A plague of second homes

This week’s Westmorland Gazette front page story is about second homes in the Lake District. Again.

A report from the Cumbria Rural Housing Trust has identified a number of Lakeland villages which are in danger of becoming overwhelmed by second homes. Elterwater consists of 80% holiday homes, Skelwith Bridge 70% and many more are around the 50% mark. 

As house prices are forced up by second home ownership, and the number of young couples who can afford them decline, the Lake District is in danger of becoming a kid-free zone. 

And it is not unique to the Lake District, other areas like Devon and Cornwall are similarly affected. 

Second homes artificially inflate houses, lead to a reduction in local services, shops and schools and drive local people from the area. 

Now, I may have tackled this once or twice in my cartoon in the past. (At one point I was banned from doing cartoons about the subject.) But the story keeps coming round and I still have things to say about it.

Below are six sketches I pitched to my editor. In addition, there’s an idea which combines a local story (electricity cables being dug up and stolen), a national news story (you may have heard of it) and an element of bad taste.

Which, dear reader, do you think was the editor choice for today’s front page? 

Place your vote in the comments box below. Then take a trip to my website to see if you were right.

Sensitivity

People in the Lake District are a sensitive bunch. Blood pressures rise at the brief mention of a number of topics. But apparently that now includes T-shirts.

A shop in Kendal has had to place a placard in the window reading: “Warning. The police have received repeated complaints our Tee’s are offending public decency. We have no wish to offend anyone. If you are of a sensitive disposition. Please do not look in our window.”

Frankly, I think I’d be more likely to be upset by the misappropriation of the apostrophe. I think Ill write a letter to the paper.

Elsewhere in this week’s thunderingly-good Westmorland Gazette, there are stories about affordable housing, a cull of Canada geese and A-boards on pavements. The grist of the regional cartoonist’s mill (and I have no idea what that means). No Big Cats but Radio 4’s Today programme is making up for it, as I type, with a long piece about a Mystery Cat in another part of the country. Our Big Cat must have bought a day return rail ticket.

Here are the six sketches with which my editor was confronted yesterday. Look closely and see if you can spot which one made it to today's front page. You can check if you were right by visiting my website.

“Welcome to the club.”

“People get upset when we go out together.”

“I was on my way to visit his shop when I fell over his A-board.”

“Dear 2^nd home owner - enjoy your holiday, we’re enjoying ours in your London home.”

Home and Away

There were three stories for the cartoon in this week’s Westmorland Gazette. One of them was the lead - that’s always an attraction - although it was a subject I had tackled before and that’s usually a put-off. But this time it was a subject close to my heart, which I have railed against so many times, the Gazette banned me from tackling it for a while … holiday homes.

Or more precisely, the need to build new homes for locals. The two are the same. Despite what holiday home owners will tell you, the blight of second homes in the Lake District is resulting in closed schools, reduced facilities and fewer young people able to afford homes in the communities in which they grew up.

The Lake District National Park Authority has identified potential sites for 900 new homes in the area. Understandably, a lot of locals are opposed to all this building - the more so because so many houses remain empty for so much of the year.

Grr.

Anyway, I had four goes at the subject and sent them off to the editor. Esteemed editor came back and pointed out that they weren’t particularly funny, would I try again? 

Grr squared. 

I fired off a 5^th. Then a 6^th. And I’d actually got a 7^th ready but by then I was seriously pushing the deadline and it was never sent. Fortunately, one of the cartoons had already been deemed suitable. Time to move onto the final artwork.

Which you can see on my website or in the newspaper from Thursday. Meanwhile, I leave you with the preliminary sketches …