Well as if Cornwall estate agents hadn't hit the bottom of the credibility list with their persistent high valuations in the face of a declining market, they have now started to apply retail marketing techniques to try and drum up some business! How long before it's "buy one get one free" ?www.strattoncreber.co.uk
Shame on you Sammy boy - looks like you are following the flock again.
Here's a pic of another pro, Brad Gerlach, getting some air on his Bonzer 3 in 1991.
It's OK - stay with your thrusters and you can be sure no one will laugh at you...
May your stalls be ineffective and your roundhouses sticky! ABonzer.
First of all let me confirm my position - I am strongly in favour of affordable homes. There is a genuine need for affordable housing in Cornwall and we all tread the tightrope of making land available for housing whilst preserving the beauty of the county and its AONBs.
Developer First Step Homes has announced plans for 15 "affordable homes" outside of the development boundary in a rural field in the picturesque coastal village of Trevone, (classified an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty - AONB). There is no planning permission and has been no consultation with the village yet they have put an advert in the local paper to find "buyers" are are leafleting Padstow and a number of neighbouring parishes.
The 2 story terraces are to be sold at over £100,000 despite their diminutive size. There is no impartial needs system to make sure people who really need the houses can buy them - according to their website it is "first come first served".
The entrance to Trevone is characterised by a few single story bungalows on one side and beautiful green countryside on the other. These houses are planned to be over 6m high where the countryside currently is.
Trevone has little local infrastructure, and only seasonal low paid jobs. The local post office and shop future are uncertain. Buses go so infrequently as to be unusable by the working population. The road has no pavement, blind spots, concealed entrances and is recognised as extremely dangerous by the local council and police.
Having contacted the Council it is clear that the development wont stop there. They have supported the developer putting in a road in to the rest of the field to allow for more houses in the future. How many could they physically fit? Well they are only using 1/4 of the area available so you do the math. NCDC also confirmed that they wouldn't all have to be affordable under the 1 for 1 rule.
What's my view?
I am concerned that the developers are raising peoples' hopes without necessarily being able to fulfil them.
I think it is a great shame for Cornwall that rural landowners and property developers are using the current legislation relating to "exception sites" for affordable homes to urbanise areas of outstanding natural beauty. Once they are gone, they are gone for good, you can't take them back and they set the precedent for further development.
I am for affordable homes, and I think there are better locations in the parish and that they could be considerably cheaper. I think more could be done to make available viable brownfield and less sensitive greenfield sites using existing powers of Right To Buy. Were this to happen there is no reason not to provide houses of the size and type proposed in this scheme in locations with a supporting infrastructure for around £70,000-80,000 which is far more attainable/sustainable for the salaries in the area.
In my bid to fight against the rising tide of Chinese imperialism I have decided to resurrect the ancient horoscopes of the Nordic Tawahs as an alternative to the traditional Chinese option...
If you want a reading just email me with a recent photograph, your time of birth, birth date, precise location (longitude and latitude), and whether their was a frost on the morning of your birth
Oh, and if your dad surfed. :)
Laters...
I picked up 2 new beautifully finished Malcolm Campbell Bonzers from Nigel Semmens in Newquay on Friday.
Due to a nasty virus and a slight lack of rear fins (Guy Penwarden has them hostage until the boards are paid for I think LOL) both boards remained unridden despite some good surf.
When I saw my mate Oli (fellow lifeguard) today - he commented it was like owning a piece of surf history, and that's pretty much how I feel... privileged to have met Malcolm and have him shape me two boards. 
The colours of both are a tribute to the man who inspired (and prodded) me to seek Malcolm out, and who named them - board collector (and rider) Tim Elsner from California - so the bumble bee really is one (see pics), and the Pod is the green of the Pea. So I have a "Sea Pod" and a "Transatlantic Bee". ..
I'll let you know how they ride :)
It's been a long time since my last blog and this really just shows 3 things
1. How busy I am
3. That blogging hasn't become a core part of my life, and
2. I hate my blogging software! It's about as user friendly as a spiny handled hairbrush... to which end we have created our own "easy blog" system for our latest client www.ikandimedia.co.uk
In November I started the demolition of a house to build 2 new eco-houses... both are now nearing completion. It has been quite an experience. If I had the time and energy I’d tell you about them... and that's the thing about blogs they take time and energy.
Ok - as everyone in Cornwall knows, second homes are highly controversial at the moment, because the local people cannot afford to buy homes in the towns they were raised in. When this is combined with a general lack of affordable housing across the county (and in fact in any rural community in an attractive part of the UK) one cannot help but have sympathy for today's and future generations.
However one has to ask the questions - who sold their homes to the second home owers? Who allowed them to come in and escalate the prices of these properties? Who made a very tidy capital gain as a result of the increasing desire for the city bound to escape their concrete confines for the shores of our beautiful county?
The answer is to a large extent the very same people who now complain that they (or their children) cannot afford to buy a house in the area. I know of no one who has decided to take a significantly lower price when they sold their house, just to ensure a local person could afford to buy it. They would argue that they need to get the maximum price to buy their next house, which has of course gone up in price, because the next person in the chain wants to maximise their personal profit. So the escaltion continues and affordibility decreases.
Unfortunately this patten of property prices is not new, although the scales of increase maybe significantly more rapid than in the past (isn't everything in life now!). Perhaps the issue is really more one of expecation. When earlier generations grew up and started work, they didn't necessarily expect to be able to afford to live in the same area as their parents, but rather aspired to be able to afford to live where their parents did in the future, after hard work and some success. Perhaps modern generations are used to having it all "NOW" as a result of the immediacy of modern life and technology, and the massive availablity of finance? Either way, a Padstonian still expects (even believes they have a right) to afford to live in Padstow, as if the town was still a quaint, sleepy fishing village dependent on the daily ebb and flow of the fishing fleet.
Sad though it is, times have changed and all we can do is adapt. By all means have a voice but temper it with an understanding that the situation here is not unique, and neither can the solutions be. The Lake District and many other places, including Wales (despite their best pyrotechnic efforts) and Scotland, have suffered at the hands of this phenomena. The solution may be in ressurecting communities and acting as one rather than just for profit, or maybe just in viewing the situation differently, perhaps even as an opportunity. Perhaps we can integrate the second home owners more deeply into our communities in such a way that their contributions (financial or otherwise) are of benefit rather than just to our detriment.
What is certain is that there is no simple rapid solution, so in the interim, work together buy houses in groups than as individuals, make your money and get on the property ladder somewere, some how. Alternatively just blame your parents, sit on your hands, complain about city bonuses, and sell them your house.
Are we doomed!? Well it certainly seems that way, as we continue to pump out those greenhouse gasses with only a cursory glance to the next generations environmental nightmares. Sometimes it seems impossible to see how things will ever change. We have developing economies such as China ready to fill any CO2 gap (and you can't blame them - they want to "develop" too!) that we could plug with reduced emmissions and improved thermal efficiencies. What to do?
Well the easy way out is to say we can't do anything so why bother, "what difference can i make". I guess that's why we are in this mess! So let's not wait for someone (governments) to force us to be more responsible, let's not wait for the UN or Greenpeace to legislate companies into being responsible. Let's not be a helpless victim, let's just all do our part and we might be amazed at what we can do.
Obviously underlying all this has to be a reprioritisation, that is NOT putting "money" as the primary decision maker but sustainability instead. Sustainability of our planet, of a pleasant world to live in for our children and their children.
When did we get so short-sighted as to consciously destroy the very habitat and its resources that we rely upon for survival? There is no answer to that but action today on the lowest level.
So recycle, turn the central heating down, drive less, use less, consume less, and think more. PLEASE.
This is my first ever blog, so I though I'd start with a quick explanation of how the name came about...well basically I sat behind our technical guru, Jake, who ignored me... until I came up with a name that got a reaction - "what's that all about " he said... "well - blogs are like sandcastles, and you build them with spades and buckets - the tools, the results - they are all temporary and washed away by the next tide... "sounds perfect to me!"
Personally I wanted to call it Pasties ad Puppies - don't ask! (well you can if you want - just email!)
Anyway its hot so i'm off to walk the dog!
