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Letter: The cost of progress

The local planners must be commendably soft-hearted and equally trusting.

The local planners must be commendably soft-hearted and equally trusting.

They put lines in the main road so that there was a kind of free side-walk and a haven for cyclists. Then, they believed the developers who told them that building sleeping units  by the seaside would not reduce access for fishermen; or that, in the unlikely event that it were to do so, the developers would make fresh moorings and adequate trailer space available.

It would not be necessary to make moorings and space before building and selling; after would do, because our developers, unlike the general run of developers seen fooling lesser men, inspired trust. While we await, serene and confident, the new moorings and trailer space, the vehicles and trailers belonging to salmon fishermen who have been coming here for decades, obscure our sight lines and force pedestrians off what used to be the sidewalk and into the crowded high-season roadway.

We are grateful to the planners who protected our best interests as they selflessly and without hope of personal gain opened the door to progress.

Progress is delightful, worth any price.

Peter Hays

Sooke