Nimby neighbours' war with soldiers' families

[Tarnish 0]

At the bottom is a link the the 10 Downing Street petitions website, please only sign if you are a UK citizen or ex-pat.

Original Daily Mail article

Quote[/b] ]It is often the first port of call for servicemen and women returning home after being wounded in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Soldiers who may have lost limbs or suffered severe trauma spend months rebuilding their lives at Headley Court military rehabilitation centre.

But when an Armed Forces charity decided to buy a £ 1.7million six-bedroom house nearby so visiting relatives would have somewhere to stay, the well-heeled neighbours in Ashtead, Surrey, launched their own offensive.

The Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Families Association, which has applied to the local council to to make some alterations at the property, including installing a wheelchair ramp, had been hoping for no objections.

After all, Headley Court had been part of the area for more than 60 years.

But residents apparently do mind. They have flooded the council with almost 100 letters of protest, raising every conceivable objection to the new property being used to house families visiting soldiers.

They claimed 'additional noise' and 'huge amount of additional traffic' would ruin the peace of the private lane and warned that the value of their multi-million-pound properties would plummet.

The families 'would not be welcome', they said, and their arrival could 'destroy the character' of the area.

One resident even objected on security grounds, claiming the house could become a terrorist target, while another suggested wheelchairs would present a fire hazard.

Planners at Mole Valley District Council will consider the case on August 1 but last night serving soldiers made their views clear.

One Army officer recently returned from Iraq told the Mail: "They make me sick. It's just staggeringly selfish.

"Perhaps these people would care to come out to the field hospital in Basra and tell some young soldier having his leg amputated after a [bomb] attack exactly why his family isn't worthy to rub shoulders with this bunch in their Surrey village.

"Who do they think they are? Do they have the slightest clue about the sacrifices-young soldiers make on their behalf every day? Shame on them."

SSAFA spokesman Athol Hendry said: "These people should be ashamed of themselves. This level of hostility is incredibly disappointing and frankly astonishing.

"If you've just got back from risking your life in Iraq, you've lost two legs and you learn your young family are not welcome near the hospital where you're being treated - what kind of a message is that?"

When the Mail tried to speak to residents, none would be quoted.

Residents' association chairman Malcolm Webb, a 58-year-old oil executive, denied residents were 'nimbys'.

"This is just the wrong place and the wrong property," he said. "Some are concerned - in these awful days when these ghastly terrorists go after the softest targets - about the security situation."

Click on this link to go to the 10 Downing Street site to sign a petition to support our injured servicemen and women and their families:- Petition

[shinRaiden 0]

http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/DefenceNews/MilitaryOperations/ExclusiveReportingFromTheFrontlineLifeAsAnembedWithUkTroopsInIraq.htm

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"I accompanied 2 Rifles on Operation Arezzo in Basra, where they killed about 26 enemy combatants. I was with 5 Platoon - a bunch of bad-ass combat veterans - when they killed about 15 with a very well orchestrated attack during Arezzo, and our guys didn't get a scratch. I say "our guys" because a drop of British blood is as precious to me as is a drop of American blood.

"The next night, I think it was, I went with the Duke of Lancaster's in Basra on an extraordinary ambush. Another well executed plan. The next mission I went on might have been a few days later, and I was with the Queen's Royal Lancers up in Maysaan. Unfortunately we drove into a huge ambush of 48 bombs. Luckily, I think only six exploded, but we lost two soldiers.

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"The Brits face a different situation than we do up north. In a sense, the Brits have become an unwelcome tribe. That's how it seemed to me. 90% of the attacks were against the Brits, and they were taking a heavy volume of rocket and mortar fire on the bases.

"But the problems with the press play into this matter in strategic ways. Counter-insurgencies are hugely about the perception of the people. Iraqis are bombarded by the incessant media apparatus of the enemy, and there is almost no counterpunch from the British media.

"This is not to suggest that the media should be a lap-dog to the military, but like it or not, the enemy has made the media one of its primary weapons. For all the vaunted independence of the American and British media, and their much touted prowess in investigative journalism, I have not seen either collective media turn their scepticism toward the material being pumped out of the other side's media machine."

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"Their job is made difficult because there is no prospect of "we won" in Basra if the current plan continues," Michael concluded. "If the Brits all pull back to base, they will get hit by rockets and mortars, which I saw firsthand while I was with them. But if they go downtown, they will get blown up. We've seen this all over Iraq. You either go in all the way, or get out. There is no question that British soldiers are more than up for the task.

"I listen closely to the British military because they are not fear-runners. The Brits will stand their ground tenaciously. The Brits did not pull stakes after the first bombings in London. The UK has enormous credibility, although the British soldiers I travelled with did not seem to see this.

"When I talked with British soldiers, they seemed to think that Americans did not value their sacrifices or input. Nothing could be further from the truth. All the other Coalition members could split from Iraq, but none are more important to us than the moral support of the UK.

[Gisen 0]

Every single petition on that site, no matter how many people are for it, is totally ignored by the government with a statement that amounts to "We know you don't like us doing X but we are going to ignore you because we know better."

As an ex-soldier myself I am of course disgusted with the people who have complained about what amounts to an addition to a hospital for the disabled.