Ecological writer Satish Kumar once wrote that ‘unless you know Nature, you cannot love her’. Likewise, if we wish to protect England’s green and pleasant land, it’s important to get to know why. People who drop fast food litter, pollute our seas with oil and hunt our precious wildlife, obviously were never taught all about why our land is so beautiful and precious.
Buckinghamshire is a small and affluent county that is also home to the new town of Milton Keynes, a town built in a very different way. Many commuters to London live here, and the county is also being destroyed thanks to the HS2 high-speed train project, removing a lot of trees and wildlife.
Oakley Village Stores is a proposed new community shop that has just raised more than expected funding, so hopefully will open soon. Designed to a new-build at the rear of the village hall, it will also offer a decked outdoor seatng and a cafe selling drinks and cake. It will likely be owned by the Parish Council and set up as a Community Benefit Society with profits reinvented and volunteers mostly running the shop. It also aims to focus on selling local quality produce.
