NIMBY to the max!!

The small city where I've lived for the past dozen years, St Albans, has a lot to offer residents and visitors alike.  Extensive Roman ruins, a stupendous Cathedral, lovely parks, a 100-year-old street market, and more besides.  Well worth a trip!  But don't worry if you can't get here any time soon.  The locals are determined to preserve the place like a bug in a lump of amber.

Want proof?  Just take a look at last week's issue of the local freesheet, the St Albans Review.  On the front page was a story about how residents of one of the outlying villages, Colney Heath, are up in arms about plans to build a plant to dispose of food waste using anaerobic digestion.  The objections appear to be largely based on fears of bad smells, which suggests they don't know what "anaerobic" means.

On the next three pages of the paper we learn that:

* locals are objecting to plans to expand nearby Luton airport, citing fears of noise and increased traffic;

* city council has rejected plans for development of housing on a former industrial site in the city centre, on the grounds that it contains an inadequate amount of low-cost housing.  The site has been a vacant eyesore for well over a decade -- earlier plans for a supermarket were rejected after a long battle;

* there are fears that the government will approve a planned rail freight depot just south of the city.  This has been the subject of a long-running battle, and the activists are girding up for another round;

* plans for a new hotel on the south side of the city are attracting strong opposition, because it would encroach on "precious" greenbelt land, even though the land in question is both (a) inaccessible and (b) blighted by the nearby M25 motorway.

Five anti-development campaigns in four pages -- surely some kind of record!  I'm not passing judgment on any of the individual proposals, but as Messrs Cameron and Osborne flounder around trying to get the economy moving, this kind of local obstructionism is just about the last thing they need.

Oh well, we're only here for one more week anyway.  Wonder if things will be any different in our new home town in Ontario?  I'm betting they won't.