Via Khards at HPC, from The Oxford Mail:
The medieval centre of Oxford itself is incapable of satisfactorily supporting a larger city and the tourist income which is so important relies on the city’s setting which the green belt protects.
The penny has dropped... that's why you don't see any tourists in London, Rome, Bruges or places like that because they don't have a Hallowed Green Belt. Munich is also pretty much a tourist-free zone, as is New York City etc.
The ultimate kick in the teeth is in the title:
"It is vital we protect green belts for future generations"
It's not much fucking good to them if they can't afford to live anywhere near it. Where is the logic here, "I'm sorry you can't afford a house, but if you could afford one, then at least it would have a nice view"?
Tough but fair
33 minutes ago
8 comments:
You fucking what!!!??? Tourist income?
The tourist income is about tourists coming into Oxford and looking at the Radcliffe Camera, Magdalen Bridge, Christ Church, the Eagle and Child etc. And no-one is going to touch Christ Church meadow. The greenbelt around Oxford is mostly rather unextraordinary fields and villages.
By co-incidence, there was a story in the local paper this week about the Mini plant in Oxford and how it's recruiting from Swindon: http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/11072335.Oxford_Mini_looks_to_Swindon_for_skilled_workers/?ref=var_0
"We believe there are people in Swindon with the skills we need and used to the workings of car manufacturing interested in travelling to Oxford in the future."
Note: they're not looking to bring people to Oxford to live, just expecting them to commute in.
Give it a few years, they'll move BMW out of Oxford to Swindon. Plenty of space over on the East side - they could put it next to the pressings plant.
TS, exactly.
Ebenezer Howard has a lot to anser for...
In Bruges was a very good film.
Not much sympathy with the CPRE.
We all know what would sort this out.
But maybe they are like the Faux-Libs?
Anything but LVT. Even development on Greenbelt is preferable.
L, he was misquoted and misunderstood.
JH, I disagree. The only funny bit was the sub-plot about which country would give the film makers the most subsidies.
BJ, they did have one lucid moment:
The tax system should put countryside second homes beyond the reach of more people, according to the head of the Campaign to Protect Rural England.
Ex-poet laureate Sir Andrew Motion said "townies in the countryside" were "gutting" rural communities.
The CPRE president did not call for a ban on second home ownership, but told the Times he would make them "very expensive" through more taxes.
London doesn't have a green belt? When did they get rid of it and why was done so secretly?
B, of course the Home Counties have a green belt, but that's about ten miles away from where all the tourists go.
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