Bleak future for schools
No signs of any falling off in demand for second homes in the more scenic parts of the region, but how much more damage are we going to allow to be caused by the insidious conversion of rural settlements into ghost villages?
There is already strong evidence to show that communities with the largest proportion of second homes are those most likely to lose their village shops (the week-enders bringing everything with them).
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But there's now a worrying impact on the education system. Numbers at our local middle school are dropping worryingly, each unfilled place removing thousands from the budget, as young marrieds are forced out of the area.
There are now no children enrolled from one nearby village for the first time in the school's existence. Meanwhile in Exford, in the heart of second-home country in Exmoor National Park, there are scheduled to be just 12 children attending the village primary from September. Any further decline will only bring the prospect of yet another "Old School House" being added to the many in the area.
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