Opinion: Burnham postcode soundbite doesn’t spark growth of hope
Andy Burnham © Simon Dawson/No 10 Downing Street I am all agog to see what Andy Burnham’s promise of “growth in every postcode” means for the postcode area that contains my partner’s farm.
At the moment the “growth” we could do with is grass because the weather has been so unremittingly dry and hot, after a dry and cold spring, that it has never really got going and we really need some decent rain.
Notoriously wet though Manchester is, you wouldn’t think that city had much to offer the Lake District in the precipitation department.
See also: Opinion – humans matter, as well as the environment
About the author
However, since Andy became PM we have had a bit of drizzle up here so perhaps “Manchesterism” is already starting to work.
Anyway, back to postcodes. Firstly, we have to decide if this means the four or seven-digit one.
Here, the former stretches a fair way north and a fair way south of the farm, beyond (though not including) the nearest town of any size, but frankly I think it would be cheating to say that “growth” in any part of such a large area qualified as “growth in every postcode”.
Growth 20 miles away will be irrelevant to us here. No, I’m going to insist that to claim “growth in every postcode” Mr Burnham must achieve this in our little seven-digit patch of Cumbria which consists of two farms, a lot of fields and 14 scattered dwellings.
Having settled this, the next question to be decided is the definition of “growth”.
More or bigger something, but what? Houses? Businesses? Tourism? More housing here is unlikely as the one road in and out struggles now with the traffic on it and there’s nowhere sensible to put a development of any size.
The National Park Authority might allow a barn conversion but that would be it.
As for business expansion, when I asked my partner if anything in Mr Burnham’s pronouncements would encourage him to grow the farm business, he turned an interesting shade of puce and temporarily lost the power of speech, so I think that’s a “no”.
However, if I lived in the postcode area permanently, I might well try to do my bit for the local economy by taking advantage of the £2 cap on bus fares and getting a job in town, though it would have to be a job I could do between 11am and 1.30pm on Thursdays, which is when the one bus a week sets down and picks up there.
Should I ever need a GP appointment I could stay on the bus on its return journey until it reached the large village with the health centre, and it would then be only a five-mile walk back home.
Or I could get on my bike. Amid the maelstrom of announcements, it’s been hard to tell if this is part of government policy, but someone thinks a 20mph speed limit on rural roads is a great idea to encourage more cycling.
In what way more recreational cyclists would boost the local economy is beyond me as they currently just pass through this postcode on their way to somewhere else.
Meanwhile the road to town will be littered with the vehicles of people who obediently tried to drive to work or the shops at 20mph, but lost the will to live en route.
Growth in every postcode, hope in every heart, gravy on every chip. I’m heartily sick of politicians’ vacuous soundbites.