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Issues
May 23, 2013 13:03:55 GMT
Post by nat on May 23, 2013 13:03:55 GMT
How did I miss this!! Talk of barrieshutt's allotment days! Now there's something we have / had in common. Do you still run an allotment patch? And nat what about you? I still have my 2 allotments Learner. One for the chickens and one for veg, but unfortunately the whole allotment site is at risk of being built on next year. If the Council go ahead with the plans to sell we will be kicked off by spring 2014 We've got loads of local signatures on a petition, but not sure that will really account for anything when it comes to the crunch. We may not lose the whole site, and its been suggested that we must split the remaining allotments that havent been build on (probably a quarter or less of them left) and share them with people who've lost theirs. Not sure how that would work if you've got a shed at one end, greenhouse in the middle, a maturing manure heap and compost heap at the other end not to mention fruit trees/bushes plus ground you've spent time and money turning productive and then having to give half your allotment over to someone who hardly works it, :/ You know the types. Turn up for a week or 2 in late May, weedkill, put some B&Q seedlings in and don't come back for 2 months and find it all overgrown, dump a load of wood from their home shed on it and plant a 3ft sq area just to make a claim and then disappear again!
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Issues
May 23, 2013 14:33:21 GMT
Post by Learner on May 23, 2013 14:33:21 GMT
I think I'd be heart-broken if there was an intention to build on our allotments nat. I have a dreadful feeling I might even become more than simply verbally opposed! Despite being a relatively patient and very law-abiding person I think someone might even risk being thumped! Taking plots away to build upon is tantamount to theft in my opinion.
I have one and a half plots. The half was taken on by me about five years ago but the main plot has been worked by "us" for slightly more than 50 years! Aged ten I helped my dad put up his shed. At 87 he began to find keeping the plot up to scratch hard work as he was receiving treatment for cancer so I went along to help on a regular basis. My dad was desperate not to lose his plot so gradually it became "ours" - more recently my name has been on the tenancy agreement. Our site is owned by an association – my father held some of the shares at one time. The soil on the full-plot is like crumbly gold... priceless. The half-plot continues to turn up clay despite mountains of compost and continuous working. It takes time – lots - all the more reason for anyone facing the prospect of losing a well used and worked plot to despair at the thought. The house-building programmes across the nation are driven by financial gain and government targets. We have the same down here. Grade 1 agricultural land swallowed up and locals’ protests ignored only to find the homes filling with people who weren’t locals in the first place and no new amenities (schools, doctors, shops or jobs)…. just another flipping road cutting across a precious stretch of open land increasing the risk of flooding even further. Economic and environmental madness especially when there are empty and underused properties in most areas already. The world is a concreted political jungle. I hope there’s a chance the building wont go a head on your allotment site?
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Issues
May 23, 2013 15:13:07 GMT
Post by nat on May 23, 2013 15:13:07 GMT
You have put it so well Learner! What you say is so true to so many areas now. Our only saving grace might be that we are situated next to the Cambridge football ground. The land where the ground stands was bequeathed to the council many years ago and in the covenant it states that that land where the football ground stands must only be used for sporting use. The original Council plan was to move the stadium onto the allotments and build housing on the present football ground which is near the road. Mysteriously paperwork had been lost in the offices regarding this covenant on the land, and the remaining family of the person who left the land to them are untracable having emigrated to Oz. Unfortunately there are murmours that providing the allotments can be used to house a sports facility they might get away with it. Failing that they can just build housing on the allotments, but it will be interesting to see how they are going to manage that extra rush hour traffic onto an already full single lane road out of Cambridge which will then filter through onto the A14 where there are weekly deaths due to it not being built wide enough for its purpose! Surprisingly most of the signitures I have obtained are from Cambridge United Club supporters who don't want any change to the stadium or allotments. Our allotments are clay as well. My second one I took last year if you go a shovel deep is beautiful green clay if you want to be a sculptor lol! Not a worm in sight :/ Hey thats wonderful for the family allotment to still be running after so many years
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