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Nowhere in the discussion of garden cities (Rogers attacks ‘ridiculous’ plan for garden cities in green belt, 9 September) is there any mention of manorial rights. It has only recently been made known by the Land Registry that these feudal rights still exist, affecting 100,000 freehold properties nationwide, allowing hunting, shooting, fishing and mining for minerals over those properties. Councils that own freeholds and lease out properties to tenants are also affected by this. Nobody mentioned the existence of manorial rights when Welwyn Garden City was set up or disposed of by Margaret Thatcher, and nothing was ever mentioned during searches or conveyancing for property sales. A national campaign to abolish manorial rights, the Peasants’ Revolt, has been initiated in Welwyn Garden City. Manorial rights have already been abolished in Scotland. We wrote to Nick Clegg and Ed Miliband about this issue, but have received no replies.
Richard and Janet Woodward
Welwyn Garden City
• One of the central strategies of Ebenezer Howard’s “town-country garden city” was to spatially separate dwelling from workplace. This separation has become a widely accepted central plank of urban planning and associated governance systems, an unexpected consequence of which has been to drive home-based work underground.
With structural unemployment, a globalising economy and enabling new technologies, the home-based workforce is now growing rapidly. This popular, family-friendly working practice has the potential to benefit the city, the economy and the environment.
Many home-based workers operate covertly, fearing they are, or actually are, breaking some regulation or other. It is crucial, as we think about the housing crisis, that we do not repeat past mistakes. Today’s dwellings are often also workplaces. They, and their neighbourhoods, need to be designed and governed differently. The garden city is not the answer.
Dr Frances Holliss
London Metropolitan University
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