I just think this is a fabulous news item.....
A pensioner has spurned £2 million in a bid to save her beloved village from being taken over by the rich and famous.
Isobel Waterhouse inherited four cottages in East Portlemouth, Devon - and could have sold them for £500,000 each as second homes.
Instead, the 71-year-old has set up a trust to make sure that they are rented out at bargain rates to locals priced out of the pretty waterfront town, reports The Sun.
She said: "I was born here and I should hate to see this village die.
"I'm doing it because I hope that other people will enjoy the places that I have, and for young families to grow up in this magical place."
Isobel has lived her whole life in the village of just 40 homes - three-quarters of which are now in the hands of wealthy outsiders and empty for most of the year.
Pop stars Kate Bush and Damon Albarn, BBC presenters Jonathan and David Dimbleby, royal pundit Jennie Bond and comedian Rik Mayall all have holiday homes in the town.
BBC sports presenter Steve Ryder also has a home there and chat show legend Michael Parkinson is a regular visitor.
Because so few residents of the town are permanent, the local school and shop have already closed down.
Isobel, whose grandparents bought the cottages after World War One, said second-home owners were destroying the village's way of life by driving up prices.
She said: "Local people cannot afford to buy in the village so we lose our local people and we lose our young families growing up."
GOOD ON YOU !
