Bourne Diary - December 1999

by

Rex Needle

Saturday 4th December 1999

Amid the heated debate over the massive house building scheme that will swallow up over 325 acres of farmland to the south of Bourne, little thought has been given to the fate of Elsea Wood which is on the edge of the development. This and the adjoining Math Wood are both Sites of Special Scientific Interest and were once part of the large forest which covered this landscape and although its isolation and restricted access has left the woodland largely unfrequented in recent years except by nature lovers, this protection will disappear once 2,000 new homes are built on its very fringes.

Bluebells grow here in the spring, a sure sign of an ancient woodland, while thousands of birds nest in the trees and its hidden places are full of small mammals. Fallow deer can also be seen hereabouts, often making their way across the countryside from Auster Wood and Pillow Wood to the north east but their traditional tracks will soon be blocked by the new homes if the scheme goes ahead.

Allison Homes, who are behind the Elsea Park development, have given assurances that measures will be taken to protect the woods but warning notices and wire fences are no deterrent to the hundreds of children who will soon be living in the vicinity and it is inevitable that they will make this place their playground. The attraction of trees and undergrowth is far too great for youngsters with time on their hands at weekends and in the school holidays and vandalism is inevitable and the effect on wildlife will be disastrous.

Bourne Wood covers some 400 acres and has been adapted for visitors with clearly defined roads and paths and it is big enough to accommodate 100,000 visitors a year including joggers and cyclists but even here there are cases of wanton damage by mindless youngsters and so it is easy to imagine the pressure on this very small woodland when hordes of kids are living just a few steps away. There is also another danger because two thousand homes means dozens more cats, the greatest threat to wildlife in urban areas because cats kill for pleasure and have been known to take a dozen birds or small mammals in a single day. The loss of wild life to predatory cats should not be underestimated. There are currently seven million domestic cats in Britain and research by the British Trust for Ornithology indicates that they kill seventy million birds each year, apart from any mice, voles, shrews or other small mammals that may come their way, so eliminating a critical food source for owls and hawks. Their main target are ground feeders and inexperienced fledglings and in woodland that has remained relatively undisturbed for centuries, the result will be devastating.

There has been much criticism of this development on the grounds that it is too much too soon for Bourne and that the existing services such as schools, roads and public amenities will be unable to cope and certainly there is a case to be addressed on this front. But there has been no discussion about the environmental impact of such large scale housing suddenly thrust upon a stretch of countryside which has been agricultural since man first turned the soil.

The argument over whether or not these houses should be built on virgin land has until now been concentrated on the reaction of the people of Bourne and if they will accept it, not that they have any say in the matter because their councillors have already voted, despite very little public consultation. The possible destruction of an important habitat containing such natural diversity is another matter and the survival of important flora and fauna often outweighs all human considerations because governments invariably rule that threatened species such as the great crested newt are far more important than people. Those who feel strongly enough against this development on these grounds should protest accordingly.

There has been no mention either in this debate of the obvious solution to the problem of finding space for the new homes we are told that Bourne needs. Instead of taking prime agricultural land out of production for such developments, surely it would be better to use up our vacant brownfield sites first as the present government has promised, rather than gobble up more of our green and pleasant land.

It takes only a brief trip around the town to identify the many spaces available for house building and such a course of action would not only remove many eyesores but would also rejuvenate those areas of Bourne that are in danger of blighting the neighbourhood, if indeed they have not already done so.

This is unlikely to happen because developers are motivated by quick and easy profits and not by altruism and the fastest and most convenient way to build new houses is to lift the topsoil from hitherto untouched farmland and replace it with concrete. Building only a few houses at a time on scattered urban locations, often between existing properties, is a most inconvenient undertaking for developers and lacks the grand sweep of covering a swathe of countryside on the outskirts of the town with a massive residential estate and, what is more important to them, it would be a far more costly operation.

Whether we like it or not, our future appears to be in the hands of the developers and our councillors merely pay lip service to the democratic process for why else would South Kesteven District Council's planning and development control committee vote 15-1 in favour of giving outline planning permission to a scheme that had been before them for only a few days? With so much dissension in the town, this hardly seems representative of the current climate of opinion.

But it is not all bleak news from the bureaucratic machine, even though its wheels grind exceedingly slow. This diary drew attention to the fact that two signs had been installed by letting agents on the front of the old post office building in North Street on September 18th and again on October 16th and South Kesteven District Council agreed that this was unlawful because only one sign is allowed without prior planning consent. This breach of the law drew particular comment from contributors to the Bourne Forum because the elegant stone façade was damaged in the process and the signs themselves were an added eyesore to the town. The council promised to investigate and it appears that they have done so because on Sunday morning a lorry fitted with a tub lift arrived and a workman dismantled one of the signs and carted it away and so lawful advertising on this property has been restored. It has taken ten weeks to get some action but then better late than never and it is also gratifying to know that we are not always whistling in the wind.

Saturday 11th December 1999

Dogs and cats have found a place in our affection and are welcome in most homes because they are manageable pets which can be kept under control and cared for with the minimum of fuss and cost and they can give love and friendship in return. But there has been a disturbing trend in recent years to bring more exotic animals into the domestic circle and as most people are totally inexperienced in handling such creatures they often end up unwanted and subsequently abandoned.

Snakes, turtles, iguanas and tarantula spiders are among the fifty handed over to the Royal Society for the Protection of Cruelty to Animals in this region in the past year because their owners were unable to cope with them and it is suspected that hundreds more are being kept in unsuitable conditions through the ignorance of their owners. Research by the society suggests that they are being sold by pet shops without proper welfare guidance to buyers who have not given sufficient thought to the commitment needed to own an exotic animal.

There have been many cases in recent months which demonstrate the irresponsibility of such purchases and in the past summer the society received more emergency calls and inquiries relating to reptiles and amphibians than ever before while many are simply being dumped in the countryside or even in urban areas.

The RSPCA strongly discourages the purchase of exotic animals. "All too often, people take them on without realising that they will grow, often very big indeed", said a spokesman. "They will need special care and attention and their diets are often highly specialised. You also have to ask how happy an animal will be in somebody's bedroom when its natural habitat is the jungle or desert. The trouble comes when the terrapin that fitted into the palm of the hand when it was bought two years ago is now the size of a dinner plate and they don't know what to do with it and so they dump it in a pond at the local park where it dies because of the strange environment or flourishes to the detriment of the existing ecosystem."

The society fears that the situation has now become a real cause for concern. A whole menagerie of odd animals could be on the loose in this country and apart from their vulnerability, some are also a danger to the public and they are therefore appealing for a clampdown on the trade in exotic pets. In the meantime, many of those that do come into their hands end up at the Exotic Pet Refuge at Deeping St James run by Pam and Mel Mansfield. A wide variety of animals are being cared for here and nothing is turned away. "It is a very sad situation", said Pam. "Pet shop owners must realise that they have a responsibility to the animals they are selling and their customers should think carefully before they buy."

The villages around Bourne continue to reveal surprises for anyone prepared to take the trouble to look. Driving through Braceborough on a gloriously sunny autumn morning I spotted some old iron ploughs in a garden adjoining a row of early 19th century stone cottages in the High Street and stopped to investigate. They were all quite ancient, single furrow horse-drawn ploughs dating back to Victorian times, and there must have been a dozen of them ranged around the backyard as though on public display. Between them, all laid out in an orderly fashion, were many more farming bygones and items of railway memorabilia, station signs and trespass warning notices, mostly made of cast iron.

This is the collection of Alfred Elliott, now eighty years old, whose magpie instincts over the last half a century have prompted him to amass an assortment of articles from the past. He lives at No 15 Main Street, the end-of-the-row stone cottage where he moved with his family at the age of five when his father was employed by the old Casewick Estates. He joined the Coldstream Guards two years before the outbreak of the Second World War and survived Dunkirk and when he left the army in 1947 after ten years' service, he returned to the cottage where he now lives with his 71-year-old wife Winifred. He worked mainly as a welder but could turn his hand to most things and in 1948 he rescued a plough from the scrap heap and this started his collection and since then it has grown into the large display we see today behind his cottage home.

Every item he acquired was brought home and cleaned with loving care. "I just like things from the past", said Alfred. "I cannot bear to see them destroyed." His collection has also taken over the house and the walls in the conservatory are covered with iron artefacts from past times, horse's bits, horseshoes, implements and tools, while the tables and ledges are filled with old brass lamps, cobbler's lasts, flat irons and other familiar household objects that I remembered from my childhood. The bits and pieces he has accumulated over the years are all around the house and perhaps his most striking display, certainly his favourite because he is an old soldier, is a glass case in the sitting room full of militaria, army medals, cap badges and insignia from two world wars. There seems to be something unusual in every nook and cranny, an old sword, a German dagger, a skeleton clock, brass hub caps, the list seems endless and every item has an interesting story which he tells with some affection.

"I just could not bear to throw anything away", explained Alfred. "It is all part of the past and I just love everything I have." These are the sentiments of the true collector.

Saturday 18th December 1999

As the year and the century draws to its close, I think it appropriate that we should ponder once again on the most important event in the town's recent history, the Elsea Park development. For those of us old enough to have lived through the Second World War when our lives depended on digging for victory to produce much needed food, in back gardens and waste spaces, the thought of spreading concrete and bricks on prime agricultural land is anathema when so many derelict and neglected sites in urban areas remain undeveloped and have become eyesores, gathering weeds and rubbish and a blight on surrounding properties.

Allison Homes make much of what they call "recognising and cherishing" Bourne's historic past in their policy statement for these 2,000 new homes but their scheme does neither because the houses they plan to build will be upmarket, fast turnover, high profit dwellings for newcomers who will regard this little market town as a quaint adjunct to their swish residential estate and the majority who live there will be unlikely to be employed in the locality or shop here although they will expect to use our roads, our library, medical and community services, and to send their children to our already overcrowded schools.

We are told that the town will benefit through what has become known as the planning gain, that in return for permission to build houses the developers will provide certain public services. This is the promise of our own local councillor John Smith, the member for Bourne West and chairman of South Kesteven District Council's planning and development control committee. He is on record as saying: "The district council has passed the outline planning application having first insisted on a design and development brief and also having obtained substantial planning gains for the benefit of the town such as a relief road, a new school, extensions to the Robert Manning and Grammar School classes, an extension to the grammar school playing fields, a community hall, playing fields, nature areas, cycle routes, local shops, pub, surgery, children's play areas, employment opportunity area, improvements to the library, town centre traffic lights, a regular community bus service to the town centre and more."

I now commend to you the following observations from The Countryman, a respected and long established magazine devoted to the preservation of our heritage, countryside and rural traditions. In the Christmas issue, the editor Tom Quinn writes in his editorial:

"Hardly a week goes by without a newspaper story about a local authority that has agreed to allow the demolition of a beautiful old listed building or that has made an area of green belt available to developers. When I telephone the press office at one council or another to ask about these things they are always very reasonable. They tell me that an unpopular development is allowed because of 'planning gain' or because the council has been over-ruled by the secretary of state (actually a rare occurrence). In plain English, 'planning gain' is a bribe. Allow us to build on that playing field, say the developers, and we will build a new library or swimming pool or whatever. But even this can turn sour. Developers have a knack of getting their way and then forgetting their obligations."

The developers of Elsea Park say that the homes will be built within fifteen years and that the public services they have promised will be provided as work progresses but there is already much conjecture and rumour in the town that they envisage a much shorter time frame of ten, even five years, because investment of this magnitude needs early fruition to make it worthwhile and no speculator wants to wait fifteen years to see a profitable return on an outlay of £10 million. If the houses are built sooner rather than later, then the promised services will lag behind because once the planning formalities have been concluded, new houses can be started, finished and in occupation within six months while new roads and schools need to go through the complex and bureaucratic procedures of committee, county council and Whitehall before a brick can be laid and so these matters must be considered in years rather than months before they materialise.

Allison Homes have been active in Bourne for almost thirty years and we must seriously consider their past record in providing amenities at their previous developments. The Stephenson Way estate was also built on prime agricultural land and is now one of the most extensive of the recent residential estates in Bourne and although it is over a mile away from the town centre, it does not have a single shop, no public house, no playing field or play areas, and is entirely dependent on the core amenities of the town. In fact, it is this estate that has seriously added to the burden that our services currently bear but where are the councillors now who approved this development a quarter of a century ago? Will Councillor Smith's words come back to haunt him?

The Elsea Park project has sparked off a volume of correspondence in the letters columns of the local newspapers and in the Bourne Forum discussion on this web site and 95% of the contributors in both cases were against the development and yet when members of South Kesteven District Council's planning and development control committee considered this scheme, the vote by our elected councillors was 15-1 in favour which is hardly representative of popular opinion. The scheme was also passed only a few days after it had been presented to the public for the first time and gave no opportunity for public discussion. Undue haste seems to be the order of the day and it would therefore be safe to assume that other forces are at work here, that the democratic process is being ignored and the public are to have no say in this matter.

In the past, local newspapers worthy of their name carried regular editorials which were attuned to popular opinion and this issue would have been high on their agenda but those days have gone and publishers are now more concerned with advertising revenue than editorial content and rather than upset those that might contribute to their revenue, the vox populi that we would expect from such publications at this time is absent.

This deafening silence from the media creates an atmosphere of public indifference in which there is a reluctance to oppose change and to accept the status quo. In times past, such circumstances would throw up a leader, someone of moral courage and physical energy who would rally support against the development, form a protest group, organise public meetings, involve our M P, write letters to the Prime Minister and best of all inspire those who would otherwise be content to sit back and accept everything our councils throw at us. Cometh the moment, cometh the man, but perhaps not this time otherwise he or she would have surfaced by now. If this development goes ahead, and it now seems most likely that it will, the consensus of opinion appears to be that it will be detrimental to Bourne as a small market town and nothing will ever again be the way it was. There will also be no cause to complain because the moment will have passed and the reason for that will be apathy and a lack of resolve on the part of those who already live here.

This is my last diary before Christmas and we will be taking a break over the festive season but the web site remains active and so please continue to visit and we wish you all the compliments of the season.

Return to Monthly entries