Last Friday, I attended what was laughingly called a ‘public consultation’ in Neston Memorial Hall.

The event was organised by local architects CMS, to present their ‘client’s’ outline proposals for the development of a piece of land they refer to as Sands Quarry.

This land is known locally as ‘The Donkey Field’ and no-one I have spoken to has ever known it as Sands Quarry. I have a copy of an old OS-type map, which shows a disused Sands Quarry, but this appears to be somewhat away from the area in question.

When I first moved to Neston, some 37 years ago, we formed an action group to stop the building of a plastics factory on this site.

Since then there have been several changes of ownership and applications for development... invariably involving people who live well away from Wiltshire.

Now, here we go again...

This ‘consultation’ involved lots of maps and pictures and presentation boards outlining, ‘The vision’... ‘The need’... The quality’ etc All somewhat tired and predictable ‘PR stuff’ to try and get us Luddite locals onside.

The need, apparently, is for office units for ‘start-up’ businesses. When I pointed out that there were cheap offices all around the area, that have been empty for ages, the response was ‘Well, they may not be big enough... suppose the company has a 100 employees...’ This is a new concept – a start-up company with a 100 employees!

Then I noticed that one of the presentation boards highlighted the fact that this is one of the few areas around that can command a rental of £100 per square metre.

Where are the start-up businesses that could afford this kind of rent?

Then I asked about the proposed ‘traffic management’. The proposal talked glibly of ensuring that Neston would not be blighted by excessive extra traffic.

“Ah”, said the man from CMS, “all tenants would have to sign a contractual undertaking to agree that their employees would not go through the village.”

“How would they enforce this?”, was my obvious next question. The response was that it would be unenforceable. Mmmm, so that’s traffic management.

The ‘quarry’ apparently has a lot of ‘toxic waste’... heavy metals and hydrocarbons were mentioned. I thought this area was known for stone quarrying, not uranium mining.

Still, if there is toxic waste then I guess the whole area must be blighted. Time to don the hazchem suit and move out.

The ‘consultation’ was made even more disagreeable by the somewhat sneering attitude of the CMS guy, with whom I talked.

His whole demeanour said “here we go again, tiresome locals, standing in the way of vision and progress”.

When I suggested that this was just about making money, he said: “What did you go to work for then?”

Surely feeding a family and paying a mortgage is somewhat different from speculating and profiteering.

Last but not least, it adds insult to injury and underestimates the intelligence of local people to ‘allocate’ amenity areas, designate biodiversity zones within such development proposals.

We all know that there are a bunch of people who won’t rest until the entire area is covered with concrete.

Of course, it’s easy to think “oh well, they’ll get their way in the end, they always do”... so you just roll over and let them get on with it.

But, as the old adage goes: “All it takes for evil to succeed is for good men to stand by and do nothing.”

So here we go again...

Geoff Fry, Neston.