War should focus minds

The terrible events across Ukraine, the breadbasket and sunflower oil centre of Europe, has brought into sharp focus the muchvaunted declarations by the government that it recognises the need for food security.

This would entail being less reliant on overseas food chains and an urgency to protect our own home grown food supply. This is to be welcomed.

The government has also rightly set about encouraging a levelling up across the nation but then, in the next breath, insists upon pouring more and more housing in the most densely populated part of the nation hemmed in by London and the coast with no infrastructure capable of coping.

It seems to us that our elected government officials continually seek to make the life of developers and their profits ever easier as they turn a deaf ear and a blind eye to reality.

And that reality is the South East is one of the few remaining areas in the whole country that hosts Grade I and Grade 2 agricultural land.

It is blessed with a Mediterranean climate.

It is home to the nation’s most productive and highly acclaimed vineyards and innovative horticultural products.

The acres of concrete form the basis of ill conceived, unsustainable, expensive, environmentally polluting developments that do not serve the needs of communities, who keep asking only for affordable housing.

Building will also place an extra strain on demand for fresh water which is outstripping the supply.

An obvious first step to take would be to call a moratorium on all developments across the south east until there is a re-evaluation of the true state of the nation’s housing needs, how much, where, and what.

It is time our elected government officials take stock of their actions and truly represent their communities by standing up for sanity, common sense and the avowed desire to protect this most precious part of our country. It is time government policies were challenged.

LIBBY ALEXANDER SOSCA – Save Our South Coast

Alliance, Roman Landing, Fishbourne