I agree with the previous post about the long term survival of Spooner Row. Thank God that we have got someone who is prepared to stand up and say what is the correct course of action for the future of Spooner Row. For a long time the doom and gloom people have got away with preventing new people from coming to SR and thats a shame. If you want to safeguard the pub, the school, the village hall and the Church let new people settle in the Village.
Here we go again... No one is preventing new people coming to Spooner Row. What sort of authority do you think local people have? However, the authority does lie with the decision makers at the District Council who has already vastly exceeded the 'new houses' quota for Spooner Row with recent planning permissions - it's more than quadrupled if you look at the lower allocation of 10-20 new dwellings. Too much housing development will destroy the thriving rural character of the village, who will save Spooner Row from that?
The pub, school, village hall and church don't need safeguarding by building a barrage of new houses, as plenty of people from the surrounding areas come to Spooner Row and also make use of them like the locals, and we welcome this. This is why the local school is full.
I agree wholeheartedly that we should save Spooner Row and that it should thrive and grow , but until we get some genuine infrastructure improvements , that do not appear when it comes to full planning permission approvals. What has happened to the promises of more train stopping, a proper bus service, a school which can cope with the increased numbers, new allotments etc etc what is the point?
Young mums who have to take their children to other schools do not form a bond with the local community, so they do not engage locally which is not their fault. They want to use the local school !!
The Village Hall does its best to engage with quizes and other events and if it were not for a very active and core group of people that would also be under threat. It is not doom and gloom, it is simple practical common sense and it is not about somebody, who incidentally does live in the village, making a fast buck.
Perhaps anon you would like to become non anon so we can have an open and frank discussion about this, but in a time with further massive cutbacks on the way, do you honestly think it is all going to get better as opposed to worse?
