Dear Residents,
We are now inundated with letters and emails from residents writing to Monk, Collins, Stewart, Hollingsbee, Carey and all the other cronies and SDC Cabinet members supporting the desecration of our villages. We have chosen to post this email recently sent to David Cameron as a typical example of the sentiment displayed among our communities If you are think differently, please let us know. Our aim is to reflect the views of ALL residents of Sellindge et environs. Please take the time to read.
S&DRA.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I would like you to take the time to read this email as I feel the content will be reflected by many throughout the country. We the British people feel let down. We are bullied into accepting situations despite living in a so called democracy.
Take our situation locally. We have a parish council which is in place to express the views of the local community and to protect our environment. We attend local parish meetings to make our views clear, but our parish councillors are not listened to by the local council (in my case, Shepway) as a result, our local Councils make decisions which affect our lives, our environment and our communities over which we have no control or say. So apparently, we just have to put up with it.
We have local Members of Parliament (in my case Damian Collins) who treat us with disdain. We can make appointments to speak with them whenever they hold a surgery, but if you write to them, instead of an individual reply, they send out a template of a letter sent by way of response to everyone writing on the same subject. So apparently, we just have to put up with it.
Bylaws have been passed locally in our case to prevent Lorry drivers parking in our village. Parking tickets are issued to lorry drivers (as long as their curtains are not closed), but they are not fined on the spot. As a result our village is strewn with plastic bottles of urine, plastic bags containing excrement and tissues which the lorry drivers have cleaned themselves are thrown in the hedgerow. Grass is churned up and verges decimated, but can anything be done to stop this disgusting behaviour, apparently not. So we just have to put up with it.
Lorry drivers leave Dover/Folkestone with insufficient driving time to reach their destination so they park an the hard shoulder of the motorway blocking emergency vehicle access. However, local people recently avoiding a broken down car on the same motorway used the hard shoulder to drive around the vehicle and were issued letters warning them about using the hard shoulder. We apparently, just have to put up with it.
Lorry drivers over a bank holiday recently were parked near a retail park one behind the other turning the road into a single lane, they were drinking alcohol, playing loud music with their cab doors open, dancing in the road singing, dancing and whistling. Clearly they would be in possession of the lorry keys, but was anything done about it. No. If a group of British youngsters behaved in the same way they would be in a police station. We apparently, just have to put up with it.
The largest lorry park in the world is planned locally for use when operation stack is in use. Thankfully operation stack has not been used so far this year, but then the French have not caused the problems they did last year. So the French cause a problem and we suffer as a consequence. Where's the democracy in being told that you are having something of this magnitude on your doorstep despite local people objecting? What can we do about it? Nothing we apparently, just have to put up with it.
Our local council (Shepway) purchased land from a farmer late last year and we were told that (clever use of words here) they had no plans to build on it. It was being leased back to farmers for a trickle rent (which by their own admission is a good return on their money). Now we are told a garden town of 12,000 houses is planned using the same land. We lobby our MP, our council and parish council and still the Council approach the government of an expression of interest. We apparently, just have to put up with it.
The flow of people from Europe cannot be halted because of the EU, so what do we do? We build more houses to accommodate them, provide child benefits for children not living in this country. We allow people to arrive here looking for work and although they cannot claim benefits for three months thereafter they can claim benefits for the next three months before being expected to leave the country. Who exactly is tracking these people and how many of them leave the country if they are not in employment after six months? We provide services like schools, hospitals, doctors, translators, dentists,the list goes on, meanwhile hospital waiting lists grow, doctors appointments become more difficult to obtain, parents cannot get their children into their school of choice, NHS dentists are difficult to register with etc, etc. What do we do? We put up with it.
People leave French shores in a small dinghy arrive on our shores or are intercepted by one of the three vessels we have to protect our shoreline in Kent, they are not fleeing France because of persecution or being in fear of their lives but what what do we do. We apparently, just put up with it.
People will only be pushed so far, our (underwritten) constitution depends on democracy and it doesn't seem as if we live in one any longer. We are bullied into accepting situations forced on us by decisions made by Government, MP's, councils, Europe and beyond. People lose confidence in their government/councils and the decline in confidence will mean that the national politic will not be immune from the consequences. The remain/stay will be a reflection of people's frustration of situations they feel that we as a country have no control over. We may have to wait for elections to vote on which MP's/Government, local councillors (which happen every few years) but the remain/leave referendum is a once in a lifetime vote happening imminently and still we are being bullied. It's not helpful to hear people on the continent pontificating of how we will be punished if we vote to leave, it is threatening us! It also reminds us of how little say we have in how our lives are controlled, even if we decide to leave the EU they still want to control us.
If we do decide to leave instead of building 12,000 homes close to the village in which I live and a lorry park costing millions of pounds, invest the money in enabling our country to protect its shores and increasing border agency staff to check every vehicle entering the country looking for illegal immigrants. Make the vessels in our waters return from whence they came, (if a war ship entered our waters we would have no hesitation in forcing that to turn about), we have no idea where these migrants are from or if they have links to terrorist organisations who mean us harm.
In closing I would ask you to protect our shores, our environment, our communities and our people. Respect our views and treat us with respect and not disdain.
Communities thrive when they are involved and their views respected.
Yours sincerely
