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Devouring Devon
Advertising on Classic FM is always interesting. There is one from Devon Council which aims to attract new businesses to the region. Its main pitch is the local environment-a scene of verdant tranquility with acres of open space. What if merely a few entrepreneurs are seduced by the advert? What would it do to Devon? Well, if we look at the M4 corridor and areas such as Swindon, we get a good preview-acres of new industrial estates, sprawling housing plots on which identikit ticky tacky boxes are being thrown up, new shops, schools and the like to cater for the incomersIn other words, Devon quickly would asume the character of the very places the new busineses and their employees are trying to avoid. Some of these enterprises will not be new, of course, but be relocating. They might be bringing their workers with them. Others might take the opportunity to dump their staff on the dole queue. Then we would get a new round of adverts where 'deindustrialised' places like Hartlepool market themselves as oases of verdant tranquilty with acres of open sapce, just the place to bring up your children.
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