From Pete K

Sunday, 7 February 2010

Despite the fact that we don’t know the date of the General Election, a leaflet has just plopped through my letterbox urging me to vote for Craig Whittaker, Conservative. While I can’t say I’m greatly tempted, the section of the leaflet on housing caught my eye.

Sadly, but perhaps not surprisingly, the leaflet said nothing about housing need. However, it did say that it is Conservative policy to “reverse the classification of gardens as brownfield land and allow councils to prevent over-development of neighbourhoods and stop ‘garden grabbing’”.

Surely, none of this is the kind of thing Mytholmroyd’s favourite Tory Richard Marshall has been getting up to recently? Our Richard used to own and live in a house with quite a big garden called Nordene. However the house has now been demolished and an estate of eight new houses has been built on the land instead. Out of this I imagine Mr Marshall has done quite nicely. I gather however that some of his former neighbours have been less than enthusiastic about this new development on their doorsteps.

So, is this Conservative policy a case of trying to close the stable door after a certain local Tory horse has bolted, or have the Tories now changed their spots? Perhaps some clarification from Messrs Whittaker, Marshall and their cronies would be in order.