You may recall the numerous times I questioned Cheshire East plans for the construction of 30,000 new homes in the next 10 years, far in excess of the anticipated population growth of 1,600 over the same period. 

After months of hammering on the door for answers I finally received one explanation from a councillor – that the extra 30,000 houses were not needed to meet generic growth but to accommodate, amongst other things, the boom in employment generated by HS2.

Despite the protests of residents and the desecration of greenbelt land, the development roared ahead, with one community after another forced to accommodate major house building projects.

Oh how times have changed, and HS2 is no longer the flavour of the month among our political leaders.

Somewhere along the tunnel, sanity shone its light and laid bare the glaringly obvious.

Namely that taxpayers and commerce may be best served by improving trans-Pennine travel rather than spending billions cutting 40 minutes of intercity journey times.

While the rest of us may heave a sigh of relief, I wonder how the likes of Cheshire East feel? If HS2 does not go ahead, then one of the reasons the bulldozers were sent into the countryside and wreaked havoc on communities is fatally flawed.

George Osborne won’t care. He’ll be jetting between his six jobs. Call-Me-Dave is writing his memoirs while flitting between homes in the Cotswolds, Cornwall and Notting Hill. The previous leadership of Cheshire East who presided over this will probably be in denial (nothing new there).

The ones left to live with the folly of building houses for a population that doesn’t exist are the residents.

Going forward we need to think more about this whenever political egg-heads insist they know best. They are the ones least likely to suffer the consequences.

Remember when they insisted high-rise apartment blocks were the future? Do you recall any MP who ever lived in one?

 

LIFE WITHOUT A BOOTS

I’m sad to hear that Boots plan to close 100 stores. I was a supplier of Boots in a previous life and (unlike some major chain stores) I always found them to be fair and considerate towards their suppliers.

There probably isn’t a family in the land that hasn’t been a customer of Boots over the years. Somehow they rubbed along with neighbourhood chemists without making it their corporate mission to drive them out of business.

Who hasn’t dashed into a Boots store when away on holiday knowing they will have the exact medication you forgot to take with you?

Added to the 100 plus Marks and Spencer stores scheduled for closure it does not bode well for the future of our town centres in their current format.

Like millions of others Mrs B and I do a large slice of our monthly shopping online. Google does the hard work for us searching out the best deals, which are often delivered the next day. We can do much of our Christmas shopping online in one afternoon without having to queue.

We no longer go to the January sales…they come to us. You cannot ignore the fact that buying online makes shopping easier, faster and cheaper.

We probably go to town as often as we ever did, we just don’t spend as much. I know we drink more coffee and do a lot of eating out.

We just don’t buy as many products as we used to.

Gone are the days when you had to troop around every shop to check if they had the brand, style or model of whatever you wanted. Five minutes online and you have it.

Our town centres will most certainly survive, but the mix of shops, services and housing will change considerably and may present a major opportunity for small, privately-owned retailers.

 

DO YOU EVER FEEL OLD?

They say you are as old as you feel in which case I’m 38  (plus VAT obviously). In reality I’m well past my sell-by date but I don’t feel it. I’m working as many hours as I ever did and enjoying it.

I walk around 50 miles a week and I’m up to speed with the internet and social media. I know who Stormzy is and I’m as close to Snoop Dogg as it’s safe to be. Adele wrote a song about me rolling in the deep or something, I forget.

Anyway, I’m the same weight I was 30 years ago, I’ve still got all my own teeth and, if I say so myself, I’m a pretty cool dude.

Or so I thought, until a young taxi driver asked me what I had bought at the local market.

“Just home-baked bread and an egg custard,” I replied not realising the effect it would have until he said.

“An egg what?”

“Custard.”

His eyebrows arched like a McDonald’s sign: “Really?”

“Yes really…with nutmeg.”

He stared at me in the rear view mirror like I’d escaped from a security hospital. “Custard and nutmeg?” he asked in that incredulous way Peter Kay talks about “garlic bread.”

I nodded.

“You must be well old?”

             

By Guardian columnist Vic Barlow