From the age of thirteen or fourteen, I worked during holidays. MPs and I do now, when the Houses of Parliament are given to tourists and to the skilled trades preserving and protecting the fabric of the Palace of Westminster.
There may be the odd colleague who switches off or perhaps never switched on. In addition to the mass mailing campaign techniques brought across the Atlantic, there are the important urgent problems faced by constituents. I may fail to respond promptly to some by mistake; my dedicated team and I try to answer, to be available and to help or advise.
Local people too, whether officially retired or on holiday, stay alert. Ed Miller, Ferring’s community convenor, is responding to the renewed attempt by Persimmon to overcome objections to unwanted building in the Goring Gap and in lands north of the A259. Residents want to keep the green fields and the open land between Goring-by-Sea and Ferring, between the South Downs and the coast where Arun and Worthing come together.
A government inspector has ratified Worthing Borough Council’s protected designation of Chatsmore Farm near St Romero’s Catholic High School. The judge ruled another inspector failed to appreciate the importance of the surroundings of the National Park.
Now developers are appealing the justified decision of Arun District Council to refuse another application to build over the Lansdowne Nursery north of the A259, close to the Highdown Vineyard and other sites where freeholders and builders fancy more housebuilding.
Representations to back the Council and to reject the Lansdowne Nursery appeal need to be in before the end of this month. The reference is APP/C3810/W/23/3323939; the location Lansdowne Nursery, The Barn Littlehampton Road, Ferring BN12 6PB. The description unhelpfully starts: ‘Demolition of existing buildings and erection of 70 dwellings . . .’
Inspectors and judges may be used to the use of euphemisms. Which normal person would describe the Goring Gap just as ‘Land north of Goring station. . ‘ as though it were a patch rather than the valued equivalent of essential green belt marking the distinctive characteristics of our villages and communities.
Would people react calmly to a proposal to build over ‘land west of a line between Hyde Park Corner and Marble Arch’, better known as Hyde Park itself.
Bosses of developers can use some of their bonuses, salaries and share incentive profits to buy pleasant country estates encircled by amenity land. It is tempting to apply to build on their best fields. I was impressed by one of the most respected families with nearly one hundred years of reputable building and construction. Their farm is a model of modern practice. We gain plenty from sustainable farming and from sustainable use of our seas. In Worthing, Roffey have earned a good reputation.
Language matters. A former colleague Sir Ian Gilmour thought betting shops should be allowed carpets and coffee machines. An explicit Bill was halted by the puritans. A Miscellaneous Premises Miscellaneous Provisions Bill later sailed through without opposition.
My holiday jobs included planting potatoes, helping with the harvest, picking hops in England and apples in Tasmania. At sea, I served for seven weeks as cook’s mate on a cargo freighter from Brisbane to Liverpool. I have sympathy for many of Greenpeace’s ocean aims but less for unjustified attempts at publicity and public reaction.
I resist urges to cut ties with them after the demonstration on the roof of the Prime Minister’s home. Every seven years or so, one of my parliamentary colleagues is killed when someone thinks the cause justifies the action. It does not.
Worthing’s motto in Latin is Ex terra copiam e mari salutem: ‘From the land plenty and from the sea health’. For that to continue, each must be conserved. In holiday time and when in session, I am dedicated to that purpose.
