Over 800 new houses Goodbye countryside

[TwoIfBySea]

Am so mad at this I am going to rant so please excuse me...!

We live at the very edge of a small town, right beside lots of fields and countryside. Because it is a housing association cul-de-sac I have always thought of this, hoped rather, it would be temporary until the house prices start becoming real again. Anyway, there is an estate of normal houses beside us and everyone uses the pathways through the fields for walking, taking the dogs out for exercise, children playing etc etc. It has always been nice knowing that escape was literally on the doorstep.

Now, from one of my friends on the other estate, I find out the local farmer has sold all his land and there is going to be up to 800 houses built on the fields!!!!! It is going to be horrendous, just too many people and although there is rumour of a new school my ds twins aren't even in nursery yet and there will be no space at all!

I am really ticked off as there will be nothing but houses (they are really bad for allowing space for play parks, our nearest one is a disgrace.) I would have thought the housing association should have told us of this as it is going to be a huge horrible change.

DH isn't too bothered as he is sure that in the next couple of years we will be able to move (as he is working we are only one of three out of the whole cul-de-sac that does not get everything paid for with benefits etc.) I do hope so as I wanted my two to have a place they could go to. All the children on this street play in the fields, they even had a den set up this summer although it was a wash out.

God, it is just too much to think about! Why do councils agree to this (backhanders is my theory on that one.) Putting too many unaffordable houses in this area, who is to buy them all. There are already huge estates going up on the other side of town and the starting price is £145k for a three bed!!! How the hell could we afford that without every penny going to the mortgage.

Rant over and I wish it had made me feel better!

Don't know how big your town is, TIBS. Ours is fairly small - used to be about 12,000 people when we moved here 20 years ago? There have been at least 800 new houses built here since then, all over the place, wherever there was a little patch of land they would stick in 10 or 20 or 30 houses, plus bigger estates of 50 or more, plus enormous edge-of-town ones of over 200.

Anyway the town has coped. We've lost all our 'lungs', allotments and whatnot, and there are rows every year about school places, but all the kids get in. The HC is struggling but is probably going to move. Traffic is worse but only at odd times of day.

Councils have to agree to housing plans - they do huge longterm plans, for years ahead, with land pencilled in for housing, and when that comes round they can't legally turn it down. £145K for a 3 bed isn't that bad these days. Hope it's not as bad as you fear.

Huge sympathy. Our council has been forced to take something like 50,000 houses and the govt are trying to force another 46,000 on the area.

I live in a big town (which I hate and am desperate to move out of) and they want to build loads round here. And what do they do? Remove our A+E unit. So there will be even more pressure on the already overburdened surrounding hospitals (for those that are lucky enough to survive the extra journey). It is completely ridiculous and very depressing, when will the govt understand???

Oh, and the town is already twice the size that it was planned as being (it is/was a 'new town').