My friend begged me to go and stay in his holiday house in South Devon as it doesn’t get much use. I didn’t have any where to live so I took him up on the offer. It has been many years since I was in Devon and I had forgotten just how nice it is. Luckily I had a car and so could explore the villages and seaside towns. Without one, life here would be impossible.
The lanes are very narrow with passing places and sometimes steep. This makes for great reversing and hill-start practice, something I have not done in years. Luckily the car is small and so squeezing past Landrovers and tractors is easier.
I decided one day to go to see Salcolme which I had rad was the most expensive seaside town in the UK. In stead of going all the way around the bay, I drove to East Portlemouth where I could see on the map, there was a ferry. It wasn’t until I got there that I realised it was only a passenger ferry.
Luckily it is out-of-season and so I found a lay-by on the narrow lane and squeezed my little car into a space and right against the hedge. There weren’t many people waiting for the ferry which was fortunate as it was a small boat which could not take more than a dozen.
Salcolme is indeed quaint and it is pleasant to walk around the narrow streets and fish for crabs. I thought as I had come all this way, I should probably have a cup of coffee and a croissant. When the bill came I was shocked to find I had consumed £8.90 worth of food and drink.
It’s not just the food which is expensive here. The houses in this area are out of reach of anyone earning a local salary. And that’s the main problem here. How can local young people afford to live and work in their own area when rich people buy second homes here which stand empty for much of the year?
In the place where I stayed, most of the apartments were empty and all around me are young people having to move away or live with parents for the lack of a massive deposit on a tiny cottage. All across the most picturesque parts of the country, houses and flats stand empty while young people can’t find anywhere to live. Local businesses find it difficult to survive on tourist money when much of the year is off-season.
There is no easy solution to this increasing problem except to do what they do in Guernsey and Jersey which is to have two housing markets but even so, that would be almost impossible to do at this late stage.