A Demo Against Smash & Grab of the Crudest Kind. (This is our Jerusalem)
On Saturday 6th August a mass demonstration will be taking place in Hythe, against Development across Shepway & Ashford. Demonstrators will gather from 10.30AM onwards in Douglas Avenue (opposite Waitrose car park) to move off at 11am.
The Kent countryside (like elsewhere) has now become an arena for smash and grab accumulation of the crudest kind. City money is flooding in, as a number of extravagant tax exemptions, combined with farm subsidies, make rural land one of the most profitable speculative investments of modern times. Its price has risen fourfold in the past 12 years; the rise has been much faster, and steadier, than the growth in house prices.
The source of much of this money is hidden: vast tracts (over 1.2 million acres and growing) are registered in offshore tax havens.
It is not only Offshore’s who lack transparency. Shepway District Council have conducted the whole Otterpool Park development in a cloak of secrecy. The people have not at any stage been spoken to or listened to. This will only happen after everything has been decided. Local Parish Cllrs have been ignored, so if democratically elected officials are brushed off, then what chance do the people have?
A Sanskrit text written in about 1500BC noted: “Upon this handful of soil our survival depends. Husband it and it will grow our food, our fuel and our shelter and surround us with beauty. Abuse it and the soil will collapse and die, taking humanity with it.”
(But not if the Property Developers get their way)
More than 50% of UK food comes from abroad so by covering the area known as Otterpool Park with concrete, tarmac and houses, reduces our ability to grow our own food. We should be using it for food production, as food prices are rising at an alarming rate . A growing number of people in Shepway and elsewhere, are struggling to put food on the table for their children.
The world’s soil holds 20% of the world’s carbon dioxide, so by digging up the land at Otterpool Park or elsewhere means more Co2 goes into the atmosphere and contributes to global warming. This is why we think Cllr David Drury Monk is Cockalooloo and the green fields of Shepway and beyond should remain as England’s green and pleasant land
So please come along on Saturday 6th August and bring your drums, whistles, banners and voices. Demonstrators will be meeting at 10.30AM in Douglas Avenue(opposite Waitrose car park) to move off at 11am.
Groups being represented will include:
Princes Parade. www.saveprincesparade.org
The Village Alliance Mersham. info@thevillagealliance.co.uk
Otterpool New Town. www.slurry.org.uk sellindgeresidents@gmail.com
Shornecliffe/Horn street areas: southcheritonactiongroup@gmail.com
The Lorry Park: action@SOSKent.org.uk
Residents of West Hythe & Lympne: thespouthouse@googlemail.com
Sevington/Cheesmans Green/Aldington/Mersham: paul.bartlett@ashford.gov.uk
Shepwayvox
It is to be applauded as to the number, and variation, of protest groups proposing to assemble on this date to attempt to persuade Shepway of the error of their ways. Unfortunately it is destined to become an empty gesture as we have found that Shepway have little intent to listen to the concerns of their Electorate.
What Shepway thinks, Shepway does. You, and I, do not figure in their calculations.
The person to deluge with our reservations, and I mean deluge, is David Monk. He is leader of Council, and leader of the controlling group. He decides, with scant opposition, what should be or not be.
There is some conjecture that David Monk would wish to progress to wider office. A serious blot on his CV would hamper his ambitions, so defeat over the current delevopment proposals would tend to register this blot.
With this in mind, what chance is there that Shepway, (David Monk), will even listen to the reserves submitted?