When did that ever stop housebuilders?
I was working my way round to that, Generous. There's a chance buyers of such houses could end up buying themselves a whole heap of problems.
I have an acute aversion to houses in areas with a history of flooding. I think the government (regardless of hue) should not allow houses to be built in these areas.
For me, I think it goes back to my younger days. We lived on a hill overlooking a field that, conveniently, held on to water and created a large pond in we weather which often froze over in winter and we had loads of fun on it but knowing all the while that it was very dangerous underneath in terms of the ground being extremely cloying. If your foot sank in that mud you couldn't get out without help and none of the scheme's kids were allowed to play there alone.
When I was in my mid-teens the farmer sold the field for housing. They spent a lot of time draining it and 'stabilising' the ground below. Within a couple of years of the houses going up two blocks had to be torn down because they started sinking and the ground was never rebuilt on.
Ever since then I've been aware of myself taking mental notes of low-lying ground in case builders take it over so that I can avoid the area.
It's criminal how builders are allowed to develop on these areas.
Just along the road from the above location we used to play about in an infill site, mainly gathering wood for bonfire night or looking for old prams/buggies in order to make 'bogeys' (do you call them that down south?) with the wheels, etc.
Once the infilling was finished and the land given time to settle a builder was allowed to build on it, just a row of houses, one of which a cousin of mine bought. Within ten years, she told me, there were several cases of cancer among the residents. I have no doubt the ground was contaminated.
There is a huge development to the west of Paisley and we looked there because the likes of Cala were building. I happened to mention this to my brother and he warned me off it. He worked in the area and said it was notorious for ground contamination due to chemical factories being based there for many decades earlier. We mentioned this to a couple of the builders' reps when we visited the showhomes and were told the area had been 'made completely safe' prior to building. We took this as confirmation of contamination and walked away from involvement.
