Keep out foreigners to avoid ruining our ancient villages

BEFORE I came to this most beautiful part of England, I resided in a small market town very similar to where I live now.

At its heart was a magnificent medieval Minster, mirrored by a Palace built by the Prince Archbishops of Durham, much of the stone used being originally Roman. Add to this the ancient centre and cobbled streets as well as the remains of monastic fishponds and the footprint of a vast Roman villa, you have some idea of the slumbering quiet beauty of the place.

Until the developers crept in. The beautiful old railway station was laid waste and removed, farmland bought and lost forever under an onslaught of suburban monstrosities which quadrupled the size of this hidden gem.

Even more vile were the utterly repulsive carbuncles built on old orchards, large gardens split for plots and beautiful old original buildings (including the old blacksmiths) smashed down in the name of “new development”.

Even the town allotments (all in use) succumbed to the “housing demands”, all of which were grabbed by outsiders as locals were priced out of the market.

This insidious practice has already started here in Caistor, Nettleton and Market Rasen. To build any more housing would border on the ludicrous.

Unless we keep industry and much-needed contracts in England, instead of being forced into an expensive gesture of “entente cordiale” to keep the rest of the EU happy, we cannot service our current housing stock or town centres.

With the massive influx of cheap unqualified labour with immigration and migration, most of whom only pay a token £1 in income tax, wages have become stagnant and are losing value hand over fist.

Unless the indigenous population have a bank of mum and dad, or grandparents willing to cash in their hard-earned pension pots, the English are now unable to afford a mortgage even for the cheapest housing. Those who do have the burden of a mortgage are already stretched to breaking point and live in terror of a rise in interest rates or the real threat of unemployment.

We have a housing bubble that is truly going to explode and precious social housing will be needed more than ever. Which leaves wealthy foreign investors to hoover up all the repossessed housing stock for bargain prices to rent out at eye-watering rates.

This is the reality that the Caistor Parish Council should face head on and stop talking unmitigated rubbish about the need for more building.