they going mad

residents in allotment battleNicola Dowling
2/ 9/2008

GREEN fingered residents are gearing up for a fight after builders flattened a series of allotments.

The site, off Pleasant Street in Harpurhey, had become overgrown in recent years after being subject to vandal attacks.

But following the creation of a successful and popular plot nearby, residents decided to work towards re-opening the area for members of the community keen to grow their own vegetables.

However developers who secured planning permission for flats and town houses on a neighbouring plot of land off Rochdale Road had other ideas and applied to the council for permission to take up the allotment land too.

After opposing the application and drawing up a petition of hundreds, the Baytrees Residents' Association said they were told the allotments were safe because the application to encroach on the land had been withdrawn.

But just weeks after volunteers banded together to begin clearing the overgrown shrubs and plants, members of the residents association returned from their holidays to find someone had smashed a hole through the seven foot brick wall dividing the two plots and put rubble on top of a number of the allotments.

It has since emerged the application has not been withdrawn as residents had been led to believe.

Intervention

Now after the intervention of the Manchester Evening News planning enforcement officers have been called in to see if the building company have breached planning rules.

Kay Phillips, a local GP, said she was outraged when she discovered what had happened.

She said: "The secretary of state has said that you can't get rid of an allotment unless you can prove beyond reasonable doubt there is no demand for it.

"There is a massive waiting list of people waiting for allotments in this area and we have a petition signed by hundreds of people who want to see it opened up again. They have been here since the war.

"I think the builders have done this hoping that we will not say anything, but we are not going to allow them to get away with it. It is outrageous.

"They are going to have to put it back to the way it was, clear the rubble, give us some top soil and compensation for what they have done. We will be taking them to court if they don't."

Ron Carter, of the Association of Manchester Allotments Society, added: "The local residents really do want the allotments to remain here.

"It is a national trend not just here but across the country, people want to cultivate any spare bit of land they can.

"It may not be one of the main reasons for keeping an allotment but it would be useful at the moment if you are a family living on a tight budget. It is also important for health reasons and is a great form of exercise for everyone including the elderly population. Something like this is also important because it creates a sense of community spirit."

A spokesman for the MCR Property Group said builders had put down the hardcore because they were worried the wall between the two plots of land was unstable and the wanted to use it as a base on which to erect scaffolding.

But he added it was no secret the `so-called allotments' were an overgrown `eyesore' and that in preliminary meetings with planning officers the company had been given the 'full support of the city council' on their bid to build on them.

He said that once the wall was repaired the hardcore would be removed and the land would be put back to its original state.

A spokeswoman for the council reinforced the authority's commitment to consulting residents on the future of the allotments.

 

I hope the people sort the builders out and get the allotments

 

I'm glad these people stood up to the builders.

 

This is really outrageous, is it wishful thinking on the builders. I say demand for compensation and a clearup of the mess they made. Developers have got themselves to blame for the mess they made of the housing market, it is sheer greed now they want to encroach on peoples' allotments. It is the fault of the councils also, they wait and see the mood of the residents. Now there is a big uproar the council will act in favour of the residents and plot holders.

 

'A spokesman for the MCR Property Group said builders had put down the hardcore because they were worried the wall between the two plots of land was unstable'

When I read that piece I thought what a load of bull as if anyone would be worried about a wall being unstable (unless for their own safety) they were just peed off that there was a huge out cry to 'work' the allotments it seems.

Stuff the blooming builders why should they be able to take over allotment sites just to build houses on if that was the case there would be no allotments left for anyone to 'work'.

More and more people are wanting plots to grow their own veg mainly thanks to TV programmes like River Cottage and the steep rise in the price of veg (thanks to the greedy supermarkets) and so few are lucky to get a plot these days I mean there are guys down on our site who have worked their plots for 25 years anyone try taking their plots off them and boy they will be in for a surprise!:eek:

People power is what is needed because most of the time it works although not so for our famed twin cooling towers (along the motorway at Sheffield) they got blown up last week even though there was a huge petition which thousands sign. Never mind you win some you loose some.Hel.xxx.

 

can't believe what the builders did there, the cheek :eek: