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What a lovely place @DartingtonTrust is. I wrote extensively about it in my book Ring The Hill & I don't think anyone who's read that could doubt how much love I have for its history, its ambience, its landscape, architecture & (former) ideals. BUT...
... what has been happening there recently is an example of an organisation comprehensively shitting on its heritage. More & more land has been sold off for development. A few weeks ago Dartington chose to close its beloved book shop in nearby Totnes & make its staff redundant...
... here they are, in an independent shop that local people loved, which always went out of its way to support local authors. All out of jobs now, as Dartington decides to open a "box office" in its place. https://twitter.com/totnesbookshop/status/1316093327536726023?s=20
.... For more background here's something @robintransition wrote earlier in the year about what is happening there. https://twitter.com/robintransition/status/1231148187102121986?s=20
... When Dorothy & Leonard Elmhirst took over the estate in the 1920s they created a HUGE amount of jobs in what was then a poor and deprived area. Everything they did was about supporting local culture and creating a unique community atmosphere and freedom...
... Now, it's run by a CEO who doesn't even live in the same postcode. Does he live in nearby Ashburton, perhaps? Maybe a bit further away in Exeter, but still kind of in touch? No. He lives precisely 199 miles away, in f***ing Brighton.
... Dartington still has something wonderful, in the @GreenTableCafe, staffed by passionate imaginative people, but look what it's doing to its other independent businesses (the kind of places many of us in the area have loved for years), look how much it cares about them...
... I've been wanting to say this for a long time, and biting my tongue, especially after being majorly bullshitted my a member of staff there recently, but I'm fed up of seeing so many people upset by what's happening & a beautiful area ripped apart by uncaring developers...
... they obviously don't want me to say this, as this reply (now deleted) demonstrates. I would also question their methods of being "self-sustaining"....
... Just as an example: in August I parked at Dartington & went for a walk with relatives. I paid for my parking, but was back later than I thought - not much later, but later - due to the walk being slower because of a family member who was struggling with health problems...
... I didn't receive a parking fine, nothing at the time, and would have been quite willing to pay it if I did. Four months later I have received a threatening letter from a team of solicitors working for Dartington, asking me for this much money due to my contravention....
...A couple of friends got one too recently (for the heinous crime of nipping out of the car for ten minutes to buy not inexpensive pastries and coffees). So in this case the attempt to be a self-sustaining charity involves this, closing small passionate businesses, selling land,
, plus offering "lifestyle courses" for rich city people who want to pretend they like the countryside for a while. Many town councils have suspended parking fees during the pandemic. But this benevolent organisation instead employs a company called Total Parking Solutions...
... to get as much money from everyone who parks on the estate as possible.
One thing you can guarantee, in my experience, of any company that has the word 'Solutions' in their name: it means they're fucking c***s.
