Friday 6 February 2015

Developer blocks tribute to Town Councillor

Foreman Homes have said no to the Town Council's plan to recognise Cllr Raymond Hicks' service to the community. Asked to suggest street names for a new development between St John's Road and Dodwell Lane, councillors suggested Hicks Avenue along with Hellyar Drive, Blyth Gardens and Maidman Place.

Raymond Hicks was a long standing town councillor, chair of the council in 1994, chair of the community services committee, and campaigner for people with disabilities. But Foreman Homes reckon potential buyers of their "good quality, affordable homes" might be put off because "hick" is a term for poor white people in the United States.

As you can see in the screen grab from Zoopla, it hasn't stopped properties in Hicks Avenue, Greenford, changing hands for in excess of £400,000.

And Foreman Homes have been marketing "Larchfield" in Totton as "a beautiful development of stylish 4 bedroom detached family homes on the edge of the New Forest". Yet "larch" according to the urban dictionary is a synonym for human faeces in the US. Have they "done a larch" on Hedge End in turning down our request to honour a local stalwart?

Oh, and by the way, James Hellyar was the first district councillor for the parish of Hedge End in 1894, Joyce Blyth wrote a two-part history of Hedge End in 1979 and 1981, and Charles Maidman was parish clerk during the Great War.