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Nadine Dorries MP: People power won the day
How the MP took lessons from Obama to fight the Government's plans
So, here's the story. You meet a girl, fall in love, get married and want to start a family.
Sounds good? Well, problem is you live in a one-bed roomed flat Walthamstow; and whereas it's been good for the single life, it's not exactly the kind of place you imagined bringing up the kids.
So your option is to buy a second home in the country. Okay, let's get real. Your option is to look for a way of life which is commensurate with some, if not all of the ideals you have held onto when in your misty eyed moments, the vision of pushing your offspring on the park swing, having just left your home and garden, slipped unbidden into your subconscious.
This is more or less what happened a couple of years ago to Sally and Steve. So they looked around and discovered that if they went north they could buy a nice home in a small community with a village school.
The commute into London was an hour but the decision was made that it was a commute worth the ride if it meant their children could be brought up in a greener and more wholesome, not to mention cheaper, environment.
Cue Whitehall.
Months after Sally and Steve move into their new way of life, Gordon Brown announced that he was going to build a new town of 20,000 homes right on their doorstep. Sally and Steve had no say in this decision as the process, which would be used was designed to bypass the normal planning procedure. The Prime Minister replaced the word 'new' with 'eco' and threw the proposal open to developers.
Cue the people.
What followed was a concerted, united and sustained attack upon the DCLG by us all. We were not taking this lying down.
Two weeks ago, learning lessons from Obama, we used the internet to mass email our objections onto the government's consultation web site, at which point the developers picked up their plans and ran.
Round two will now commence as both sides re-group. The threat of development will never disappear whilst developers hold green field land banks, from which they want and need to maximise profits.
Never mind the town centres of Bedford, Luton and Milton Keynes which are screaming out for inward investment and development. There's no money in urban re-generation and making life better for those who have already suffered at the hands of bad decision making, poor politics and unaccountable town planners.
No community should grow without key stakeholders, i.e. existing residents, being given a say and a realistic input into how their environment evolves.
Localism is at the heart of Conservatism. Loosely translated, localism means power to the people, which is exactly as it should be in a fair democratic and truly accountable society.
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Weather for Bedford
Tuesday 29 May 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 12 C to 19 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: North east
Tomorrow
Light showers
Temperature: 12 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: South west
