For many of us the problem isn’t planning, the lack of land to develop, nor a planning system that was not sufficiently permissive. By relaxing the rules we are unlikely to see more development overall but we could see more development in the wrong places. Developers might get richer but for the economy there would be no significant surge in growth.

Grange over Sands is a quiet seaside town on the north side of Morecambe Bay on the Cartmel peninsula. The first thing that strikes you is the absence of sand. Apparently the ‘over Sands’ was added in Victorian times because a local vicar was fed up with his post being delivered to Grange in Borrowdale

This is just plane stupid, London’s already got 6 airports how many does one city need? And doesn’t the left hand know what the right hand’s doing in this coalition government – one part grants extra protection while another green lights development?

Our rights of way network is both quirky and delightful and it didn’t come about as a result of a fit for purpose efficiency study instituted by bureaucrats and accompanied by tacit if reluctant approval from landowners

They’re rich and arrogant and don’t give a damn what anyone else thinks. They think that just because they charge £30,000 a year per student and a couple of their ex-pupils were Prime Minister they can do what they like.

Since I’ve been old enough to drink my pre- or post- (or often both) game ritual involved a visit to the working man’s club in Britannia Street. Imagine my shock last year when I found it had been demolished. Perhaps it was the irony of working men in Chelsea that appealed to me…

Coastal erosion is in the news these days. Most spectacularly near Hayle in north Cornwall where geologist Richard Hocking caught an enormous fall on camera…

If the mapmakers had no information as to what might be in an area of map, they filled it with monsters; ship-devouring kraken; huge whales with sharp teeth, Neptune on the warpath, or viciously gigantic mermaids.

The real stumbling block to getting this route re-opened is that the council are under no obligation to keep this path open for the public…

I knew the creator and founder of this route, Trevor Anthill, and his sudden death in August 2010 was not only a terrible loss for his family and friends but also the walking community