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BLAST DELIVERED 454 SIGNATURES TO WARWICK DISTRICT COUNCIL |
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On Wednesday 4th March 2009 in Leamington Town Hall BLAST presented the Welly Walk Petition to the full Warwick District Council Meeting.
We were given three minutes to present the petition and here is part of what was said: "We therefore urge Warwick District Council to stick to its policy of protecting the Green Belt, as set out in the local plan, and say No to developing or building on Leamington Allotments or Green Belt. Councillors, please remember these allotments have been around since the First World War, regularly dug and planted for nearly a hundred years. During this time these plots have received loads of love and attention with the soil being continuously worked and enriched to a fine tilth that can produce the finest crops. A large road through our allotments ends its growing life/and kills it dead/for future generations/forever. The road would drive through to the Green Belt – land that has grown food and been farmed since Saxon times. Land that could not be destroyed by the Danes, the Normans, Oliver Cromwell, not even by Adolf Hitler but this land could be destroyed by developers and their bulldozers building on it. This Petition has been signed by nearly 500 supporters whose signatures were collected on the Welly Walk in November, around the allotments or on line through our website and is in addition to over 800 signatures presented to the Town Council after the Wheelbarrow Walk last summer." After the presentation the Leader of the Council, Councillor Michael Doody proposed that as this was such a serious issue it should be taken up with the Executive for detailed discussion, Bill Gifford, Leader of the Liberals, accepted this although we had hoped that a vote and decision would have been made at this meeting. However at the end of the meeting many of the Councillors congratulated us on our campaign and promised their continued support in the future and we thank them on behalf of all our members, their families and our supporters. We are now preparing a document for presentation to the Executive for their meeting at the end of March when we hope they will follow Royal Leamington Spa Town Council and oppose any development on Leamington Allotments or Green Belt in North Leamington. A big 454 thank yous to everybody who supported and signed this latest petition. We will continue the fight and will call on your support again. |
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BLAST CHANCE TO SIGN THE PETITION |
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Sign now we are presenting the results in early March - more than 400 so far have signed either on or off line WE NEED YOUR SIGNATURES TO BLAST OUR VIEWS TO WDC! |
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WMRSS GETS A BLAST IN WOLVERHAMPTON |
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WMRSS GETS A BLAST IN WOLVERHAMPTON Geoff Southgate and Gillian McGivern on behalf of BLAST went to Wolverhampton on 27th January 2009, to attend the West Midlands Regional Spatial Strategy Phase 2 Review Preliminary Meeting, and you will gather from that title that we found it a very hard going atmosphere, full of very self important government types, smarmy developers and far too much government speak! Geoff and Gillian certainly didn't feel that the ordinary man in the street was represented by that lot but we must remain, as we say, positive! The key thing we got out of this meeting, was that any submission we make must be examined by the 'independent panel' whose findings will be given in report form to 'the Minister'. We were led to believe from other small independent pressure groups that if there is no mention in the report of our submission (regarding allotment protection, provision and green belt in North Leamington) which was sent in last autumn during the submission process, subsequently WDC can say they are NOT obliged to do anything because we 'are not mentioned in the report'. We will endeavour yet again to make sure that our submissions are noted AND examined, to which end Geoff has emailed the Panel Secretary who has replied that our email has been submitted to the Panel Chairman - see link to meeting minutes below. Geoff did put a question to the Chairman, Alan Richardson, who was a very pleasant man. explaining that although he couldn't speak their planning language in simple terms he wanted to request that allotment provision and protection etc need to be included in the 'matters to be examined’ as outlined in our submission, particularly as the national waiting list for allotments is said to be 100,000. He thanked Geoff and noted his question so it should be in the Minutes. The Chairman then asked the Director of Policy for the WMRA, Mark Middleton, for any comment on Geoff’s question to which Mr Middleton replied with an emphatic 'NO' - which we felt summed up the WMRA’s attitude to allotments and why allotments are not mentioned in their report. This comment from Mr Middleton will be recollected and repeated many times over the next few months by BLAST. We got the impression that Mark Middleton and Ian Smith (Govenment Office for the WM) had already made up their minds, in fact the Chairman specifically asked ‘are the Government's points, made in other areas discussed, a directive' to which they replied 'no it was for consideration' (big yawn all round). There was one person there from 'Warwickshire' - Andy Cowan, who we believe is a Senior Officer at Warwickshire County Council. He made the point that when they come to examine Coventry, Warwickshire and Middle Quinton that these should be separate sessions because Warwickshire will be receiving extra attention! Phase 3 of this revision is planned for 2010 when it could all change - that is the Regional Assembly -according to the Chairman and he said that in regard to my question that it may be more relevant to Phase 3. This could mean that no decisions will be made for years to come - perhaps we'll be too old to dig by the time a decision is made but we will still campaign for the next generation. There will be a series of Examination Days during March – June and we will attempt to attend those relevant to BLAST and our supporters. Please contact us if you can offer any pertinent information or advice for these future meetings. The link for the Minutes of this meeting can be viewed on the following link: http://www.planning-inspectorate.gov.uk/pins/rss/west_midlands_phase_two/documents/WMRSS_Minutes_First_Prelim_Meeting_27_Jan.pdf |
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BLAST ATTEND MEETING ON FUTURE PLANNING |
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BLAST ATTEND MEETING ON FUTURE PLANNING BLAST attended a Leamington Town Council meeting on Tuesday, 13th January discussing the Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) for which we were asked to give our comments and questions. For those of you who haven't yet read the SPD (which is available from www.warwickdc.gov.uk ) it basically covers future planning in the district for home building, the criteria being for every 10 - 100 houses planned green space and allotments would be provided and if space not available a cash sum would be given to the council by the developers. Bill Gifford, leader of the Town Council, welcomed our comments and strongly supported us during our discussions. The areas agreed were: 1. A map would be produced of the district featuring all green spaces and allotments 2. The council would be prepared to work with allotment societies to form committees to plan and run future new allotment space 3. Any monies given to the council in lieu of space would be spent on buying future allotment space 4. We said we were very happy as allotment people to take new allotments 'under our wing' and help them get started None of this weakens our continual fight to keep, protect and maintain our existing allotments or allow the council off the hook on allotment provision for our existing waiting lists. An interesting figure to bear in mind if you remember one allotment should support 4 people with fresh fruit and veg, we have 27 societies in the district and that roughly works out at 10,000 people being fed from allotments so we are collectively very important and the councillors all recognise this. |
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NEW VEGETABLE SEED COMPANY |
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who are a new company specializing in genuine, first generation vegetable seeds from across Europe including Italy, France & Spain. |
We had a wildlife survey from Gillian McGivern on New Milverton and below are her thoughts on why allotments are so important: 'The thought behind the biodiversity survey was what do we have on the allotments which is of value and will be gone forever if they are bulldozed (hence I added the mature cultivated trees in with the wildlife). My other thought is that from talking to people on our allotments, cultivating an allotment means much more to people than just growing veg, although this in itself is very important. Some of these aspects are fitness (cheaper than joining a gym and far more productive, and our older members seem to be a lot more active than people of a comparable age who don't have allotments), nurturing and observing wildlife, a sense of peace and probably escape for those of us who spend our working lives stuck behind a desk, a sense of achievement and self-sufficiency- eating what you have produced, a sense of community - sharing produce, plants and techniques. These are just some random thoughts and I am sure there are many more diverse views out there, but I thought it could be useful supporting evidence to collect from allotment members - ie. if the allotments go, all this goes as well and will have a real adverse impact on peoples' lives.' Gillian McGivern We've sent the survey to all Binswood members and New Milverton have sent to all their members but if you would like a copy please email us at:
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
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WELLY WALKERS GIVE PLANNERS THE BOOT |
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Setting off: Janet Alty, Chris White and Geoff Southgate On Sunday 23rd November the Welly Walkers turned out in force, almost 100, to show planners and developers that they will not tolerate building on North Leamington Green Belt or Leamington Allotments. Six allotment societies were walking alongside their fellow supporters for the preservation of the Green Belt. 
Geoff Southgate of B.L.A.S.T. rousing supporters Despite snow overnight and driving rain in the morning they still turned out in their wellies to drive the message home and the sun came out on the various speakers who gave their unanimous support. Janet Alty of the Green Party quoted from a report of the Environment Audit Committee ‘In light of the latest economic projections, fundamental changes in the mortgage market, and falling house prices, the Government should urgently review the assumptions on which its 3 million new homes target is based. …..The Government should ensure that, in the current market downturn, an excess of land is not made available to developers, something which is already leading to Greenfield sites being developed in preference to brownfield site.’ 
Alan Beddow leads the Welly Walk through Binswood Alan Beddow, Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Spokesperson for Warwick & Leamington, said ‘If we are to maintain the character of our towns as great places to live development should not be at the expense of the facilities and countryside that allow our towns to breathe and communities to thrive. Our towns are like our plots that we tend and nurture’. 
First wave of Welly Walkers approaching Old Milverton Bob Crowther, Warwick District Councillor (Labour), reminded us that there are people who are desperate for housing but we should be ‘heartened about the future of allotments’ and ‘be open and charitable to people needing housing and be discriminating about Green Belt’ 
2nd wave of Welly Walkers trying to catch up Bill Gifford Warwick District & Royal Leamington Town Councillor (Liberal Democrat) said ‘It is clear today from this walk that people in Leamington do not want to see the allotments and the Green Belt to the north of Leamington built on. That is the message the government needs to hear and it is the message that Warwick District Council needs to listen to when they decide where new housing should go. What we need are more allotments in Leamington. What we also need are decent affordable homes. What we need is the green belt to the north of Leamington’. 
Janet Alty speaking with Bill Gifford, Chris White & Bob Crowther Chris White, Conservative Parliamentary candidate Warwick & Leamington, said ‘We all know there is a demand for more housing – but this must not be at the expense of those things, like our allotments, that make our community so strong. The allotments are a place where people come together to grow good, healthy food for themselves, their friends and their families – and we must do all we can to protect them’. The Welly Walk was organised by B.L.A.S.T. (Bringing Leamington Allotments Societies Together) with the sole intention of persuading Warwick District Council to follow Leamington Town Council’s lead and unanimously exclude any planning options that incorporate Leamington Allotments or Green Belt in North Leamington. Geoff Southgate (B.L.A.S.T. committee member) says ‘This green belt land has been growing land since Saxon times – that’s over a thousand years of producing crops and food. Our allotments were created at the end of the First World War for the returning heroes and have been worked continuously for 90 years. If this land is covered in tarmac and houses it will grow no more. At a time when the world’s resources are being put under severe pressure the need for self-sufficiency will grow and grow. Please sign our online petition www.leamingtonallotments.co.uk |
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