The Daily Telegraph yesterday published satellite images of Dale Farm from 1999 to 2011. These clearly show that, contrary to propaganda spewed on all media, the site has neither expanded nor used up any green fields. You find them at 14.15 on that long Daily Telegraph blog post.
I am fascinated by the campaign to use respect for planning law as the justification for racist bile. Planning law is a very political area indeed. The government is seeking actively to relax the protection of green belt land- we are going to see homes built on actual green fields, not on the wasteland Dale Farm plainly was in those Telegraph images. Of course, they will be for middle class people – I shall be fascinated to see how many people posting here so keen to see families evicted from Dale Farm, are going to be out protesting as real green fields get concreted over.
Like most people, I have encountered planning regulations several times in my life. The first time was in Gravesend. I used to live at No 3 Portland Road. The owners of No 5 Portland Road built a two storey extension, in order to convert it into flats. This brought building right on to the boundary line and substantially diminished my sunlight and amenity in a number of ways. It was also very ramshackle and ill-looking construction. I was away serving abroad while it was built. On return I contacted the Council planning department, and discovered that it had been done entirely without planning permission, as indeed had the conversion into flats in a zone excluded from multi-occupancy. But Gravesham Council did absolutely nothing. (NB the owners of 5 Portland Road have since changed and the current owners were in no way responsible).
I was further unlucky in Gravesend because my house, No. 3, was semi-detached with No. 1. That was bought by The Kenward Trust, for use as a hostel for recovering drug addicts on release from prison. That seemed to me not a good use for a semi-detached property adjoining a young family, and we tried to fight it. However it turned out that under “Care in the community”, a hostel for 5 people or less did not need planning permission, as the use was considered still that of an ordinary family home.
Before coming to 1 Portland Road the inmates, on release from jail, spent time in Kenward House, a Kent mansion. The Kenward Trust is an evangelical christian organisation, and the anti-addiction programme consisted of christian indoctrination and happy clappy songs. Most of the inmates had criminal records in addition to addiction, and not always was the crime related. While we were trying to fight their taking over the other half of our semi, one of their inmates from Kenward House raped a passer-by there.
Inmates succesfully “treated” would come on to 1 Portland Road, as kind of halfway house. There they would get food, a tiny living allowance and a weekly visit from a warder – which involved more happy-clappy christianity. While I still maintain this was a crazy and reckless thing to put in a semi with a family home, I got to know some inmates over the years and some were nice enough. They were all entirely cynical about the happy clappy stuff.
They were also very aware of the massive amounts of government money the Kenward Trust was receiving for each inmate – ten times the cost of housing, feeding and their allowance. Very occasionally directors of the Kenward Trust would turn up in huge BMWs. Their salaries, expenses, vehicles and free accommodation were amazing. Damn clever, these Christians. Anne Widdecombe was their patron.
Ada and Mabel in Blackburn had a similar experience to mine over unauthorised building extensions by neighbours. I am sorry to say that both in Blackburn and Gravesend the real reason the council did nothing was because the illegal building was done by members of ethnic communities whose electoral support New Labour – which ran both councils at the relevant time -was eager to buy locally. Just as at Dale Farm the planning enforcement is against an ethnic community which the council feel it will be electorally popular to persecute.
Planning law and its enforcement is a deeply political matter. Care in the community, going easy or hard on specific ethnic minorities, these are purely political decisions. The idea that Dale Farm is an impartial piece of administration aimed at upholding the rule of law, is such balderdash is it scarcely worth addressing.
This is politically decided ethnic cleansing.
Kenward House is in the Maidstone constituency, hence Anne Widdecombe, as the long standing MP until recently, would have been a natural choice as patron of a quasi religious do-gooding organisation.
I have not lived in Yalding (the nearest village) for a while, but never heard of any real trouble from the “inmates”. Most trouble came from pseudo-travellers with their links to ATM theft, the failed Dome diamond heist etc but at least they were away from their home turf when doing those things.
Kit,
I am pretty sure the rape took place in Yalding, on the banks of a stream or canal? But getting on for 20 years ago.
The situation at Dale Farm is occluded by the fact the structures where put in place before applying for planning permission. It is possible that this approach accounts for this, and other rejected applications. There should be an enquiry into the general situation of Travellers and planning permission, facts, not speculation and conflation with unrelated issues are needed before we can hope to have a valid opinion here.
One thing is clear, there is too much red tape and not enough common sense, or courtesy.
Mrjohn
I agree with you. I wanted to do business a few months ago and saw a good opportunity in renovating an old unused restaurant building in London. The building is still there and in such a horrible condition that it is damaging the view in W2 area. However, getting a planning permission or speaking to planning people at the westminster council turned out to be the worst experience in my life. I dropped my intentions and watching it what is going to happen to this poor building.
A man moved into a pleasant little rural cottage near my home. He put up electrified fences and an electrically operated gate. He kenneled two rottweiler dogs in his new compound. He rebuilt the cottage, making it bigger. He installing floodlights on every wall and left them on all night, every night.
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Then he excavated into the hill, built a large hard-standing and some large sheds and garages. He filled this new area with bulldozers, tractors, diggers and the like, and brought in mechanics to work on them there. There was constant noise and smell from diesel engines. Soon it was found that he had a web-site, and was trading this machinery from the site. A flatbed truck daily transported tractors and diggers along the concrete bridleway. Then a fleet of three articulated lorries started using the place as a depot.
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I started writing to the council, protesting this change of use and sending in photographic evidence. The official at the council told me that the department were working hard to stop the trading. He told me that the matter was complex, and was frequently discussed at planning department meetings.
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After one year and one month I stopped receiving replies to my e-mails. I phoned the council and asked to speak to the officer I’d been writing to. The officer had emigrated to Canada and no record could be found of the case.
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Eventually, after I’d suggested that the previous official had been corrupt, the council took action. Soon after, the man sold the cottage and moved.
The parish council is a powerful tool for over-riding residents’ wishes, previous promises and planning law. Green belt growth is another recycled Thatcher wind-up about to be Cameron u-turned.
If you can invade Libya, you can definitely invade your own country. There are more interwoven symbiotic plant roots among the professional classes than the bluebell woods of Middle England.
‘Winds of change are blowing, old ways are going, your rambling days will soon be over’
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Donovan sings three verses of Ewan McColl’s classic “Travelling People”.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmApIE720gU
Kenward Trust. A £multi million operation. Three of the trustees Corp, Rowbotham and Wilkins are trustees of other charities including other religious outfits such as the Beacon Church and the Bridgebuilder Trust. Quite a network.
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http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/Showcharity/RegisterOfCharities/CharityWithPartB.aspx?RegisteredCharityNumber=265394&SubsidiaryNumber=0
It appears that every last 1/4 acre of “undeveloped” land around here is being offered to prospective builders. Ancient woodlands, parks, scenic cliff-path areas – they all have signposts giving contact details for the council along with an invitation to submit planning applications. All are also accompanied by posters for campaigns to try and stop it, on an individual basis, nothing coordinated yet.
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Whenever there’s an objection to a planning application, even if the local council turns it town following objections, the Welsh Assembly overturns the objections on appeal. Maybe there is an exception, I’ve not heard of one. Locals can go to hell.
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We’re treating our countryside and woodlands as if it were a business in liquidation, and we need to turn all of our natural resources into cash as quickly as possible. We can make a short term profit as if it had never occurred to anyone to date, by destroying all spaces separating existing houses.
Snooping via Google Street View. Fascinating architectural style especially the gabled attic room.
http://g.co/maps/9pjjj
I think that link was wrong. Googling No 1 brought this building up???
http://g.co/maps/73evr
‘Just as at Dale Farm the planning enforcement is against an ethnic community which the council feel it will be electorally popular to persecute’.
The ‘ethnic community’ to which the Dale Farm residents belong- Irish travellers- is a convenient legal fiction and not an ethnographic fact. (Other legal fictions in the UK include- children under 10 being deemed incapable of criminality, and girls under 16 being deemed incapable of consenting to sexual intercourse). The DNA patterns found in Irish travellers are virtually indistinguishable from those found in the settled Irish population.
Anti Irish racism in southern England (unlike Scotland) has withered away over the last 50 years, but fear & resentment of Irish travellers persists. Is that because of ‘racism’, or because Irish travellers tend to pursue a lifestyle predatory upon the existing population ? see here-
http://www.thisisgloucestershire.co.uk/Johnsons-8211-Godfathers-Cheltenham/story-11927199-detail/story.html
and here-
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cumbria/7354640.stm
for examples of what I mean by ‘predatory lifestyle’.
Also, perhaps Craig’s American readers might recognise some similarities between the Hatfield/McCoy Appalachian feuding tradition, and events like these back in the Ould Sod, involving the same ‘ethnic group’ that inhabits Dale Farm-
http://www.herald.ie/news/the-traveller-53-accused-of-being-instigator-1443379.html
Mary,
yes the second link is the right one. No 3, my old house, has the solar panels and the for sale sign. You can see the large extension on the side of no 5, entirely without planning permission. The Kenward Trust own No 1 on the corner.
Adam MacNaughton: ‘When the Yellow’s on the Broom’.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cidr7t0c6MQ&feature=related
…on a nearby link, and it must surely be dedicated to you Craig:
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WT3GwWTkVFo&feature=related
Does Kenward offer AA style therapy for PM Muslim blood addiction?
Perhaps the Functional model of addiction would be more suitable:
Killing Muslims is a function of the UK fossil fuel requirements.
Never underestimate the tardiness and stupidity lurking in the halls of local government. The planning authorities at Bradford City Council engaged the wreckage of a fine Victorian town I once lived in – check the difference between the old and the new on this link if you dare, Mornington Road Church Bingley – http://www.bingleymethodistchurch.org.uk/history
At Dumbarton Castle one of the buildings was used to hold prisoners of the Napoleonic Wars. The walls were covered in graffitti of the period. The (Labour) council had it all scraped and painted over – some of the writings were rude.
Vronsky,
now here’s some real music “Ambassador Craig Murray’s Reel”
http://www.pandora.com/music/song/battlefield+band/nuala+kennedys+reel+ambassador+craig+murrays+reel
“I am sorry to say that both in Blackburn and Gravesend the real reason the council did nothing was because the illegal building was done by members of ethnic communities whose electoral support New Labour…”
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and your hard evidence for this is … ?
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all prejudice is ugly.
Wendy,
that is a foolish request. they don’t set out plans for corrupt practice in writing. But knowing a great deal of the politics of both Gravesend and Blackburn, I can assyre you that is how it worked. it is not a question of prejudice – any more than to observe the practice of postal ballot and other voting fraud in the UK especially among asian muslim communities, again strongly encouraged by New labour, is a question of prejudice. To defend the rights of minority communities, as I do strenuously, is not to pretend that they never do anything wrong or are free from involvement in political corruption.
The political corruption in Muslim communities is created by White non-Muslim politicians. If you leave the larder open, people will pinch a pudding or two, from whatever community. The mind boggles why UK political parties behave in this way, unless it is to discredit Islam. It would be much better for all if there was a level playing field. Muslim communities cannot be blamed for being drawn into a much broader in fact global political game.
@ The Keeper…
“A man moved into a pleasant little rural cottage near my home”…
Ah… clearly you didn’t take the elementary step of joining the local Lodge then?
In the area of rural Scotland where I live – supposedly ‘green belt’ – you can build just about anything you like anywhere you like as long as you have money (and the support of the Brethren). Want a “farmworker’s cottage” with 6 bedrooms, twin garages and a half-acre garden? No problem – nod-nod, wink-wink.
Anno
Blame on all sides. New Labour war criminal scum like “Lord” Patel in Blackburn and Baroness Udders are scum whether they are Muslim or not.
@Vronsky – Too much of the locally produced whiskey imbibed at Council meetings, I suspect. However, you are lucky that they stopped at the graffiti. Glasgow Labour destroyed the very historic Langside Castle (in Glasgow) on the grounds that it was in a dangerous state; the real reason, I was told, being that a local politico with developer connections wanted the stone to build pricy housing nearby.
Have you noticed that there is virtually no complaint from the Muslim community about UK foreign policy? It is absolutely the exception to the rule for Muslims to speak out. It doesn’t matter how the wheels of corruption are oiled, in the UK through immigration and benefits, in the Arab spring danger zones like Saudi Arabia, through a splurge of spending. There is an awful lot of disgusting politicians in the world sweetening their constituents with blatant bribes and staving off criticism which should be made.
“That seemed to me not a good use for a semi-detached property adjoining a young family, and we tried to fight it.”
So I assume it is okay next to pensioners?
I am bariun (free from all connection with) the Baroness. Did you notice that Arsalan commented on your venture into the Liberal Party? Please send my salam to him.
Paul,
Why do you presume that? Evidently some problem with your understanding of the English language.
Thanks Craig. I see what you mean about the extension on No 5. It even appears to extend over the boundary and quite shocking that no planning permission was sought or given. I think that the houses are attractive and look solidly built. http://g.co/maps/x5ps8
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I heard tonight that financial irregularities have been discovered in the Edinburgh City Council department that supervise repairs to listed buildings.
{http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-14965150}
Nothing changes. We hear the same sort of thing locally.