I had intended putting this out on Twitter or Facebook, just to inform people that the deadline for representations on the planned 1,700 new homes at Bodelwyddan in Denbighshire has been extended to March 21st. In view of the new figures available for both population predictions and household size it is well worth challenged this plan because it is clearly no longer needed. (In fact, these 1,700 new homes were never needed.) I have chosen to develop the subject into a post after reading the planning inspectors’ report on Denbighshire’s Local Development Plan.
I want to pick out certain comments made by the inspectors because they are worthy of a wider audience. I say that because although we may be talking here of Bodelwyddan, or Denbighshire, the attitudes displayed by the inspectors have national implications. Because this is how they operate all over Wales.
Let’s start by identifying the inspectors, Anthony Thickett and Gwynedd Thomas. We can safely assume that the report is the work of Thickett and that Gwynedd Thomas is there to lend a little local colour. I Googled ‘Anthony Thickett’ and found his name linked to planning matters all over England and Cornwall in recent years. Though he seems to be based in Cardiff, which provides further proof that the Planning Inspectorate is an Englandandwales body, and answers to the Department for Communities and Local Government in London. So what did Mr Thickett have to say last year in response to Denbighshire County Council’s revision of their Local Development Plan? As you might imagine, I was specifically interested in those recommendations that related to housing.
Starting with 4.1 (page 16) we learn that, “The 2008 Welsh Government* projections indicate the need (my italics) for around 8,500 new units in Denbighshire between 2008 and 2023.” The council argued for a lower figure on the grounds that more recent statistics showed a reduced need. The inspectors would have none of it, and their response was a gem of officialese that can be found in the panel (click to enlarge). In essence, it says, ‘Yes, the council is quite right; but we shall still insist on thousands of unnecessary new housing units anyway’. So what are “the objectives and aspirations” that justify the Planning Inspectorate ignoring the council’s plea? We are told that Denbighshire has an ageing population – or “aging” according to the inspectors – with more deaths than births, which would result in a declining population unless young people moved in to the county. Let us examine this claim.
Denbighshire, like many other parts of Wales, has an ageing population due to the lack of a healthy and balanced economy. Worsened by tourism creating few worthwhile jobs for locals while attracting retirees and elderly people. This can be remedied, according to the inspectors, with a building programme to attract a younger population from outside of the county. But wait! if the lack of jobs forces many young people to move away, where are the jobs for this younger population moving in? Well, most of the jobs will remain where they are now, in Greater Manchester, Merseyside, Cheshire. For what the inspectors are really talking about is attracting a commuter population. (Apart from the riff-raff being dumped in the coastal ghettoes.) This explains why the bulk of the planned new housing is close to the A55. Moving on, what do Messrs Thickett and Thomas have to say on the Welsh language?
You may not have noticed – few have – that Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg (the Welsh Language Society) has started a campaign demanding that the Welsh language be a material consideration in planning matters. The inspectors address the very same issue, and produce another little gem of officialese (click panel to enlarge). What this says (again, in essence) is, ‘We shall always find a reason to ignore the Welsh language’. But there is sugar on the pill with the following assurance (yup, in essence), ‘Even though we are doing our best to kill off your language, and your very identity, we shall disguise this atrocity with Welsh street names in the new developments’. The kind of cheap and meaningless cosmeticism that has satisfied language (non-)campaigners in recent decades.
The answer to Denbighshire’s “aging” population is not an unending programme of house building but a healthy and balanced local economy to stabilise and grow the indigenous population. Coupled with a presumption against those housing developments designed to attract elderly buyers from outside Wales. These are hardly radical demands when Welsh identity is under threat in a way it never has been before. An assault that if it showed itself with the ugly visage of overt oppression would be resisted; but when it sidles up behind the mask of ‘development’ and ‘economic activity’, then too many are fooled. We cannot allow ourselves to be fooled any more. There are too many areas where we Welsh are already in a minority. It’s time to say, ‘Thus far and no further’. Speak out and don’t allow the colonisation of our homeland to be brushed under the carpet any longer.
Now is the time to do it. I say that because for years the Planning Inspectorate has had everything its own way, It has browbeaten our local authorities with questionable statistics produced by in-house statisticians demanding thousands upon thousands of new homes Wales doesn’t need. Demands then mouthed obediently for them by those traitorous buffoons down Cardiff docks. The game is up. No one can persist in arguing that Denbighshire needs 8,500 new homes to meet a population increase of 4,134, and a household size of 2.31, without admitting to a colonisation strategy.
Make a start by writing to Denbighshire County Council arguing against the plan for a new town of 1,700 homes next to Bodelwyddan. (Many councillors and council employees will be glad to hear from you.) Send an e-mail to planning@denbighshire.gov.uk or write to the Planning Department, Caledfryn, Smithfield Road, Denbigh LL16 3RJ. Why not also contact the Planning Inspectorate at their Welsh outpost: either e-mail wales@pins.gsi.gov.uk, or write to, The Planning Inspectorate, Crown Buildings, Cathays Park, Cardiff CF10 3NQ. Tell them you know what their game is, and from now on their ethnocidal strategy will be opposed.
* Talking here of “the Welsh Government projections” is rather naughty. The figures were produced by the Knowledge and Analytical Services which, like the Planning Inspectorate, has a few staff based in Cardiff, pretends it answers to the ‘Welsh’ Government, but is in reality part of the Department for Communities and Local Government in London.
I’m not sure why he won’t allow the comment. All he has to do is argue against it. He’s deleted it approaching 10 times now and some other comments too.
I don’t understand that. If you go through my blog you’ll find all kinds of comments. I take the view that if someone is talking bollocks then give him an airing. Expose him for what he is.
This is what MH posted on his blog re Ukraine:
” We need to uphold the rights of people in any territory to determine how they wish to be governed. Therefore, in principle, I don’t have any objection to the people of Crimea deciding that they no longer want to be part of Ukraine.”
Below was my response to it. Of course, I’m not English. Just trying to show how absurd his political belief is that we can accommodate all these people many of which are anti-Welsh without there being any repercussions. He’s deleted the message twice already. I’ve now put it up for the 3rd time this morning.
“In a few years time, we the English will be numerous enough in Wales to demand a referendum to get rid of the Welsh Assembly. I’ll give it 20 years at most.”
🙂
I believe there may be in these circumstances a category referred to as (something like) a colonial population, or an ‘implant’ population. Members of a group encouraged to move to a territory in order to secure that territory for the homeland of that group. It’s the argument used by Argentina to invalidate any referendum conducted in the Falklands / Malvinas. Saying, basically, ‘It’s a waste of time because you know which way they’re going to vote – it’s why they were put there!’. The question is, is this argument recognised by the UN, or does it have any other international validity? Because there are countless applications around the world.
Tibet would be one example, as would New Caledonia. I recall a referendum on independence there many years ago when the balance of population was almost equal between the indigenes and the French settlers. Then there was the 1995(?) referendum in Quebec when a clear majority of Quebecois voted for independence but the vote was lost due to the 20 per cent non-French voting almost unaminously No. Many of these were just waiting for their Green Card to enter the US. Obviously Crimea fits into this category as it has only had a Russian majority for . . . how long? Eastern Ukraine as well. And of course Wales.
But the really fraught issue goes beyond just numbers. Does an immigrant majority have the right to outvote the native minority? Or, do recent arrivals in a territory – i.e. an ‘implant’ population – have the same rights as those born in that territory, should their views, and their votes, be of equal value? When it comes to Wales, the UK regime will argue, ‘Yes, of course, they’re all UK citizens, etc.’ but it will take a different tack in other circumstances; for example, if it can be used to put a block on Russian expansionism. The reason the Chinese get an easy ride on Tibet and Xinjiang is purely venal. The kind of hypocrisy and double-standards England has always employed.
As for MH, it’s fine in principle to talk of the rights of a ‘majority’ but a lot depends on how that majority got there. Looking at English colonial history – and without looking over the Irish Sea – we find that the French were expelled from Atlantic Canada to secure that region; and when gold and diamonds were found in the Boer republic of the Transvaal settlers were pushed in and a crisis created because the Boers denied the ‘Uitlanders’ the vote. So England had her casus belli, which – heaven forfend! – had nothing to do with the wealth of the ‘Rand, but was all about democracy and human digity, giving people the vote, dontcha know.
Interesting comment above, is Terence saying that you can only be a Welsh nationalist if you are left of centre?
Royston Jones your nationalism is right of centre ? What sort of nationalism is that? It sounds more like English nationalism than Welsh nationalism.
You’ve lost me, but don’t bother looking for me.
Again, Jac, what can be done to stop this?
I’m not sure what you’re expecting me to say. But the priority has to be getting the subject aired, make people understand what’s happening, why it’s happening, who’s responsible for it happening, and what the consequences will be. The more people realise what’s happening the more opposition there will be. But with a media too lazy to bother, or just not up to the work involved, it is difficult.
What can we do?
For a start, don’t let anyone brush this subject under the carpet. Don’t let anyone stifle debate by saying it’s ‘racist’. (If destroying a national identity isn’t racist, then what is?) Study your local LDP, check the population projections for your area, see if the figures stack up.