Topic: Support a fight against building on allotments?

[artichoke]

http://www.gofundme.com/3ig1fo

Came across this while looking up A4A, and it seems well worth supporting. If it is true that commandeering allotments as building land has never been seriously challenged in court, this looks as if someone is determined enough to actually do that. She needs funds for a Judicial Review and asks allotment owners across the country to donate £10 via a manageable giving site, which I have done.

It is still infuriating that Manor Garden Allotments, for example, were destroyed to make an Olympic Park walkway, instead of being enclosed and celebrated by the "green" Olympics as an example of best practice. The allotment holders were moved to a marshy site impossible to grow plants on, and the promises to return them to the same site after the Olympics were broken. That was never going to be winnable, but maybe this one is? It could form case law for future land grabs, and make the rest of us a little more secure on our own plots. (Mine is on permanent 12 months notice of eviction, for example).

[Flighty]

Artichoke good for you, I've already done likewise and support them on Facebook and Twitter.

Sadly, and rather surprisingly, there seemed to be little interest here when I posted this back in January -
http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/smf/index.php/topic,74741.msg763921.html#msg763921

[artichoke]

Well, that's a shame. She seems like a very determined fighter. Maybe back in January she had not consulted lawyers and got on top of the problem? But now she looks well informed and worth supporting.

I have stuck my neck out in the past and got it chopped off, so I especially respect her (in my case illustrators being exploited, I got us together, negotiated better pay and conditions and acknowledgement of copyright fees across international botanical gardens from Kew to USA to China and Brazil, but actually lost my commissions through being too annoying. Get lots of reprint fees now, though! Would not have happened without the negotiations, and the botanical gardens being dragged into the 20th and 21st century as regards copyright law).

A digression, but I really hope this woman has the energy to keep challenging her local council, and set up a precedent for the rest of us.

[Flighty]

Back then she was just a determined plotholder fighting the local council. Since then it was referred to the Minister to decide, who not surprisingly backed the council.
Fighting the council and government, who have all the advantages,  like this is simply beyond many people as it needs time, money, legal expertise and so on. 
I applaud what she has achieved so far but sadly I believe that it will be a miracle if she wins against this government who even when they seem to lose just change the rules. 

[artichoke]

Oh, go on, chance a tenner just in case; and she has promised that if the Judicial Review never happens or fails, your tenner will be either returned to you or given to a hospice charity.

IF she fights through to protecting our plots, I am very grateful.

[Flighty]

Artichoke I hope that your comment isn't addressed to me as I've said I've already donated, more than a tenner.
There are well over 250,000 allotment holders in the UK so even if only 10% made a small donation if would be a different story.  However considering that relatively few probably even bothered to sign her petition it's little wonder that the government does what it does with impunity. 

[daveyboi]

Whilst I support this cause I do see that a replacement site is being provided and I would of thought that the funds would of been better spent on improving the new site and getting the best facilities for the future.

[shirlton]

In my experience its very rare that you will get the better of the Council. They have it all sewn up