New Builds And The Impact It Will Have On Fieldsports .

[marsh man]

I would imagine that anyone who have had the same perms for a number of years have either had part of it taken over by new houseing development or they are getting ever more closer , on some land I went on before I moved the developers are seeking permission to build over 800 new houses on land I had very good shooting and a field attached to the same farm is already covered in lived in houses , these new builds up and down the country will go deeper and deeper into the countryside and where once you had fields all around you , either now or in time you could be surrounded by houses with the owners knowing very little about our way of life .

Only this last week I have been to talking to two very respected people who have had the firearm response team give them a visit , one was out after deer and a woman rang the police to say a man was walking around with a rifle and had his face covered , it wasn't long before he got a visit and as everything was above board the police left it at that , he even went around to the lady to explain why he have to shoot the Munties and it is perfectly leagal in what he is doing .

The other one was not so lucky , his lively hood is a market gardener and he owned the land he was on , some pigeons were on his crops so he fired a shot towards them , he didn't give it another thought until he was surrounded by armed police who told him to lay on the floor , he got reported by a woman who said he was firing a gun at her house , they had no more to do than arrest him and took away his guns , they then got the forensics in to examine the brickwork on the house to see if there were any shot marks which they never found any , he was kept in overnight and I believe they have still got his guns .

This type of action will only get worse when these new buildings get closer to our shooting grounds and the police are going to get a lot more call outs from the public who haven't got a clue what is going on , I know we have seen the best days when it come to fieldsports and how much longer will it carry on is anyones guess .   MM

 

[Vince Green]

The thing I wonder about new build houses is how they get away with building such shoddy monstrosities.

It's not just about shooting. Irresponsible fast buck estates where estates don't belong are storing up problems for years to come.

[Weihrauch17]

I have shot for 25 years on a 1700 acre shoot and for 10 years on a Woodland shoot before that, we have gone from no barns being converted into housing into most and within a few years every barn spreads into out buildings, Wind Turbines etc etc.  We have also had a huge campsite spring up with facilities originally without PP but the council gave up because they couldn't afford the court fees.  We are on borrowed time all round the country I feel especially with all the Green **** Wind Farms and Solar Panels.  We will have  Moorland left but they will soon ban Grouse Shooting.

[London Best]

I shot on two farms for over 20 years before they were converted into the largest privately owned housing estate in Europe. 
I also shot on three other local farms and each of those is now a golf course (3 golf courses).

[mossy835]

im shooting on 2 farm next to each other.and they are waiting for planning for houses to go up, this has been going on for years,but one day they will be built on,and that will be 2 farms gone for me,and they are  just up the road for me shame,nice grounds for pigeons.iv shot the farms for 40 years.

[Rupert]

If you had kids its a problem of your own making

[oowee]

17 minutes ago, Rupert said:

If you had kids its a problem of your own making

Kids, who would have em? 😊

[marsh man]

52 minutes ago, London Best said:

I shot on two farms for over 20 years before they were converted into the largest privately owned housing estate in Europe. 
I also shot on three other local farms and each of those is now a golf course (3 golf courses).

For a while we were pretty well left alone and then the outside world came marching in at a alarming pace , I often walk around the footpath at a nearby industual site on the edge of the marshes and look at a spot where I once shot two seperate Pink feet while Pigeon shooting , thankfully the marshes are still there but for how long , members can relate to the same situation up and down the country , maybe not with shooting two Pinks but you know what I mean . building new houses are only one of the problems , we now have by passes , wind farms and I lost a lovely 50 odd acre field through solar panels , these were installed on a 20 year lease , the farmer get a good return for doing next to nothing , and they were all put up a few feet above the ground so the sheep can graze underneath .

Touch wood our estuary have been left alone as it is run by several organizations like English Nature , Broads Authority , and the G Y W A , these will oppose any threats like a few years ago when they wanted to build a large marina , for the time being this will not happen but you cannot say , it will never happen .

P S    Just got my local paper ( E D P ) and on the front page it state , Rare Birds Block 5,000 New Homes Plan , this is mainly about protecting the sites of the Stone Curlew 

[London Best]

33 minutes ago, marsh man said:

For a while we were pretty well left alone and then the outside world came marching in at a alarming pace , I often walk around the footpath at a nearby industual site on the edge of the marshes and look at a spot where I once shot two seperate Pink feet while Pigeon shooting , thankfully the marshes are still there but for how long , members can relate to the same situation up and down the country , maybe not with shooting two Pinks but you know what I mean . building new houses are only one of the problems , we now have by passes , wind farms and I lost a lovely 50 odd acre field through solar panels , these were installed on a 20 year lease , the farmer get a good return for doing next to nothing , and they were all put up a few feet above the ground so the sheep can graze underneath .

Touch wood our estuary have been left alone as it is run by several organizations like English Nature , Broads Authority , and the G Y W A , these will oppose any threats like a few years ago when they wanted to build a large marina , for the time being this will not happen but you cannot say , it will never happen .

P S    Just got my local paper ( E D P ) and on the front page it state , Rare Birds Block 5,000 New Homes Plan , this is mainly about protecting the sites of the Stone Curlew 

At least you have some good news. 
On the housing estate farm I shot everything from snipe to geese, from being fourteen years old
My favourite partridge shoot now has one field given over to solar panels, mounted high for grazing underneath as you say.

[vmaxphil]

Any guesses as to which famous environmentalist is going to address the elephant in the room (population) ?

[scolopax]

Land I used to shoot on as a kid is now houses, and in one place part of a retail park.

it is looking very likely I will loose my game shoot as a compulsory purchase order has gone in for building a huge electricity transformer house!  This is for offshore wind power, and we are long way from the sea, but they want to build three transformer houses in the vicinity.

[jall25]

7 hours ago, Rupert said:

If you had kids its a problem of your own making

I think you should have a look round mate - its not many local families moving in to them 

[Rupert]

Anything concrete to back that up or is it just anecdotal. 

Statement refers to any nation, the root of it is procreation

[adzyvilla]

The farm i grew up on was sold for housing when dad gave up the lease and retired 16 years ago. It was a wonderful 350 acre mixed farm with about 200 acres under arable and the rest water meadows which hosted cattle and sheep over the years and two blocks of low lying woodland that often flooded. Despite the meadows all being home to rare orchids and invertebrates and the woodland having several TPOs on ancient oaks the whole lot was cleared, the meadows drained and 400 houses and a school built in its place. 

The blood, sweat and tears we as a family, but in particular my father put into that place over the 30 years we were there, only to see it all bulldozed and concreted over nearly tipped the old man over the edge when he foolishly went back to look a few years later. The houses suffer terribly from subsidence issues due to the wet ground and the whole site looks a mess.

I have many fond memories of cutting my teeth pigeon shooting in the bigger wood, beating on the little shoot we ran for many years with the neighbouring farm (now also partly built on) and shooting my first duck on the flooded meadow one wild November night. 

I despise the greed and avarice that motivates the builders of these housing estates on green sites while thousands of acres of brownfield lies empty and wasted.

[serrac]

9 hours ago, Rupert said:

If you had kids its a problem of your own making

Not so sure about that...

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/05/17/fertility-rates-are-collapsing/
 

"The current UK fertility rate – the average number of children per woman – stands at 1.6. This is significantly below the “replacement rate” of 2.1, and continues to fall"

Yet the UK population grew from 56m in 1976 to 67m today.
Any guesses as to how that happened?
 

[Rupert]

There is more this this problem than just the UK  Its a Global issue. But the root cause of all of the problems is burgeoning population and the need for economic growth to support the populous. 

[marsh man]

2 hours ago, adzyvilla said:

The farm i grew up on was sold for housing when dad gave up the lease and retired 16 years ago. It was a wonderful 350 acre mixed farm with about 200 acres under arable and the rest water meadows which hosted cattle and sheep over the years and two blocks of low lying woodland that often flooded. Despite the meadows all being home to rare orchids and invertebrates and the woodland having several TPOs on ancient oaks the whole lot was cleared, the meadows drained and 400 houses and a school built in its place. 

The blood, sweat and tears we as a family, but in particular my father put into that place over the 30 years we were there, only to see it all bulldozed and concreted over nearly tipped the old man over the edge when he foolishly went back to look a few years later. The houses suffer terribly from subsidence issues due to the wet ground and the whole site looks a mess.

I have many fond memories of cutting my teeth pigeon shooting in the bigger wood, beating on the little shoot we ran for many years with the neighbouring farm (now also partly built on) and shooting my first duck on the flooded meadow one wild November night. 

I despise the greed and avarice that motivates the builders of these housing estates on green sites while thousands of acres of brownfield lies empty and wasted.

It is not only the new houses that are swallowing up the countryside it is a lot of the people who are going in them with a total lack of countryside knowledge that can also harm the shooting man , we have to remember we haven't got a lot of the population on our side and many don't like the thought of shooting wild life in general , they see people on the next field with all the Pigeon gear out and when one come towards the decoys they hear a loud bang and see this Pigeon tumberling to the ground , straight away they ring the police and say somebody in full camo have got a live Pigeon with it's wings going up and down and two more on a machine that are going around in circles , they don't know the range of a shotgun , don't know the rules about Pigeon shooting and don't like to see birds shot , so the police arrive and go over and have a word with the person involved , he could well be in the clear and there would be very little the police could do but if they ( advised ) you to move out of the sight of the public as they will be watching every move you make then what do you do ? , I know what I would do , I would move to another field where there would be less chance of the public watching , but not everyone have got other places to go and if he isn't doing anything wrong then why should he move ?

Where I worked they had around 70 houses and no doubt at one time I would say at least 90% of the houses had estate workers in them , no one in the past would blink a eye lid if the warrener were catching rabbits on the edge of there gardens or along the hedge next door to the village school , now I very much doubt if there is 9% who live in the estate houses and many of the new tennants want to be part of the countryside but there are a lot that are dead against field sports and you only need one to upset the apple cart .  MM

[joejoe]

There always seems to be plenty of derelict factories and brown field sites but no one wants to build in those areas. It should be a priority to use that land first but all the new building go on farm land. 

[Stonepark]

2 hours ago, joejoe said:

There always seems to be plenty of derelict factories and brown field sites but no one wants to build in those areas. It should be a priority to use that land first but all the new building go on farm land. 

So you would be happy with a house built on cyanide, asbestos, arsenic, heavy metals contaminated soil and for your family to suffer from the effects?

[Scully]

I don’t think it’s anything any of us need worry about.
There has been housebuilding ever since we’ve had the capability to build them; there’s still plenty of green spaces to shoot. I know it happens, but not to the extent we’ll have nowhere left to shoot. 
What I have found more likely to impede shooting is the influx of wealthy townies who buy existing properties and stop people shooting over land where it once took place.  

[joejoe]

That would be a more extreme case of a brown field site but provided it was cleaned up properly with appropriate test conducted then yes. 

[HantsRob]

Apart from the cost of cleanup making the houses no longer affordable and viable.

[Poor Shot]

42 minutes ago, HantsRob said:

Apart from the cost of cleanup making the houses no longer affordable and viable.

We have a huge brownfield site locally which was used until the early 90's for the manufacture of coal into smokeless fuel. The ground was heavily contaminated with the heavy metals mentioned above and an abundance of other chemicals which derived from the open air processing of coal to remove the nasty bits so people in London could burn it without worrying about air quality. 

The local council and Welsh Gov have spent enormous amounts cleaning up the site and removing 1000's of tons of contaminated earth with the intention of selling the site onwards for development. Even now, 30 years after decommissioning of the plant and clean up not a single developer is interested. However, the huge wetlands site a couple hundreds yard up the valley which was home to numerous fowl and other wildlife has been cut down to less than a quarter of its previous size in order for a huge housing estate and two supermarkets to be built. 

Not only are the houses at severe risk of flooding as they are almost level with water table of the adjacent river, they also claim that it's just a coincidence that since the development of that site, record levels of flooding have been recorded downstream and have blamed climate change instead.