Nice People Thread Number 10 -the official residence of Nice People

Doozergirl

michaels wrote: »

DG, I think I am building communities, bringing neighbours together against a common enemy, even people on the next street Anyone who thinks we are going to solve the housing crisis by building more houses is in for a shock.

I've been there and yes, the crisis will not be solved. You have several NIMBYs (not in my back yard) and a NOTE (not over there either). The real problems are BANANAs (build absolutely nothing anywhere near anything) and I think they work in the planning office. Looking at plans and relating them to national policy is a bit too much like hard work when you can just say 'No'.

Doozergirl

DSs uniform is nice but changes for almost every year. They have a different uniform for 'bests' (ie. hardly ever but you still need it) until Year 8 when they wear bests all the time - but the jumper changes :wall:

I can't keep up with it. What is required changes evey day and depends on whether they play matches at home or away, whether they have mass and I'm sure they just mess around with those rules at whim just to confuse the parents and let them know who is in charge. It all goes in his kitbag at the beginning of the week so it's there if he needs it and the £85 blazer lives permanently in school on his chair so it's already there. I accidentally bought size 12 instead of age 12. He ripped the tags off before trying it on, so it stays. :rotfl:

chewmylegoff

Doozergirl wrote: »

I've been there and yes, the crisis will not be solved. You have several NIMBYs (not in my back yard) and a NOTE (not over there either). The real problems are BANANAs (build absolutely nothing anywhere near anything) and I think they work in the planning office. Looking at plans and relating them to national policy is a bit too much like hard work when you can just say 'No'.

Every time I go and see my parents my mum goes on about all the planning applications she has helped to defeat. I could understand it if they lived in a quaint olde englishe villagee. However, they actually live in quite a shoddily built new build house which itself was built by a bigger house being knocked down and divided into two plots about ten years back. It is on a busy road of similar new builds near the A40.

Last 'celebration' was about derailing a planning application for someone to build two houses to the rear of his property for his (adult) children to live in. This would have been abominable apparently because it would have involved building an access road around the side of the plot. Bearing in mind my parents live 500 metres away I couldn't see how this would affect them. To finish it off my mum declared that this blokes' children couldn't afford to buy in the same area so building on their dad's land had been the only way they could live near him and after the planning application failed they gave up and bought half an hour's drive away.

I despair. Well in fact I flipped out and had a go at her and got told she was helping me buy a house so she was doing her bit for the next generation... My mum is a much nicer person than me but I'm afraid that she has taken to nimbyism like a duck to water. Probably partly due to boredom in retirement.

At least my dad is too busy doing crosswords to bother being a nimby.

Doozergirl

It makes me so sad that people with good intentions can't build their own homes. I know the government apparantly support self build but the reality is that it is nigh on impossible.

My council actually had a moratorium for five years where no one could get any planning permission for a new dwelling at all. Nothing. Not even convert a house that was two houses back to two houses.

They had an allocation of numbers, so the likes of Persimmon put in a mass of applications and took the numbers left. They carried on building all the way through. It's only the last few years (since the moratorium ended) that they stopped, for obvious reasons.

Now they're back getting permission for 100s of houses on greenfield while the council planning commitee ponders one off developments with as much thought as the big ones. I can understand public objection to big developments on green field, but it's the little ones that can add to a community and protect genuine views that upset me when people knee jerk over them. Build absolutely nothing anywhere because we're alright and no one else matters.

Maybe we should start distributing crossword books.

zagubov

PasturesNew wrote: »

Oh - and new superexcitement for me..... was reading a thread yesterday about cheapest lavatory tissue .... and they all said Home Bargains. Well, I've not got one anywhere near me, but I went to double-check on the website and it appears there's one that's just opened near to me!!!!

For anybody who has ever said "No HB near me" - check again, they've opened, and are opening, loads of new stores

Just been in one up North. Ridiculously cheap shop. They say it's like B&M but I haven't managed to visit one of those yet.

Anyhoo, survied the journey back south to find the weather's turning rancid just in time to welcome us back:(

zagubov

Doozergirl wrote: »

If you went M6/M5/M42/M40 instead, there's an Asda literally on the island at Junction 2 M5. Depends on your final destination in London and whether you prefer to use the M6 toll

John_Pierpoint wrote: »

Back in the autumn, I made chutney with Lidl malt vinegar in pints at a litre price of £0.40. [thinks: Are all brands of acetic acid sold at a standard concentration? ] Most of it has been eaten now and it was of a quality that I was proud to give away.



When I was an M1 commuter in another life, I would top up at the Luton turn off.
Current prices from "petrolprices"
Esso
Dunstable Rd
Luton, Bedfordshire LU4 8DL

Open 24 hours
@ 127.9 for petrol
That is Exxon (Esso) just past the first roundabout at the end of the dual carriageway on the left at lights going East towards Luton

Alternatively turn West at junction 11 and find yourself at the first roundabout in Dunstable.The site on the left turning has been bagged by Tesco, if you need a break to stock up on everything available in a 24 hour Tesco (and get points)..

Thanks for the tips john and dg! Had to fill up befofre I got that far south in the end but very helpful to know these l;ocations, especially as the websites that cover this keep going dead.

Doozergirl wrote: »

Is it okay to post this if the person in question hasn't been on the site in over five years? I used to spend a bit of time in old style back around this time but it was this menu planning that frightened me:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/237050
It links on to menu plans and recipes.

I do know that there are people living in terrible poverty but I'd have to give up the internet connection, the dog, the Tesco delivery charge and meat in favour of some flavour. .

I'll delete this if I'm being mean.

There was a poster who linked to this site which had ultra-frugal recipes and mealplans http://www.cheap-family-recipes.org.uk/
I'd be reluctant to consider the meatless diet if children were growing up on the food mentioned.

Generali

Doozergirl wrote: »

I've been there and yes, the crisis will not be solved. You have several NIMBYs (not in my back yard) and a NOTE (not over there either). The real problems are BANANAs (build absolutely nothing anywhere near anything) and I think they work in the planning office. Looking at plans and relating them to national policy is a bit too much like hard work when you can just say 'No'.

The whole thing is utterly ludicrous.

People need houses to live in. There are thousands and thousands of builders who have lost their jobs and there's masses of land to build on. You can solve the problems of unemployment and the housing shortage at a stroke.

vivatifosi

Can't keep up! I got home from work yesterday to over 100 new posts to read and overnight you've done another two and a bit pages (I was tired so did go to bed early).

The long and the short of it is that I hated my school uniform, which was bottle green. I was allowed to wear anything providing it was that colour, but bottle green is not exactly navy, grey or black, so consequently the lack of fashion choices. These days, I would never wear bottle green, even though it is supposedly in my colour palette.

In terms of planning, I think it is because they are busy over developing. Where my parents live, developers managed to plonk 7 houses on a former back garden and a further 15 on the former pub site a few houses down. Consequently parking is a nightmare and there is no run off to the back of their house so it floods. A lot. Planning numpties shrug their shoulders as it is not their problem. They get it wrong both ways.

Generali

vivatifosi wrote: »

Can't keep up! I got home from work yesterday to over 100 new posts to read and overnight you've done another two and a bit pages (I was tired so did go to bed early).

The long and the short of it is that I hated my school uniform, which was bottle green. I was allowed to wear anything providing it was that colour, but bottle green is not exactly navy, grey or black, so consequently the lack of fashion choices. These days, I would never wear bottle green, even though it is supposedly in my colour palette.

In terms of planning, I think it is because they are busy over developing. Where my parents live, developers managed to plonk 7 houses on a former back garden and a further 15 on the former pub site a few houses down. Consequently parking is a nightmare and there is no run off to the back of their house so it floods. A lot. Planning numpties shrug their shoulders as it is not their problem. They get it wrong both ways.

The council/Government should have 'land releases' like over here. They put in infrastructure (roads, shops etc) on a large piece of land and then sell off individual blocks. You can then get someone to build you a house on it as long as it conforms to the local building code and the diktats of the suburb. The profit on the sale of the land provides the money to provide the infrastructure.

There'll be a few builders in any given area offering 'house and land packages' where they'll stick one of a selection of houses on a piece of land for you. e.g. link. Because those builders are constantly working with the council you can be pretty sure the plans are up to code. It also gives you a large choice of houses to choose from rather than having to choose from one of 2 or 3 near-identical places. You get the home you want rather than what was pre-approved by the planners.

Yes, this means green field building but that's what's going to be required if the UK is going to house her population properly.

lostinrates

In my nearest town we are having 6000 new houses.

This is the only town in the rich county where an area features on the uk poverty index and already has employment issues and traffic issues twice a day because of commuting with insufficient infrastructure.

With the best will in the world if we had a kid who I thought would be more suited to a state education for whatever reason it would not be my choice in THIS area either.

Its not just building, its where you build. Most people buying here would be as happy ( happier ?) to live on outskirts of Bath where many commute to and employment opportunities are better or commuting to Bristol easier.

My guess is eventually the three towns in an arch around us will be one town.

We have been VERY ok with planning. But my perception here is that individual things have a tendency to be micromanaged while when you look at spread and impact on whole of plans of many the area plans seem forgotten.

My last area we would not have been allowed to do what we are doing so easily, there would have been more interference at parish level at least, even if this were overturned later.

We have plenty of new building in my area...but poorest part of county, and jobs a real issue, infrastructure (drs, schools, services, roads) groaning before the 6000 are finished.



We also have loads of brown field site that could have been used for whole new villages on trading estates of ghost trade. There are some I have been on that look like they have been empty for over a decade.