Vogons, Cuxton, and the Dying Art of Protest...

The BBC's Vogon...

Anyone over the age of fifty may remember the 1970’s BBC Radio Series, “The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide To The Galaxy”, written by Douglas Adams. It was subsequently transferred to a novel and a BBC TV series (the latter notable for its truly awful special effects, which were often as funny as the dialogue).

In the series, Planet Earth was destroyed to make way for a “galactic hyperspace route” by a race of galactic bureaucrats called the Vogons. Vogons weren’t actually evil, just completely unthinking and stubbornly single-minded. They had an interesting attitude to things of natural beauty…

“(The evolutionary forces of the Vogon’s home planet) brought forth scintillating jewelled scuttling crabs, which the Vogons ate, smashing their shells with iron mallets; tall aspiring trees of breathtaking slenderness and colour, which the Vogons cut down and burnt the crab meat with; elegant, gazelle-like creatures with silken coats and dewy eyes, which the Vogons would catch and sit on. They were no use as transport because their backs would instantly snap, but the Vogons sat on them anyway…”

Vineyard Farms seem to me to be a little like the Vogons: both plan to destroy local people’s quality of life to build something that isn’t really necessary, and both have a disregard for things of peace and beauty (just look at the deep-ploughed desolation of the local valleys now, the ugliness of the wires and stakes, the air of weed-strewn neglect and the trashed hedgerows around Luddesdown).

Unsurprisingly the precious little vines, planted in such a hurry and over such a huge area, aren't doing too well. Harvesting in 2022 was the original boast: that now appears highly unlikely and is being quietly forgotten, it seems. Indeed, 2024 is being bandied about as a date for full production instead.  Catch 22?  

The Vogon guard in the story had quite a good slogan as well: “Resistance Is Useless!!” it bellowed. 

Maybe VF should adopt that as their public relations policy.

Municipal councils have a long history of treating little Cuxton with contempt, unfortunately. In the sixties, the village lost many fine old historic buildings that could and should have been preserved (such as the cottages in Upper Bush, Old Post Office Row and the Rectory).

Just afterwards, a local historian wrote...

"I cannot begin to imagine what goes through the minds of councillors who can destroy such a place of beauty...": Derek Church, Cuxton - A Kentish Village, 1976.

We are still trying to imagine that today, it seems.  Even worse was to come. 

"We Have To Trash Your Countryside 'Cos We Need The Jobs, Right...?" Sounds familiar...

In the mid-1980s, the Blue Circle cement company hatched a scheme to quarry the chalk in Dean Valley. Cuxton village was horrified. Surely that beautiful valley couldn’t just simply be destroyed on the whim of a rich company like Blue Circle?

Public meetings were held. Protests were made.

"Keep Dean Green" protestors...

"Keep Dean Green" protest against Blue Circle's Dean Valley chalk extraction plans...

None of it made the slightest difference. Blue Circle trashed the western end of Dean Valley anyway...

Chalk extraction, Dean Valley 1989...

Chalk extraction, Dean Valley, 1989...

Many factors stepped in to stop the damage to Dean Valley being terminal. Following the energy crisis of the seventies, the eighties saw great consolidation in the cement industry as overseas products began to compete. Many quarries simply ran out of raw material as land became increasingly scarce, and the industry contracted.

Local historian Derek's Church's impression of what Dean Valley would have looked like had chalk extraction continued..

Dean Valley itself did not furnish the quality or quantity of chalk required and activities ceased inside a year or so. The Halling (Rugby) works subsequently closed in 2000, with operations completely ceasing in 2009 and the site demolished in 2010.

The top-soil in Dean Valley was put back and now it is pretty hard to imagine the western end of the valley as it was briefly in the late eighties/early nineties. The pond, which marks the tunnel entrance though the hill to take the chalk to the Halling works, is the only feature left reminding us of those days.

The western end of Dean Valley today...

For Dean Valley, time and economics achieved what protests could not. It would be nice to think that justice would be served on Vineyard Farms in such a fashion, should their schemes come to fruition. Climate change, consumer fashion, economics and even central government policy on land use. VF are at the mercy of all of them. Who knows what the future will bring?

Dean Farm today: Vineyard Farms attempts to buy this have so far been rebuffed - for now...

These days, the banner-waving and slogan-shouting type of protesting is just as ineffective as it was in the eighties, is socially unacceptable (thanks to the antics of idiots like Insulate Britain) and is so much harder to actually do. Covid has restricted gatherings of people and new Tory legislation (the soon-to-be-approved Police, Crimes and Sentencing Bill) makes protesting virtually illegal anyway. A protest along the lines of the Dean Valley one could soon see you jailed for up to 51 weeks!

And people are too busy and have too many distractions these days, anyway. Many people struggle to even eat and heat, let alone worry about their local environment.  Which is right where our rulers want us serfs to be, I suspect...

The principle that green belt land should not be built upon and the damage the project will inflict upon the quality of life in poor little Cuxton doesn’t feature  anywhere. 

Anyone who objects to Vineyard Farms’ schemes is painted as a NIMBY, a tree hugger or a “fluffy hand-wringer”, even by some people who live in Cuxton, such has been the effectiveness of VF’s propaganda. “Divide and conquer” indeed.

Vineyard Farms have a monopoly on Medway Council's time - certainly our Parish Council have had no opportunity to present Cuxton's case to the Council Planning committee in the same way that Vineyard Farms can present theirs. The Council Planning department has simply ignored the arguments laid out in the 200+ objections they have received against the scheme.

The Vineyard Farms PR machine has a good grip on things and they have pretty much ensured that their agenda is the only one being heard.  “Look at our wonderful design, and how beautifully it fits into the green belt around it” goes the story. The local media certainly parrots that view, and most people outside of Cuxton (especially Medway's Planning department) seem to welcome the idea of the winery.  

The Planning Committee meeting of December 8th (and the video thereof) showed that bias quite clearly. Just watch it. It is rather shocking in terms of its one-sidedness. 

Explanations about the "exceptional circumstances" and "public interest" that would satisfy national planning guidelines for allowing development within green belt areas were scarce. Councillor Matt Fearn was given only five minutes to present this counterpoint on our behalf, to Dave Harris's thirty minutes of pro-winery cheerleading.

Both our own Parish Council and Kent ANOB have explained, clearly, concisely and unequivocally, why the winery should not be built. Those documents were mysteriously omitted from the Supplementary Notes given to the planning committee members prior to the planning meeting.

Watch this space...