Month: August 2016

BBC Countryfile discusses affordable housing

The edition of Countryfile transmitted on 17th July ’16 has an interesting discussion on affordable housing in rural communities. It highlights Christow, on the edge of Dartmoor in Devon, where they are close to completing a number of affordable homes for rental – essentially the same model as we are expecting to follow in Marshfield. They were lucky in Christow in that they were able to find a suitable site that was owned by the local council and was made available for free. I wish we could be that fortunate.

Christow CLT was mentored by the Wessex CLT Project, same as us.

It’s a good programme. Still available on BBC iPlayer. I recommend it. Slightly annoyingly, the bit on rural affordable housing is split into segments with other stuff in between so you have to watch the whole programme. But that’s OK.

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New membership

I posted a message on Facebook to try to encourage people to sign up as members of the CLT. I got this reply from Aimee Louise Cherry-Williams. With her permission, I have copied it across as I’m trying to get all discussions onto this site so that non-Facebook people can see them.

“IT will not be affordable therefore it should be renamed… Housing to make a huge profit with no real care for anybody at all other than the developer!!
On another note we have a big enough problem with getting the children of Marshfield into both pre school and the school as it is without introducing a load more!!
Hayfield for example… Build as ‘affordable’ housing…. The prices are extortionate and you don’t get much for your money!!!”

Reply: Yes, housing in Marshfield is expensive. And yes, “affordable” is a relative word. And yes, we have to make sure that the balance between the interests of the community and those of a developer is a fair one. And yes, if we end up increasing the school age population in Marshfield, the schools will have to plan to cope. Nobody expects it to be a doddle. But, getting back to the original reason for my FB message, we need people with a clear view of the problems to help us come up with the solutions. Become a CLT member. 🙂

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CLT membership passes 100

Since I posted this message a couple of weeks ago, membership has doubled! We are now (Aug 23rd) up to 100 members.

Update: we are now (Dec ’16) up to 150 members. Spectacular.

Our membership drive is storming along. The Wessex CLT Project people, our CLT mentors, told us to expect the membership to build up very slowly as awareness of the CLT and its activities increased. But we have got off to a very good start. There have been more than 50 applications for membership so far and we are hoping that the impetus will continue.

If you have not already done so, please consider becoming a CLT member. Remember, it is the members who, through the board of directors, run the CLT. So, by becoming a member, you will able to make sure that your views on affordable housing in Marshfield will be heard and you will be able to influence how we move forward on this.

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