land was first put up for sale over a year ago it was advertised as farmland – but that is conspicuously absent from the hoardings now. My best estimate of the area involved is shown in red on the aerial photo above. You have Ruddington to the north, and Bradmore to the south of it. Everywhere else is fields and woodlands.
You see, Nottingham – certainly on the south side – ends very abruptly. For example, as you leave Clifton and head towards Gotham you immediately hit undisturbed countryside and farmland. Except Nottingham City Council has decided that it is going to build on this. This article in the Nottingham Post has a very telling comment:
Michael Sheppard, chairman of Gotham Parish Council, said: …“You just can’t pin anyone down on it and I think the only reason they are even having this consultation is because it is a legal requirement.”
Yep. That would be Nottingham City Council down to a tee. They’re going to screw up that land no matter what, and they will use every dirty trick they can to avoid anyone spoiling it for them.
They’ve already screwed up land near the proposed site for these new homes with their other pet project – The Tram. The same article also quotes a local farmer:
I am not looking at it just from my point of view but for the country. They may want houses but in 20 or 30 years time, those people will need feeding too.
On this land alone, there is the potential for growing 1,000 tons of grain. They will ruin this and are doing so across the country with little land grabs here and there.
Piece by piece we are losing essential farmland and what are people going to eat in 20 years time?
He’s dead right. Mind you, in many cases it is the farmers who are to blame – once the £ signs start rolling in front of their faces, they quickly realise they can make more money in 5 minutes selling off 10 acres of land for building houses on than they ever could growing crops.
The trouble is, building on greenbelt is the easy option. All it needs is one greedy farmer close to retirement age, and one incompetent council which is staffed by people who couldn’t get a real job so ended up in local government, and all the problems are solved,
Nottingham has dozens of places which are an eyesore, and which should be bulldozed – yet they have stood empty for decades. Yet documents like this show clearly that Nottingham City Council is selling them off instead of using them to build their bloody housing developments. Then, to make matters worse, you have Rushcliffe Borough Council trying to move the barriers which define greenbelt land so that it can build on the Sharphill Woods nature reserve.
I could be wrong about that Ruddington site – but I bet I’m not. It’s no wonder we’re going to end up short of home-grown food, though, with Nottingham City Council involved.