Simon Gilmore, of Crowthers Hill, Dartmouth, writes:
This is a tale of two hills. ‘Clutch Burn Hill’, formerly known as Crowthers Hill, Dartmouth, is under attack. It has become a rat run for the constant revving, skidding and grinding of noisy trade vehicles charging up and down to reach the many building developments on the hill.
One of these ‘developments’ – and I use the term loosely – is at the top of ‘Mud Slide Alley’, formerly known as Jawbones Hill, where they have churned out a huge piece of land, which was once an attractive hillside with trees and wildlife, to create a car park for 14 cars.
Despite countless objections from residents and other bodies, including the town council, the scheme has gone ahead.
Mud Slide Alley is now a river of red, flowing mud, like the draining blood from a dying beast.
So, welcome to Clutch Burn Hill and Mud Slide Alley – and anyone hoping to get one of the 14 parking bays can forget it.
Apparently all 14 parking bays have now been hired out to second-home owners.
So it’s no use to any of the residents at all, which is interesting, as these ‘out-of-town developers’ sold the idea to everyone on the basis that the parking bays were going to be available to local residents. Nope.
We know the owners of one property on Clutch Burn Hill acquired two of the parking bays and then immediately sold their property to a second-home owner and left town.
Brilliant! We would like to know who in the planning department was responsible.
There has to be an ulterior motive.
So here’s the story…
Imagine the scene, sometime back last year. One dark night a group of hooded characters huddled round a fire in a room with closed shutters, a cirrus of cigar smoke wafting across the ceiling and the strong scent of Napoleon brandy prevalent as they set about hatching a cunning plan.
The game plan? To build a block of expensive apartments on the once lovely hillside at the top of Jawbones – sorry, Mud Slide Alley – with ‘views to die for’.
But they know that the scheme will not get approval from anyone unless they get crafty.
So here’s the deal: they will begin the scheme by creating parking bays for ‘local residents’. This will keep everyone happy and off their backs. Then, once the uproar has died down, phase two comes into play. They know they won’t make a penny from the parking bays, but they have a plan, the erection of ‘hilltop mansions’, a block of luxury apartments with views to die for and
huge profits to be made by the developers.
A few months later the bulldozers move in and – hey presto! – welcome to Mud Slide Alley.
Another slippery job done by people who don’t live in Dartmouth and probably have no intention of doing so.
When will all the nasty development schemes stop and when will someone have the guts to stand up to it?
There are 56 properties on Clutch Burn Hill and only around nine of them are actually ‘lived’ in. Is this right?