Thursday 10 January 2013

More on the crass stupidity of Transition Towns - the case of Totnes

****

Some folk from Totnes aren't too happy at the way in which a few well organised green extremists have captured the Town Council and imposed their ridiculous Transition Town Totnes (TTT) idea on the place:

While no one in the Totnes has voted for TTT to dictate town policy, it has enormous influence over town planning policy and the future economic direction of the town. No one in the town voted for TTT to run policy, and it is quite wrong that Totnes Town Council took the unilateral decision to become give us the label of a Transition Town. In fact, if TTT continues to implement its damaging policies it will succeed in turning Totnes centre in a ghost town and make all our lives far more difficult. We want choice, not just TTT's choices.

Indeed the town featured in all the trendy nationals over a campaign against Costa coffee opening and revealed how the green extremists distorted the truth to make their case:

...only 12 per cent of local residents supported its battle against the coffee chain. Its argument that Totnes was a chain free town was a lie. It's claim there are 41 coffee outlets in Totnes included pubs, cafes and restaurants that would have been barely affected even if the arrival of Costa Coffee resulted in fewer coffee sales. Totnes has one dedicated coffee and that, the Curator, open after TTT began its campaign.

These good people have launched a petition - I would urge them to put up for the Town Council and to involve their District and County Councillors (if they've not been taken in by the green extremists). More power to their elbow and success to their petition!

Worse still this green fanatics want to impose a load of huge industrial wind turbines on the place!

....

4 comments:

Dick Puddlecote said...

Haven't they got a bit of a daft prohibitionist MP too? ;)

Hugh Jarse said...

I'm not going to specifically comment on this case but one thing comes to mind. The views of a non-local will doubtless count for less than those of a local, but they are presumably not random people who go round signing petitions for a laugh, but people who appreciate and value Totnes as it is.

They choose to visit and spend their money, and if they don't like the direction the town takes, they might not bother to do so any more, so their opinions can't just be ignored. The average Devonian isn't anything like as rich as some people assume, and if they drive tourists away they won't be glad of it.

So it's not as though petition-signers should be given a veto, but they can't be utterly shrugged off.

Hugh Jarse said...

BTW I'm a walker and I don't want wind farms in the places I walk through. So this swanning round having views on places you don't live in isn't all bad!?

Ivan D said...

Yes Dick. The MP is living proof that qualifying in medicine is, by itself, no indication of intellectual prowess.

Not sure how I feel about this case but it does seem that the activists have been a tad less than honest.