U is for...

Update

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A few months ago I embarked upon a tirade against the injustice of having my village pillaged.  (And I may even apologise for that dreadful rhyming at some point...)  My village is pictured above and you may (or may not) remember the post, but it involved turning the massive field/old commons, in the centre of the photo, into a housing estate.  Ugh.  With 30 houses.  I mean... UGH.

As you can perhaps imagine, I was not looking forward to seeing the state of affairs when I got home to Scotland this past month...  And things certainly were not very pretty when I got there...

from my DS's house (note pleasantly doom and

gloom-ridden skies!)

DS has (oops) HAD a spectacular view from her windows across the field and to the hills beyond.  The houses may not be up yet, but the fencing to keep noise pollution down is already a pseudo-white-picket eye-sore...

from the main road looking north-east

from the main road looking south

As you can see, that's a fair bit of ground to cover with houses, particularly in a quiet, provincial wee village.  So far the field has been partly levelled and new paths are being made along-side the site...  It's a muddy and a noisy mess.

BUT... the day before I left, my Dad came through with the local newspaper, in which there was an article by the developers who stated that works on the site would be postponed until the housing market gained some strength again...  The same day DS (and all the folk who live around the field) received a letter from the developers saying pretty much the same thing...  It also said that they would tidy up the site, finish the paths and take down the fencing and boarding until such time as they could resume building again...  It is now also common knowledge that the developers have had to lay-off 14 employees, also due to the down-turn in the housing market.

Now, although I do feel for those folk who have lost their jobs, there is a HUGE part of me going "Ha ha" a la Nelson in the Simpsons...  The developers are a greedy mafiastic coterie, and that they are losing money hand-over-fist brings the word 'karma' to mind.  Rumours are already circulating that the company has gone bust, but I think that's just hopeful thinking!

Now, of course, I do realise that building will start up again in the future, and the development will eventually grow, like mould, across the village, but for the time being I do believe folks are sighing with relief...