Topic: MEETING AT CITY HALL DISCUSSING THE FUTURE OF LINCOLN LOTTIE SITES

[angle shades]

sorry for shouting but Lincoln city council need to cut there budget by £ 6.5 million, and guess what one of the options is? just when allotments are popular and waiting lists are long, our council may sell off allotment land, :o :'( >:(

There is a meeting at City Hall in Lincoln at 6pm tomorrow 15th September,

There are quite a few Lincoln plot holders on A4A, I urge you to go along to this meeting, to make our voices heard and let it be known that if it does happen, we won't go without a fight,

hope to see you there,

angle shades xx

[manicscousers]

do N.S.A.L.G. know about it, they'd be very interested

[saddad]

Who do they think they are... "we" elect them, what are they playing at!!
 >:(

[redimp]

It is a direct result of voting in a Tory Council.  The last admin was promising more money for allotments and had consulted us all on what we wanted.  The Tories promised weekly bin collections and got in on this narrow minded issue.  One of the first things they did was scrap the allotment plans to pay for their bin plan and now it is allotments in the firing line again.  The Tories don't like allotments - they are valuable bits of land that should be developed in their opinion.  Our site is right next door to a Tesco store that wants to expand - wonder if there is a link? ::)

On the other hand, the council is thinking of pumping millions in to the derelict Race Course (former home of the Lincoln Handicap) and is examining more ways of milking money out of hard pressed residents - sounds very Brownite.  The worst bits about New Labour are the bits they learnt of the Tories to get elected!

[angle shades]

thanks for your comments,

now the tories are in power here they have zero communication with our lottie site,meetings are cancelled and we no longer have a site representative,

we found out our plots are at risk by reading the local paper on Wednesday :o

[angle shades]

very pleased I went to the meeting,loads of people off different sites went, which I think surprised the councillors at the executive meeting as they had to find more chairs and ran out of copies of the minutes :)

so we didn't have to sit through the whole meeting they brought the lottie part forward as so many people had turned up,we couldn't speak at the meeting ,but at the next one questions will be answered if we send them in ,in advance, the next meeting is 14th october.

allotment sites which are not full may be sold off I quote 'so other full sites can have money spent on them' yeah right......

If you have a plot on the south common you should be worried  british rail has invited the council to buy not just the old railway cutting, but four bridges and an area of land known as 'south common allotment site' which i believe is well used

[redimp]

I meant to go but my end of Lincoln was gridlocked because of a potential jumper off Broadgate footbridge and I didn't even get home in time as a result.  I will jet a letter off to the Echo though and rig my bender up at the lotty just in case!

[BAK]

angle shades and redclanger ...

if you have not thought about this already, all the sites really need to get organised so that you speak with one (more powerful) voice ... seek NSALG's advice as manics says ... understand your legal position  (NSALG will help) ... try not to let the council set the agenda (I know that this is easier said than done) otherwise they will almost certainly try to pick you off one by one - try to understand where they are coming from, eg are they really after particular sites ... seek publicity from local media and gardening / allotment sites (there are obviously others apart from a4a) ... pressure local MPs ... seek out and write to non-local MPs who are plot holders and ideally Conservative ... set up an e-petition if you are really threatened when you have sufficient information to ensure that people will sit up and take notice ... I'll stop for now.

Fight the the good fight.

ps kick start this again in the Allotment Movement forum, as opposed to this news forum

[angle shades]

 :) thanks for the advice BAK :)

will update in Allotment Movement forum/ shades x