Unpolytunnelled

Today's walk was a 'reverse fixture' of a previous walk on 11th March - no heavens opened this time but it was fairly cold and very windy. Today's image is one of the abandoned (at least for now) poly tunnels in East Malling Research Station but I liked that the hoops are still standing and the uncovered tunnel almost telescopes your view towards the horizon.
The extra caught my eye due to steel cables leaning against the side of this metal barn - to me they look like giant eyebrows - and no I had not been drinking!
Not far from here plans to build 250 homes on 18 hectares of farmland which had been unanimously rejected by local borough councillors has been overturned by a government inspector. The initial application had generated massive public opposition, with 621 letters and two petitions, each of almost 1000 signatures (as reported in our local paper the Kent Messenger).
The Deputy Mayor for Tonbridge and Malling has called the decision "a travesty" and confirmed that the vote of the local planning committee was indeed unanimous for refusal. The government inspector acknowledged the application would alter the character of the area and spoil view for residents but said that this was all outweighed by the so-called "housing supply shortfall". The response from the Deputy Mayor was that "this decision will start a feeding frenzy among developers who will look to build on all our remaining green space".
It seems that in our local area this government will completely ignore any planning decisions made locally and just impose developments, regardless of the impact on local communities, to meet an arbitrary housing target.