Right, I wasn’t going to but let me put my 2 cents in here. I saw this sign earlier at a local shop. Long story short, there’s a lot of talk at the moment about stopping second home owners and building houses in a local village.
While I totally understand and appreciate that ‘holiday makers’ make our world go round so to speak in little villages. They are a need to keep a village going.
Second home owners are another issue entirely. I’m not completely apposed to second home ownership. I think this shop are missing the point.
The point locals are making is that we can’t continue to have a small 1 bedroom bungalow knocked down to build 6 3 bedroom houses. The village infrastructure just doesn’t cope. The amount of Social Housing is falling everyday and yet the number of large houses are popping up left, right and center for someone who wants to visit once a year.
I get it. Norfolk is beautiful and as a business, people visiting is great but when there are empty houses, roads blocked, emergency services unable to attend, no GP appointments for local people. That’s when we have a problem. Social Housing is being brought to then build more houses than the village can cope with. It’s not that they are not welcome. It is that villages are dying. 80% off homes are empty. We need homes for families who will use the local school and help with keeping a village alive. Not empty homes that are going to waste.
Everyone is welcome. But it’s time to think about the villages and where they will be in 50 years time. Empty or thriving? I know which one I would prefer.
The Coastal Mummy 