Dull without dishes
Sir: For someone who can apparently regard homes daubed with graffiti as en- dearingly 'quirky' as thatched roofs or ragged beams, it is little wonder that Nicholas Farrell (Where Sky is beyond the limit', 3 February) found New Earswick so dull. Poor fellow. How unexciting it must have been for him to visit a village without the diversions of a frightening crime rate to gloat over, infamous people to marvel at or patches of squalor to deplore. Just a thousand homes in an attractively main- tained environment with far more ameni- ties than he'll find in other villages of the same size: two schools, a handsome village hall, an excellent swimming pool, sports facilities, shops etc.
So he relieved his boredom by poking fun at the ordinary people leading their wretchedly quiet and ordered lives; and by sneering at the 'smug' community which has managed to bemuse the media for being the only place in the UK to ban satellite dishes. But New Earswick's resi- dents — who have never been restricted to workers at the Rowntree factory, inciden- tally — have good reason to shrug off his derision and to feel smug: they live in one of the very few places in Britain which is able to take such action, to the envy of other villages up and down the country. As his Sunday Telegraph colleague Derwent May has complained (21 January), there are no effective planning controls to curb 'the great white snowstorm' that is likely to hit Britain's landscape.
The enlightened Joseph Rowntree — whose philanthropy and indefatigable efforts to achieve social reform Mr Farrell tries hard to mock as the idle distractions
of a 'bored' Croesus — insisted that the village residents should have the opportun- ity to play a full part in the development and management of the place through a Council elected by the residents. The suggestion of a ban was first raised by residents at this Council and the unani- mous agreement to impose it was accor- dingly made by the New Earswick Manage- ment Committee, on which they are well represented.
Mr Farrell knew that the ban was not an arbitrary decision of the Joseph Rowntree Memorial Housing Trust but arose from the residents through their Council. It is a pity he chose not to mention this tedious detail.
Roland Hurst
Director of Information Services, Joseph Rowntree Memorial Trust, Shipton Road, York
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