Whoops

Last night's weather finally put pay to this old farm building in the village.

The barn stands on the corner of East Street and Station Street, and the East Street wall collapsed like this a couple years ago, but onto the grass verge.  Station Street is a main road into and out of the village so I suspect something drastic will have to be done to the building now.  

It will be a pity if we loose the building as it formed part of the ambiance of the area - if it had been 'converted' into housing years ago perhaps it would have kept its character.  Let's hope that what ever is done the character of the village is kept, and we do not wind up with a plot of modern soulless houses.

Up until the government  introduced the current scheme (Labour started it – Tories claimed it) where local communities can have influence on their local planning, we had a ‘Village Design Statement’ which was adopted into the local plan and we had some genuine control/influence.  The VDS is no longer valid, and no council will support the new scheme because it is too expensive to set up and open to litigation when in place, which makes it potentially VERY expensive to maintain – basically speaking the new scheme has taken away any chance of fighting unwanted/inappropriate developments!

Fingers crossed.

(There endeth today’s rant)