But like everything else these days, it's not quite 'the end of civilisation as we know it' as hyped up by the media. And like every cloud, there is a silver lining.
Last time it happened in the early 90s we breathed a sigh of relief in Woodhall Spa.
It came after a period of huge pressure for massive developments – those of you who lived here then will remember plans for four major estates, one alone was for 900 homes!
With the help of a forward looking planning officer from ELDC we were able to create a situation where each development had to compete with the others to be the single chosen site and we were able to vote on our preferred one.
The current Witham Road estate is the result, though not directly. The original plans, which were quite different from what was actually built, were abandoned when the firm went down as the housing market slumped.
Just as well for us, though, that the pressure for such huge development stopped.
As chairman of the parish council at the time I received several phone calls from land scouts in London asking how many acres their clients could buy as they heard there were rich pickings here!
An idea of how little most of these developers knew (or cared) about the area was the issue of the stream across from Kirkby Lane to Tattershall Road – it was diverted in one of the plans – uphill – since no one had actually visited the site before drawing up plans to build across those lovely rolling fields.
We will, of course, recover from this financial crisis, as we always have.
In the meantime the demand for more homes to be built here will dry up for the time being and we can hopefully draw breath while we catch up on the many already approved and absorb the new residents that will come with them.
I'll know things are really tough when I see the children walking to St Andrews' school with their parents and everyone (me included) cycling or walking to the shops instead of taking the car.