Proposal for new houses in Walton on the Hill.

[tek-monkey]

As they should. Everyone needs to start looking at alternative modes of transport to resolve the issues of congestion, not cars. The Dutch have done it very well. Instead of building more roads invest all that money on a fit for purpose public transport system and proper cycling infrastructure. The only reason its not done here is the backward governance and vested interests involved in cars and road building. No monetary profit in cycle paths despite them being green, keeping traffic moving and improving the health of the nation.

I know a few people 'not of these parts' and all have said they never needed a car til they came to Ireland and the UK. Saw the other day that Latvia is actually reducing its travel passes to €30/month (from €50, thats bus/tram/trolley bus but not trains) to encourage more people to use it. They readily admit it costs them €2.05 per trip, and are increasing single ride tickets to €2, but they would rather spend money on public transport than more roads. They also have a good cycle network now, thats fairly recent though as apparently was not around 20 years ago.

One thing to note though, countries with good public transport don't use the private sector for it.

 

[Mudgie]

As they should. Everyone needs to start looking at alternative modes of transport to resolve the issues of congestion, not cars. The Dutch have done it very well. Instead of building more roads invest all that money on a fit for purpose public transport system and proper cycling infrastructure. The only reason its not done here is the backward governance and vested interests involved in cars and road building. No monetary profit in cycle paths despite them being green, keeping traffic moving and improving the health of the nation.

Yes indeed "backward governance and vested interests involved in cars and road building" and it's been happening for sixty years.
I'm old enough to remember Ernest Marples as Minister of Transport who both oversaw significant road construction and the closure of a considerable portion of the national railway network with the Beeching cuts. At the time he was managing director of the road construction business Marples Ridgway and in later life fled to Monaco at very short notice to avoid prosecution for tax fraud. Yes, he was a conservative.

 

[airbusA346]

I always wonder in these cases how old the houses are the complainers live in. Castlefields was a great example of complaining about others doing what you just did.

I remember seeing a TV programme a few years ago where they were following a planning department. They were reading some planning complaints and commented that it was pointless complaining about loss of view etc because they only owned their home, not the view.

 

[tek-monkey]

I remember seeing a TV programme a few years ago where they were following a planning department. They were reading some planning complaints and commented that it was pointless complaining about loss of view etc because they only owned their home, not the view.

"But we moved here so we could look at someone else's land, my right to look at it is higher than their right to do anything with it!"

 

[Mudgie]

I remember seeing a TV programme a few years ago where they were following a planning department. They were reading some planning complaints and commented that it was pointless complaining about loss of view etc because they only owned their home, not the view.

So so many people make totally useless objections to Planning Applications, without doing any research whatsoever and often just the irrelevant "I won't like ...."

 

[gilesjuk]

As they should. Everyone needs to start looking at alternative modes of transport to resolve the issues of congestion, not cars. The Dutch have done it very well. Instead of building more roads invest all that money on a fit for purpose public transport system and proper cycling infrastructure. The only reason its not done here is the backward governance and vested interests involved in cars and road building. No monetary profit in cycle paths despite them being green, keeping traffic moving and improving the health of the nation.

The days of living and working in the same town, working at the same workplace all your life are long gone. People drive because they move around between jobs and what might be a 40 minute drive door to door is going to be 2 hours by public transport. My commute into Birmingham city centre was about 30 mins on the train, but 30 mins to get to the station and some contingency and 15-20 the other end. So close to 1.5 hours each way. I did that for 6-7 months and that was enough. Combined with the first train on the way back often getting cancelled.

There's loads of reasons why cars aren't going away. We have an over-population problem, that's the real issue. We could do with a managed decline. In fact, that was Green party policy and one I agree with them on. Except they also wanted wide open borders so it would never happen.

 

[Theresa Green]

Suppress the Poor

Protect the Rich

Bread and Circuses

Repeat

Anything else is tittle tattle

 

[Withnail]

There's loads of reasons why cars aren't going away. We have an over-population problem, that's the real issue. We could do with a managed decline. In fact, that was Green party policy and one I agree with them on. Except they also wanted wide open borders so it would never happen.

There's loads of reasons why you are full of shit.

What do you mean by 'over-population'? And why is it the 'real issue'?

The current rise in population - world-wide - has been driven by longevity, not by birth-rate. In fact, globally, birth-rates are in free-fall.

If you think we need a 'managed decline', there is only one way to effectively achieve it. Are you an advocate?

 

[Withnail]

It's a modest proposal.

 

[tek-monkey]

The days of living and working in the same town, working at the same workplace all your life are long gone. People drive because they move around between jobs and what might be a 40 minute drive door to door is going to be 2 hours by public transport. My commute into Birmingham city centre was about 30 mins on the train, but 30 mins to get to the station and some contingency and 15-20 the other end. So close to 1.5 hours each way. I did that for 6-7 months and that was enough. Combined with the first train on the way back often getting cancelled.

There's loads of reasons why cars aren't going away. We have an over-population problem, that's the real issue. We could do with a managed decline. In fact, that was Green party policy and one I agree with them on. Except they also wanted wide open borders so it would never happen.

I know a lot of people that rarely visit the office nowadays, me included. Once a week at most, commuting is pointless.

 

[gilesjuk]

There's loads of reasons why you are full of shit.

What do you mean by 'over-population'? And why is it the 'real issue'?

The current rise in population - world-wide - has been driven by longevity, not by birth-rate. In fact, globally, birth-rates are in free-fall.

If you think we need a 'managed decline', there is only one way to effectively achieve it. Are you an advocate?

So you don't think self-sufficiency is a good thing?

As we saw during the pandemic, any disruption to transportation of food between mainland Europe and the UK causes problems. We should be producing as much food for this country as possible locally. It reduces food miles and pollution.

 

[gilesjuk]

I know a lot of people that rarely visit the office nowadays, me included. Once a week at most, commuting is pointless.

It works for some jobs and not for others. I speak as someone who moved to Stafford to be near my workplace, it saved me about 7 years of big commutes. But jobs come to an end and you eventually exhaust the local options. The next job was in Birmingham and that company did not allow for remote working at all. It was 2 days a week in the current job but I've been doing 5 days remote and I get more done as I am goal orientated not clock orientated. I will put in hours in evenings, weekends if needed.

 

[Gramaisc]

Self-sufficiency is OK. It would be nice if, during the best UK apple year for ages, people weren't being offered large amounts of apples shipped from Australia and New Zealand. But, we might be struggling with mangoes and rice. Etc.

A large part of the difficulties between the UK and Europe during the pandemic may not have been directly caused by it, more probably the coincidental Brexit chaos contributed greatly to it. I was outside for most of the Covid period and there seemed to be little difference from the previous normal. And the emissions from miles of queueing trucks, particularly the chillers, as they hang around for hours/days at Dover, are definitely not virus-related.

In my youth, as the job location moved, we moved. I rarely lived anywhere for over a year. Times change, and sometimes they might change back.

 

[kyoto49]

The days of living and working in the same town, working at the same workplace all your life are long gone. People drive because they move around between jobs and what might be a 40 minute drive door to door is going to be 2 hours by public transport. My commute into Birmingham city centre was about 30 mins on the train, but 30 mins to get to the station and some contingency and 15-20 the other end. So close to 1.5 hours each way. I did that for 6-7 months and that was enough. Combined with the first train on the way back often getting cancelled.

There's loads of reasons why cars aren't going away. We have an over-population problem, that's the real issue. We could do with a managed decline. In fact, that was Green party policy and one I agree with them on. Except they also wanted wide open borders so it would never happen.

I doubt very much traffic in Stafford is commuters. Its local people driving short distances that they should be able to do without clogging up the roads by using different forms of transport, walk,
cycle, bus etc , school run is a classic example

 

[Just little old me:)]

So you don't think self-sufficiency is a good thing?

As we saw during the pandemic, any disruption to transportation of food between mainland Europe and the UK causes problems. We should be producing as much food for this country as possible locally. It reduces food miles and pollution.

Local food for local people? Try getting the local people to pick it let alone eat it.
I am very grateful that there is a large seasonal work force that are more than happy to do the jobs our own unemployed can't be arsed to do.
Low food miles is good but it's a big ship to turn around as we have been very much conditioned over the last 50 years as to what produce we should buy by the supermarkets which also helped the demise of your small local traders (greengrocers, butchers, fishmongers etc) thing is now that the supermarkets are having their hands tied some what by the UK leaving the EU it should see a rise over the next 10 years of local retailers selling local products as most local producers will start to say no to supermarkets as they have been screwed over by them in the past over price (like Dairy farmers) Can only hope local producers can start to drop the word 'artisan' to justify price.

 

[littleme]

There's loads of reasons why you are full of shit.

What do you mean by 'over-population'? And why is it the 'real issue'?

The current rise in population - world-wide - has been driven by longevity, not by birth-rate. In fact, globally, birth-rates are in free-fall.

If you think we need a 'managed decline', there is only one way to effectively achieve it. Are you an advocate?

For the younger members of the forum.....this is a scene in the 1973 film Soylent Green, not a condom factory, like the carer thought it was...

Soylent Green Netflix

With the world ravaged by the greenhouse effect and overpopulation, an NYPD detective investigates the murder of a CEO with ties to the world's main food supply.

www.netflixmovies.com

Soylent Green - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[Gramaisc]

Local food for local people? Try getting the local people to pick it let alone eat it.
I am very grateful that there is a large seasonal work force that are more than happy to do the jobs our own unemployed can't be arsed to do.
Low food miles is good but it's a big ship to turn around as we have been very much conditioned over the last 50 years as to what produce we should buy by the supermarkets which also helped the demise of your small local traders (greengrocers, butchers, fishmongers etc) thing is now that the supermarkets are having their hands tied some what by the UK leaving the EU it should see a rise over the next 10 years of local retailers selling local products as most local producers will start to say no to supermarkets as they have been screwed over by them in the past over price (like Dairy farmers) Can only hope local producers can start to drop the word 'artisan' to justify price.

Before the early 70s, people bought local, seasonal food because there wasn't anything else. And it was not cheap. Food cost, as a proportion of household expenditure, was much larger than now.

I have no nostalgia for the food of the 1960s, in general.

I did like jam roly-poly, which seems to have gone extinct.

 

[Just little old me:)]

Before the early 70s, people bought local, seasonal food because there wasn't anything else. And it was not cheap. Food cost, as a proportion of household expenditure, was much larger than now.

I have no nostalgia for the food of the 1960s, in general.

I did like jam roly-poly, which seems to have gone extinct.

I agree as someone who is a massive foodie that having to climatise back to only UK grown food could be bleak. Whilst I love the cheeses of the UK I would miss all the other cheeses but I do think that there is definitely progress that could be made on the home grown fruit and veg front.
Never had a jam Roly poly but know I'd love it

 

[Gramaisc]

Never had a jam Roly poly but know I'd love it

I am frightened to Google it, or I would be searching now...

 

[proactive]

Before the early 70s, people bought local, seasonal food because there wasn't anything else. And it was not cheap. Food cost, as a proportion of household expenditure, was much larger than now.

I have no nostalgia for the food of the 1960s, in general.

I did like jam roly-poly, which seems to have gone extinct.

I always assumed you were more of a spotted dick kind of guy.