Social media reacts to critics of JSP’s new housing plans

PUBLISHED: 13:00 23 December 2017

Sam Frost

CALRAG fears for the future of Churchill if the Joint Spatial Plan is approved.

Archant

Churchill and Langford Residents’ Action Group (CALRAG) has told of its ‘horror’ at plans to build thousands of homes in the parish.

The Joint Spatial Plan (JSP) – which is the brainchild of North Somerset Council and other local authorities in the West Country to plug the area’s housing shortfall – plots to build a 2,800-home village on the edge of Churchill and a 1,900-home village near Banwell.

But CALRAG fears for the village’s future if the plan is approved.

A spokesman said: “Churchill village will be destroyed.

“Many are still unaware of the plan or the scale of the development which will turn the village of Churchill into a town the size of Wells, but without the essential infrastructure or cultural centre offered by the cathedral and market place.

“It is estimated 100 per cent of those attending a recent public consultation left in horror or disbelief at the plan for such a huge project and the way residents are being ignored, bearing in mind many had attended a similar consultation on the JSP just a year previously.”

Many people took to social media to share their view.

Matt Deakin said: “It’s always people who happily own their house or have paid their mortgage off who complain about new housing. Their village was a new development once upon a time.”

Ian Goodman wrote: “Where do they expect their kids to live when they finally leave home if there aren’t any houses for them?”

Amy Elliott commented: “It’s totally selfish of the people who live there to be making a fuss and complaining. What gives them the right to say houses shouldn’t be built near them?”

Pete Bromley said: “Lets face it, when did the council ever listen to the residents it serves?”

Jim Inglis wrote: “Did the same people turn out and protest when Worle village was expanded and St George’s was built? Didn’t think so, so what is the difference?”

Ricki Burrows said: “What about the silent majority? It seems a handful of moaners outweighs a great number of people who are silent. 
They should vote out the politicians who allow this if they disagree.”

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