STEPFORD RIDES AGAIN..

Here in the Garden of England that is Kent, we don`t have a housing problem - that`s just a rumour put about by people with nowhere to live.  

Over 20 years ago now, the `development` of Kings Hill on the former WW2 West Malling Airfield site began.   Since then the 800 acres estate has grown so that it now has 2,600 homes, 200 businesses employing 5,000 people, a supermarket, pub, schools, medical centre, restaurants and assorted leisure facilities.   It`s a big project but despite its size, the layout and the architecture, its convenient location and the generally high quality of life for the residents has made Kings Hill one of the `places to be,` being very high up in the league table of desirability and affluence.

Now, however, a dark shadow is in view giving cause for outrage amongst the majority of residents over a planning application to increase the housing element of Kings Hill by another 1,000 homes on land that was originally set aside for commercial development.  Even more worrisome for the Kings Hill mob is the inclusion of `social housing` within this latest proposal. The Stepford wives of Kings Hill aren`t happy and they and their menfolk turned out in their droves in the community hall to harangue the parish council and register their concerns about yet more housing and the `social housing` that might be included within it.

As one resident at the meeting has been reported as saying, "We bought our house here at an expensive cost and social housing will reduce prices.  The people who live in social housing have no care for their property because they don`t own it."   In other words, we moved into this relatively new area and object to anyone else moving in and we especially don`t want any riff-raff.

Now there are a million reasons why I wouldn`t want to move  to Kings Hill but if I were ever to even think about it then this reported reaction alone would be enough to put me off and move anywhere else but there.  If you`ve seen The Stepford Wives, you`ll get the picture.