3 April 2007
Birmingham allotment holders take action
It can be no coincidence that as soon as I decide to step down from political office, a local allotment association gets all radical - in a really good way.
This story, about Billesley Lane Allotments (just around the corner from us lot over at Warstock Lane) details how they have put in a planning application to convert a local golf course (”a large expanse of dull, pesticide-ridden, green desert grass with occasional flags and small holes”) into 1,800 allotments (for “Vegetable growing, tea drinking, relaxing, exercise, slug removal”). The application was an April Fool stunt to highlight a dispute between the golf course and the allotment association - the golf course wants to expand onto two thirds of the current plots.
This is such a great story and I love the imaginative way they are trying to raise the profile of their campaign, which will, no doubt, rage for some time yet to come. Birmingham has the largest allotment provision of any UK local authority so it would be nice if it stayed that way.
Golfers vs allotmenteers? No contest, surely?
Filed under: Plot politics — Clare @ 10:37 am
Spades vc clubs… Hmmm…
Spades everytime *thunk!*
(03.04.07 @ 10:48 am)
I think its time allotment owners voices are finally being heard, just look at how allotment owners near to where the new stadium in London have been treated, forced to give up their plots so that a path can be made from the Olympic village to the stadium… Surely the athletes are fit enough to walk AROUND the allotments?!?
(04.04.07 @ 12:58 pm)
Thanks for the support in our struggle to keep allotments on the Billesley Lane site. Now we need the Golf Club to return the land which they took from us in 2005, so that we can satisfy the ever increasing demand for allotments in our area.
(05.03.08 @ 9:02 am)