How to kill off a small town

its a very small area the commune covers as its surround by many other smaller communes.

Still though point being is he owns under 10% of the houses in the main village and they are it seems many of the smaller homes.

From looking at the statistics the entire region around it is in decline, many houses for sale and very few younger families in the area as there have been very few births over the past years but lots of deaths in all the surrounding communes so unless he is to blame for that as wellā€¦

Looking for and more like he is being used as an excuse for something else and him being the centre of false attention is drawing away from the true downfall of the area.

so for me: How to kill off a small town? Answer blame someone else who clearly has put money back into the area and who is to know the real reason for him buying the houses?

We will agree to see things differently Harryā€¦ as for the chap who has bought many of the village propertiesā€¦ he will be putting money back into the area, once the Maire sends his bill inā€¦ :wink:

buying many symbolises hes bought a great percentage he has bought a few and no one knows if there is a reason for it. He has bought quite a few in a small area, maybe plans to make it into a more modern setting who knows, we certainly do not and by making our assumptions we are ourselves judging him many judging him on the fact he collects german and nazi war stuff.

Harryā€¦ it is the Maire of the Commune who is unhappy with the situationā€¦ if you read the article, you will note that when the gentleman first arrived he told the Maire he had great plans for the villageā€¦ and he began buying propertiesā€¦

Sadly, those plans have never seen the light of day. Instead he has continued to buy and most of his properties have just been left empty and/or boarded up.

yes but those great plans could be to modernise it. being forced to rent properties probably put brakes on his plans.

he might just want to buy the entire village and turn it into a colony. Who knows. would be interested to see when he bought each property and which other properties he tried to buy and is still trying to buy.

Certainly if he was a member of survive France (and could well be under a false name) he would not be happy with some of the comments such as the one saying:

No one knows why he buys it like many others who collect it but are also not naziā€™s

Actually Harry, Iā€™ve just re-read the entire Thread and I cannot see where we have said anything that would upset the Gentleman, if he were to come here and read what we are sayingā€¦

Some of us do not necessarily agree with how he has actedā€¦ as we have legitimate concerns for the future of the Villageā€¦but no-one has been aggressive.

It would be interesting to have some feedback from himā€¦ but, as far as I can gather, he has not responded to any enquiriesā€¦ :thinking:

Unlike the couple who married recently and who were the object of many vitriolic comments on this Forum,ā€¦:thinking: I can honestly say that the Gentleman in this Thread has been treated with nothing but polite and honest concern ā€¦

so the comment towards him collecting nazi stuff, need we say more is good? maybe iā€™m reading between lines but had I posted that iā€™m pretty sure id have had it edited r reported.

Bit of an odd/unhealthy obsesion though, donā€™t you think?

Veroā€™s comment can be interpreted in many ways, depending on oneā€™s own mindset ā€¦ in itself, the remark was not offensiveā€¦however, folk responding/reacting, might find themselves in muddy waters ā€¦ so letā€™s not go thereā€¦ please.

1 Like

there are many odd and unhealthy obsessions out there.

so what your saying is depending who wrote it like that you would interpret it differently? so I read it as offensive while I may find him collecting it not to my taste it does not mean that sums him up as a person which is what vero said.

Double standards

Harryā€¦

I said quite clearly that I did not consider the remark offensive. I would feel exactly the same, no matter who had written itā€¦you are quite wrong to think that I would have reacted differently to you.

Personally, I find his collecting habits seem a little odd/bizarre evenā€¦
But no-one suggested he was a Naziā€¦

Please do not read more into things than are really thereā€¦

1 Like

i know someone that collects toe nail clippings and im not just taking their ownā€¦ now that is bizarre. the bloke can afford to buy this stuff and if thats what he likes then so be it.

Harry, you havenā€™t got a clue. Itā€™s a lovely little town with two large houses and a number of smaller ones in the centre near the church. The whole of one side of the road is composed of closed up houses. The commune may contain other occupied houses but the centre is dead. How do I know? Because Iā€™ve been there. I was there with a friend who has lived not far away for all of her life and knows the localā€™s concerns. Perhaps you donā€™t live in a living rural community but these things matter. The Nazi connection is something else; unpleasant at its least extreme, dangerous at its worst. A little point worth knowing is that the commune is not far from Oradour sur Glane and any connection to the Nazi regime is not seen as trivial there, with good reason. Personally Iā€™m more interested in how he manages his Nazi obsession when he is in his German home as there it is actually an offence to display certain memorabilia from that era. When I lived in Germany we had to get high level permission for a theatre club to put on a performance of ā€˜Allo ā€˜Allo and it was particularly difficult to get permission to display Nazi flags with swastickas on the stage. Toe nails they are not.

3 Likes

yes I have got a clue. Blaming him for making it a ghost town is a joke. he owns a few house, so what, yes he should start being taxed. But the commune is clearly on the decline same as quite a few communes across France, hence why 200 plus have been given large funds to revitalise them. Looking like this is one of those communes that could do with some funds.

I am not going down the nazi memorabilia route as quite honestly its none of our dam business unless he start doing something illegal or dangerous then it becomes something the law will need to deal with.

Having just had a big property developer buy up 14 out of 16 flats and turn the 14 into a large house right by our family farm house so I know the knock on eeffects of people buying up property for diferent reasons. Yes the flats he converted used to be a big manor house but that was 40 years ago and its had a knock on effect on the local community in England.

I also watched my local village in England get bought up by weekenders, driving up the property market price to the point locals could no longer afford to buy in the area.

While i may not know the area or the people blaming one man with his few houses is just a joke. He has a plan of sorts for all we know and is just playing his cards on his chest to ensure no one else get wind of it, no one knows, you do not know his plan if he has one nor does anyone it seems.

What I do think is too many people are clearly on their soap boxes in the area over this man and it looks to me like the focus is more on his nazi collection over getting to the real cause of the deterioration of the area, not just that commune but several communes in the area with more and more deaths but no births, then again hes probably to blame for all those too.

Kevin wheatcroft ownes or used to own Donnington park race circuit. Has collected and restored lots of WW2 stuff some of which is displayed in his museum

1 Like

Go and walk a dog around the town and see what he has done to the place. As I said before you do not have a clue!

yes he has bought a total of 13 houses, 1 of which is the big house that has another house on that land the other 11 are in the town. And the other 117 houses? So out of that 117 houses a third are English, how many of them are part time holiday homes? Now there is likely your real problem. 40 ish houses, lets say 30 are used as get away homes. Shut up for but a few weeks a year.

This is a far more likely reason for the lack of community. I think some people just have jealousy towards this individual man for being super rich and being possibly eccentric and buying up all the houses, which when you look at the plan of where he has bought in clusters, says to me he plans to do something which likely wont include those house still being there, the football pitch probably put a hold on those plans but we will never, looks more like you have no clue only your wild fantasy of this one man being the downfall over all the other 40 families whose houses are locked up all year round. Plus the houses that are empty and for sale or currently sitting empty waiting for legal to sort out who owns them.

Harry either see it yourself or give up. You are wrong.

nope i do not think so.

I just see some bitter people laying the total blame on one mans door step. yes sure he is adding to the downfall but so are the 30 other holiday homes used once a year and the empty houses for sale. it total adding up to 50% or so. his 10% does not help but it is certainly not the main cause.

Better still instead of saying im wrong give me hard real facts from legal sources showing that this man is the root of all the problems because as far as i can see there is zero evidence to show he is the primary cause.

Please either come and see the situation for yourself or stop arguing your bizarre logic. Yo do not have a clue!!!