peter robinson

We used to have lots of places in the UK where you could get most of what you needed within 15 minutes walk: school, GP, grocer, butcher, church, pub, children's playground, sports club. We called them "towns" and "villages". Then along came central and local government. They encouraged large chains to build out of town supermarkets, forcing town centre butchers and grocers and fishmongers out of business. They planted acres of new housing around towns and villages, with no facilities, and too far away from town centres for people to walk there. And they sold off sports grounds and playgrounds for more housing. They built centralised "superhospitals", moving patient care away from their local neighbourhood, while running down the GP service and replacing it with call centres and "apps". They raised business rates and car park prices in town centres, and installed lots of bike lanes and "traffic calming", thereby narrowing roads and causing more traffic congestion, reducing footfall, and sending town centre shops out of business. They closed pubs, playgrounds, sports clubs, churches to save us all from a *checks notes* deadly respiratory virus. And now what do they want to do? They want to recreate those 15 minute communities that we used to have in small towns and villages, but in bigger towns and cities instead. Only they're not doing it by encouraging small businesses to open neighbourhood stores, or reducing local business rates, or decentralising the NHS, ensuring we can all live in that same 15 minute paradise. No, they're doing it by installing traffic filters and CCTV and enforcement infrastructure and fines. All stick and no carrot. Creating new inner city ghettos. There is seemingly no situation which central and local government cannot make worse.