Link road is a population problem

OLD age brings enlightened cynicism and excuses for indiscretions, so when analysing Richard Tilden-Smith’s demeaning letters to objectors of his Link Road (Your View 15/3/13), one wonders if he is a frustrated coalition politician, has any experience of industry, or has a vested interest in the Link Road? Will he ‘fess up?!

People have rights’, (clearly not if they oppose Richard’s Link Road)! ‘County has not budgeted for extra-security’ (its called ‘Contingencies’ - projects rarely run to budget). ‘Building new factories secures new jobs... and without land clearance, the world would grind to a halt’: what arrogant tosh! Britain is littered with half-empty government sponsored ‘enterprise’ business parks, speculative offices and empty homes built on green land by teams of roving navvies because its cheaper and more profitable for ‘naughty’ developers. Land clearance has left much of the world barren.

Consumer demand, not governments, create jobs. We all have a duty to shop locally to employ local people, who (hopefully) spend locally and grow our economies. Those who whinge about paying unemployment benefit should stop buying cheap imports off the internet!

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Over 80 per cent of the 2,400 cars per hour at Glyne Gap is ‘local traffic’ - only about 5 per cent is genuine through traffic. Miraculously, Richard’s road will cure congestion faster than Vicks! Has he experienced the erupting carbuncle sprouting from farmland called Ashford, or the M25, a rural by-pass until the Leatherhead-Heathrow section opened whereupon it immediately ground to a halt? Building more lanes achieved little.

The problem, dear Richard, is your democratic government is committed to 250,000 new homes annually (plus new schools, hospitals, shops, factories, by-passes, airports...) for the uncontrolled population growth which can now only be accommodated by extending urban boundaries to new rural by-passes (such as London’s rural North and South Circular of the 1920s). If Richard supports ‘progress’ and uncontrolled population growth, he should champion development on the barren Yorkshire Moors or Lake District to prevent Mountfield becoming the next dualled/railway suburb of Greater Hastings-on-Sea.

Or, he could accept England is full and our fields are needed for food, our woodland for the eco-system and timber for the next generation.

Barry M Jones

Bixley Lane, Beckley

Related topics: