Sometimes social change becomes very personal and one aspect of improving society e.g. supplying the need for social housing and supporting ageing populations.. can be very much in conflict with another…e.g. sustaining the natural environment and a sense of space as part of sustainable communities …..so…..2 days ago a planning application went in to Cornwall Council to turn the fields that border our little home into 72 houses and a care home… As a Clore Social fellow I thought it’d be a good idea to blog  the situation and see if it generates some thoughts.

I’ll do a quick context…

We (our family) live in North Cornwall, it is beautiful, it has a strong cultural identity. We are privileged so live here and elected to live here for lots of reasons, here are a few; we love creative environments exemplified by space, we don’t like shrinking back-gardens and poor allocation of space, we believe in a child and  adults right to play. We think sustainable living is essential and Cornwall is a national pioneer particularly around renewable energy. We as a family believe in ‘giving’ and  growing ‘meaningful relationships’ in community is a way of life and think social need and enterprise has a lot to offer and we’re glad that Cornwall is UK’s first rural Social Enterprise zone… more the philosophy than the business model.

More relative to the field issue…our kids love the cows in the field next door, they like playing there and climbing the trees, my son Lewi (and me) went to get a closer look at the falcon that lives in one of the trees the other day it had some young in the nest so decided to go into dive bomb attack mode …. it made three Spitfire like passes… we ran for our lives…it was exhilarating …and hysterical to the rest of the family watching…anyway amazing wildlife.

Our take on Pros for the planning;

• The application comes from Cornwall Care a charity provider of services for social care need, particularly older generations.
• The UK has an ageing population, care needs are high.
• You can’t purchase a property unless you have a registered care need
• The development will provide local jobs
• We think inter- generationalism is important, our kids get a lot out of spending time with grandparents and grandparents friends…we think stories can stay alive because of this
• The development is not from a ‘high’ profit orienteered commercial organisation with no consideration for environment
• It looks like it will be well managed and the development looks well thought through.

Our take on Cons:

• Despite rhetoric homes will not be affordable…£230k (plus) for the smallest bungalow, buyers will need to have healthy bank accounts (social need?)
• Another two fields that were for agricultural use disappear
• Our sense of space becomes a sense of enclosure, our outlook will be roads and buildings…goodbye green colours
• No matter how good an environmental impact assessment can help mitigate and amend the planning there will be an impact on the local eco-system…e.g. the falcon will move as her tree will go…
• The planning authority and national planning policy advocate new developments…restrictions are less.
• More cars
• Less light in the house

We are 50/50…… so just putting it out there in blog form…..