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House prices are driving people away.
People on Island Wall, Nelson Road and the adjoining streets, will have noticed that they have a new postman.
This is because their old postman, Ritchie Harnett, has moved to Grimsby.
There’s been a lot of talk about house prices in the paper recently. Ritchie’s move is the perfect illustration of that.
He has a growing family to care for and needed more space. He simply couldn’t afford to get a bigger house in the town on his income.
His family have lived in Whitstable for generations. He was born and brought up here. He went to school here. His relatives are here. His roots are here. Everything he has ever known is in this town.
On the other hand, most of his contemporaries have long since moved away. They too, like him, couldn’t afford to live in Whitstable any longer.
It’s a five hour drive from Whitstable to Grimsby, which means it will be very difficult for his Mum and Dad to get to see their grandkids.
On the plus side: the house he has brought up there is four times the size of the one he lived in in Whitstable, with a garden five times the size. He says his new kitchen is the size of the ground floor of his old house.
Also, his new office is within walking distance of his house, unlike the Whitstable office, which is eight miles away.
He probably never would have wanted to move had the delivery office not been shifted to Canterbury.
Ritchie was very popular with his customers. I spoke to one of them who told me they trusted him implicitly. There was even a petition going around trying to persuade him to stay.
Let me assure them: their new postman is just as trustworthy and reliable, just as honest as Ritchie, and will serve them just as well.
Nevertheless it is a measure of everything that is wrong in this world that postal workers and other people doing essential jobs, such as Ritchie, can no longer afford to live in the towns where they were brought up.
There is a chronic shortage of affordable housing in the UK, something which needs to be urgently addressed.
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From The Whitstable Gazette 10/08/17
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