McMansions in the Merse

I don't know if Farmer C reads the Guardian but if so he might like to look at the article on page 16 on the phenomenon of 'McMansions' in the United States. Go to http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2138023,00.html ) The illustration of one in Westport Connecticut is strikingly similar to the MacMansion(the giant Scottish version) erected on one of Farmer C's plots just south of the Fishwick bypass. The image above of this Merse Monster illustrates what I mean. The pressures against building houses of that size (over 6,000 square feet)heated by fossil fuels, come from the environmental lobby, who claim that such monstrosities are 'climate change disasters' They appear to be primarily status symbols similar to SUVs (Sports Utility Vehicles or 4x4s-not unknown around Fishwick. To quote the article: 'they express a certain kind of success and they are fun' And as one commentator put it (almost quoting from the Building in the Countryside legislation in the Borders) ' Mansion building takes away from a person's sense of identity of a place' Certainly the Farmer C contribution to the beautification of Berwickshires rural countryside will say something about its purchaser (if less about the countryside around it):

'I've Arrived'

(and I came by Rangerover

and my wife is following in one of the Landcruisers)

No doubt the developers will say this is the sort of thrusting wealthy successful incomer we need to regenerate this geriatrically infested sleepy corner of rural nowhere. Good for Berwickshire? How? The jury is out.

But good for the Planet?

You be judge of that

The other modest pad is a McMansion retailing at a snip : $5.2 Million (Thankyou Google images)

Labels: Farmer C, Fishwick Bypass, Merse

  ¶ 4:45 PM