ROOF TREES

I had an argument discussion with my Mother in a restaurant after my graduation last week (I’d had to give the Harry Potter robes and silly hat back so I felt disgruntled instead of swishy) about rural development. She challenged me to convince her that a few acres of new housing wouldn’t damage the visual, social and environmental qualities of the very rural area she lives in (so middle-of-nowhere, there’s cows on one side and horses on the other and it’s almost impossible to find the house at night in the deep, dark, absence of light pollution). Amongst my stream of sort-of-intelligent, impassioned defiance, was my point that small, single storey, low density housing with green roofs would still look like a field at first glance and an adorable hobbit community at second glance. Mother replied with an ‘agree to disagree’ expression, but I know she was secretly dreaming about a cabin with little trees on the roof and a vegetable patch and a pony and a pygmy goat herd…

- Originally posted to untroddenview.tumblr.com on 21/2/2013

Anywhere nice absolutely teeming with arseholes

It’s a satirical article but seriously; rural areas are becoming overrun with symbols of ignorance. It’s a real shame that the next generation in rural families probably won’t be able to find a suitable job or afford a house in the area they grew up in, because the only houses being built are giant mansions (understandable from a developer’s point of view, since large detached homes with outbuildings are the most desirable, according to research by The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyers) and everyone works from home or commutes to a city.This is not a new problem; ‘House prices freeze out rural families’ was a headline in 2002.
I’m not at all opposed to development in rural areas - poor quality land should by all means be sensibly and sensitively redeveloped - but this development is too often based on a romanticised view of a simpler rural life (This Is Money blames Hugh Fearless-lyEatsAll) and a need for vast amounts of private space, in the form of five spare bedrooms and ten acres of empty land.
No one should move to a new area without awareness of the reality of living there, whether it’s moving to a rural area and refusing to support the village shop or moving to a thriving inner city area and complaining about the noise from the pub next door.

- Originally posted to untroddenview.tumblr.com on 21/2/2013