Saturday, 22 August 2015

More happy news from Cranbrook... but is it all a 'con'?

With so few resources, the print media has to rely on press releases to fill their own pages:
Futures Forum: Happy news coming out of Cranbrook... churnalism and the partnership between developers and politicians...

The happy news continues...
... courtesy of the official local government pages
Cranbrook - Exeter and East Devon Growth Point
... the developers' pages
Cranbrook - Imagine. Discover. Believe
... and the Facebook pages:
Cranbrook, Devon - Exeter, Devon - Community & Government | Facebook

And the advertorials keep pushing the same happy stories:
One new home a day snapped up at West's new town | Western Morning News

All is not well, however.

Here is a recent comment from social media, as reported on the East Devon Watch site:

I will not send you anymore updates on this page but have sent this follow up to give you some idea of the nature of what is currently going on via propaganda and the Cranbrook Facebook page. The query over the football pitch was moved over to town councillors page and then a picture of a table tennis table being used at Cranbrook and a very quick response from the town council followed on the Cranbrook page- This page is being manipulated, edited and sanitised to create an entirely false picture of what it is like to be a resident at Cranbrook and as Jon says the town and its promised facilities is starting to appear to be ‘a bit of a con’.

All is not well at Cranbrook | East Devon Watch

There are misgivings about the sheer number of new houses:
Call to protect countryside as poll shows support for Green Belt | Western Morning News

There are misgivings about the almost complete lack of commercial accommodation in comparison:
Whose “bright idea” was it to have too little office space in Cranbrook? Whose even “brighter” idea was it to convert a new 3 bed house to get some? | East Devon Watch

There are misgivings from rival developers next door:
Skypark developers not happy about more employment land at Cranbrook – and they are none too keen on Gypsies and Travellers | East Devon Watch

And there are ongoing misgivings about what's happening to the promised 'green transport':
Network Rail have their problems with a larger Cranbrook too | East Devon Watch
Cranbrook's new railway station is set to open in October | Exeter Express and Echo

Here is a poetic response:

Cranbrook ‘new town’, what is it for?
Countryside vanishing, under an orange eyesore.
Developers’ profits, forever on the rise.
Councillors’ promises, they’re all really lies.
You can’t create a town, a real community,
by bulldozing hedgerows, green meadows and tree.
Where can they buy bread, where are the shops?
Pizza and chip vans – make weekly stops.
A ‘super-housing’ estate, reliant on the car,
continuous lorries – bringing in tar.
Planning laws eroded, a builder’s free reign,
houses and new roads – all look the same.
You can see it for miles around, expanding so fast.
Eating up nature, and destroying the past.
Houses remain unsold, money to waste,
whilst new fields adjacent – vanish in haste.
Houses continually built – all for what?
Mostly for investors to increase their lot.
A fictitious crisis – to keep people in debt
a healthy boost, for the buy-to-let-set!
No bakers, no butchers, grocers, or shop door,
the planners are scheming – for a new superstore.
Let’s hope the planners one day will see
that Cranbrook destroyed our beautiful Devon scenery.
WMN Letters: Cranbrook decision is destroying Devon | Western Morning News

See also:
Cranbrook: the numbers just don’t stack up | East Devon Watch

And:
East Devon economy nose dives – who will buy all those houses? | East Devon Watch
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