Pipe dreams

This aggregates something which is dispersed and affects the character of the whole country, so as to portray it as if it is a block by itself, with vast open spaces everywhere else.

But the UK National Ecosystem Assessment also implies something far more peculiar. If we were foolish enough to allow the whole of England to become urbanised, most of this country would still be open space, in the form of gardens and recreation areas which are part of the urban landscape and have nothing to do with rural countryside.

In England, it is impossible to travel more than a couple of miles without passing a long-established village. It is the open countryside that defines villages and towns. Vast estates we see underway in Sussex are built on this countryside, and are urbanising villages out of existence.

It is politicians’ pipe dreams that our housing will be built on ‘brown land’, which often means six houses in place of one.

Ever since the Second World War, we have been trying to build the magic figure of 200,000 houses a year, with all its unspecified infrastructure. This has become the policy of Government that cannot govern.

For the sake of a stable society, the natural environment, agriculture, and reducing carbon dioxide emissions, this has to end. The only sure way is to terminate immigration.

We need commerce to employ people who are already living here, and if investors greedily or altruistically want more, they should go abroad to countries that are impoverished.

The European Union needs to be about devolution, not empire building.

R. W. Standing

Sea Road

East Preston

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