IN response to the story ‘300 in bid to halt Sabden housing plan’ – as nice as Sabden is, the residents need to realise that, like King Canute, they cannot stop the inevitable development that will take place in the Ribble Valley and their village.

They have to realise that that this government does not care about them and that the planning laws seem to be more and more skewed in favour of the developers, rather than the residents.

At one time they could have argued that any such development was a direct attack by a political party that sought to punish them for their beliefs.

However, as the ward councillor and also the local MP are Conservatives, then they will just have to accept that the houses and all of the associated development will happen and ultimately it is something that they, themselves have voted to initiate.

Finally, within a few short years, the village will become just another overspill town devoid of character and any real sense of community.

Sadly, I am not writing this out of schadenfreude. I actually do believe there are lots of brownfield sites that could be developed; the problem with these sites is that they do not have the high profit that a property in a rural situation can command.

The only solution I can envisage is to get local landowners to agree to covenants that stop them selling land for development or alternatively to collectively purchase land and thwart development that way; neither of these is realistic, though.

I am afraid Sabden as it is will soon be a thing of the past.

Malthus (via website).