English Hamlets Raise Cry Against Planners

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXXVII, Issue 14927, 15 March 1949, Page 4

English Hamlets Raise Cry Against Planners

Concern Felt For Future Of Small Communities

Existence Threatened In Being “Planned” Away

Stolid English country folk, in villages and hamlets so tranquil that their names are unknown to the outside world, are raising a cry that is echoing through Parliament, the press, and many government offices, writes a correspondent in the Christian Science Monitor.

They have been reused by a concern that officials responsible for “town and country planning” will seek to “plan” their small rural communities out of existence.

The campaign, against any such proposals has been launched by the villagers of Letcombe Bassett, 1,600 acres of Berkshire downland with a huddle of thatched cottages and barns, a few farms, and an old church.

Some time ago the 161 inhabitants heard that a planning officer had recommended that most of the population be moved to a neighbour - ing village. Reason for the move was that Letcombe Bassett was “not big enough to provide its inhabitants with at least a minimum of communal services which are absolutely necessary according to modern standards.”

They organised a meeting to protest and to demand, instead, a dozen new cottages and provision for modern drainage. Cause Championed

Their cause was quickly championed in Parliament and in the columns of The Times, of London. Distinguished correspondents wrote of the beauties of Letcombe Bassett and of its literary associations with Thomas Hardy and Dean Swift. Before this combined assault, government spokesmen quickly reacted. Questioned in Parliament, the Planning Minister, Mr Lewis Silkin, said some houses still standing in Letcombe Bassett were already condemned for demolition before the war. He said he would decide the future of Letcombe Bassett when he received reports, but he assured Parliament that he did not approve of suppression of small villages simply because they were small. This statement had been followed by an official communique from the Ministry of Town and Country Planning, promising the people of Letcombe Bassett that their views would be considered and that, if necessary, a public inquiry would be held. Suggestions that small villages in general are to be liquidated were dismissed as a “widespread delusion.”