Twists and turns

The address on the flyer, which came through my letterbox this morning, I understood. It read “dear fellow residents”. The stapled together pages addressed to “dear Bromham” confused me but I felt strangely empowered.

It made a difference to feel part of it. Some years ago, another fellow resident called me a f****** foreigner when I complained that one of his lorries had bulldozed a ton of soil from my bank.

“Dear Bromham” was used on a pamphlet, which was issued by one of Bromham’s more colourful residents on the day before a crucial village meeting with Wiltshire County Council about the quarry proposals.

Mark Wilkinson, who has been quoted in a local newspaper as supporting the quarry proposals, says in his pamphlet that he wishes to set the record straight. Evil stuff, local newspapers: Mr. Wilkinson had been quoted out of context, apparently. He feels that he is being set up “once again” as a figure of opposition against the public will and, he emphasizes, this is not the truth.

In his two-and-a-half page memorandum, Mark looks at aspects of the proposed quarries and takes the view that no action should be taken and no objections should be made because no details are known yet. Reason over emotions. The timing of his letter will likely raise eyebrows.

One of the difficulties facing Bromham objectors is the fact that a sizeable portion of the proposed land is owned by the same institution, which will benefit from a quarry and decide whether residents’ objections carry any weight – Wiltshire County Council. The residents’ group believes that it is easier to have Bromham dropped from the list of possible sites at an early stage. Leave it until all the details have been agreed and Council and businesses will have invested so much time and money that there is no turning back for them.

I met an elderly gentleman today at the farm shop and spoke to him about the quarry proposals. He listened politely, even though he seemed to know much more about the plans than I, smiled mildly and let his voice of experience tell me that opposition was good but of no use.

Mark Wilkinson encourages residents to embrace change because good things can happen. Bad things can happen, too. Change in itself is a neutral term, which indicates an alteration or transformation. It means neither good nor bad, neither progress nor reaction.

Undisputable is that quarrying, however carefully performed, does destroy the environment and does impact on people’s lives and livelihoods. Even if in some cases the disruption is temporary, it could go on for at least the next ten years in Bromham. Ten years is enough to spoil your child’s first or your own last days.

If you live next to a quarry, breathing in sand dust day after day, the “your own last days” scenario is not so unrealistic.

Change may present opportunities but this does not imply improvements. It is easily conceivable that opportunity only restores a different version of the previous status. To achieve a pre-change condition would be a waste of time, effort, nerves and money. If we wanted to see our world destroyed just so that we can begin to re-build it, why not move to one of the countries along the axis of evil that we, the West, cannot wait to bomb to dust. It would save everybody a lot of trouble.

Imagine you are number 72 in a queue of 200. Mr. Change comes along and knocks you out of the queue. Ms. Opportunity witnesses the incident and invites you to join the back of the queue. Had you not been pushed out of the queue by Mr. Change, you would never have met Ms. Opportunity. She is kind, Ms. Opportunity, and such a seductive smile. After three hours, you are back at number 72. Change and opportunity yes, improvement no.

Sometimes, to reject change means to be progressive.

Today’s photographs in my documentation of the destruction of a village show land at Lower Hawkstreet Farm, Bromham (Wiltshire), where the proposed quarry meets the narrow Hawkstreet.

Read all entries for the Bromham quarry proposals

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