I take it that this picture includes Windsor Castle behind an ugly urban scape encroaching the curves of the downs which are threatened. The downs are being threatened by Eton College , Windsor Castle’s sky scape dominates the view of Eton college.
As I write a crow and a rat are eating the bird food while a red kite is above the river Thames. To suppose that Eton, where I am, or Windsor Castle , on whose skyscape I gaze, are idyllic is to ignore the threat of nature! To suppose that the downs on which Eton want to build a town are immune from nature’s threats is silly, living in the country has different threats and ones most un- supposed by those who live in towns.
I can live with river rats and voracious crows and I can live with hunting birds out to pick on baby ducks. That’s what happens.
As I’ve been watching this cruel stuff, I’ve been looking at the Downs and the village Eton College wants to develop as a New Town. I am sitting on land once owned by Eton and sold for housing in the 1990s, I look over water, feed birds and have Eton as my neighbour. I do not find Eton a bad neighbour and I’m not sure that looking at this campaign I buy the arguments. Eton owns that land, it too is a beautiful spot and many people will end up living as I do.
The downs are a place for those who want to protect what has been rural for as long as memory lasts but things change. In parts of Scotland, rural splendour has returned since the people left in 19th and 20th centuries. People move around and we cannot use conservation as an argument if we do not know the demographics of our country.
The website is here. https://www.donturbanisethedowns.com/what-were-fighting-to-protect
The URL says it all, this is about conservatism and not progress. Eton teaches boys who have the privilege that most children don’t. I would be interested to know what Eton College will do with the money they receive if the new town is built and its houses are sold for profit.
The website has a rant at Eton but it is never quite as simple as it seems
Our loss will be Eton and Welbeck’s gain. The intention of this scheme seems to be more about increasing the value of the land for Welbeck and Eton College by gaining planning permission rather than building houses to meet any real local housing need. This scheme makes no sense as a way to benefit local people and it is doubtful that even people further afield will benefit by gaining access to truly affordable housing.
In the end you can’t help but ask why Eton College is risking its reputation by associating itself with a development that makes no sense in terms of local need? It seems to be a purely speculative land venture designed to achieve a one-off increase in the value of the assets of an already very wealthy organisation, to serve the privileged at the expense of the rest of us.
A part of me is for the empty downs and the delight of open space but another part of me wants the rehousing of people in a good place to live. A part of me wonders what good may come from money coming into Eton.
The development is not in the Downs but on land adjacent to it. It is near Plumpton, my only association with the area (a nice racecourse).
I was sent the website by a friend who lives in the City of London which suggests that I am not the only one to being asked to get involved who lives nowhere near this beautiful sight.
There are many like me and my friend, asked to consider this development as a natural disaster. I bet there aren’t many of us who aren’t acting out of selfish emotion for the past, rather than a delight for progress.
Screenshot
Will Eton keep the freehold?
Where is the employment and infrastructure?
Will the houses be eco friendly?https://open.spotify.com/episode/1gZbclfhpBCNdh7u9BXRWX?si=KfTZV_yeRuqk8q44DUsnGA
How affordable and how many first time buyers are targeted?
New Towns are needed in the U.K. but recent trends are concerning. Yesterday I was in Dublin and the local paper headline was of mortgages at 5 times income with little deposit.
Memories are shorter than ever
I believe the problem with building houses in a rural area is that they actually increase rather than decrease social needs. The houses when built become attractive to potential owners who do not have to travel to a work location 3 or more days a week, who do not have children who need to be taken to and collected from school, i.e., the “middle aged”. However very quickly the middle aged become the elderly with their increased medical and social needs so difficult to provide from a small established base community.
We also have to consider the relative attractiveness of city centre housing, particularly to the younger – for example the Manchester City Centre population has grown from 500 in 1990 to 100,000 today and is expected to reach 250,000 in less than 10 years. A high proportion of which is under age 35. While in time that population does spread out to suburban areas, initially the need is reliable and frequent (more than once an hour from early morning to late at night) public transport to places of work, education and play (e.g. entertainment and sport). The health and social needs are more easily met from a large established population.