Friends of central park - PLYMOUTH

[fractionMan]

For those of you that don't know, Plymouth council are selling off large parts of central park to pay for some shitty development. The newly elected tory council promised to save it pre-election then swifty u-turned when elected. Providing further proof that all politicians are lying cheating wankers.

Anyway - day of action planning is tonight.

Dear all,

I recently sent out an email informing you that the Friends of Central
Park had set up a 'publicity group' to seek ways in which to alert the
people of Plymouth to the current stage of the Central Park Area Action
Plan (CP AAP).

There was a meeting last night at the Plymouth Civic Society where this
was further discussed along with how people might register their
disapproval of the selling off of parts of Central Park to pay for the
£44 million Life Centre. We have organised a 'Response Day' in the
Plymouth City Centre on Saturday the 9th February from 10am to 3pm. The
idea is that we will discuss the current CP AAP with other members of
the public and to invite them complete the 'response' forms. Some of
our FCP members are compiling 'easy to complete' responses so it
shouldn't be to much of a hassle for ordinary people to complete the
forms. We plan to set up 3 sites in the City Centre on the 9th -
Frankfort gate, Sundial and outside the Mall - where we can talk to
members of the public.

In order to accomplish this, we need some help on the above date.
Consequently, I would be grateful if anyone could contribute a couple of
hours on the Saturday. We will be meeting on this Friday, the 1st
February, from 8:00 pm at the Hyde Park Pub to discuss the simple
logistics of carrying off our 'Response Day' on the 9th.

The reason it is important to collect as many 'responses' as possible is
that the Planning Inspector will take the size/number of the objections
into account when he reviews the CP AAP. If there are no objections,
the CP AAP will go though and we'll lose parts of Central Park 'bit by
bit'. I, too, am annoyed that I have to give over my precious time off
work for a Saturday in the City Centre and can only direct my annoyance
at our (IMHO) incompetent local politicians.

Meanwhile, if anyone wants to pen a letter to the Herald outlining their
feelings/thoughts on the proposed CP AAP and what it will mean to you -
please do not hesitate to do so.

Could you let me know either by email or turning up on Friday night if
you can contribute a small amount of your time for Saturday the 9th
February? It would also be good to see you on Friday night to share a
pint after a long week at work.

I hope you will be able to help, however limited, in this endeavour.

FCP

http://www.friendsofcentralpark.org.uk/

 

[free spirit]

Hi Fractionman,

I've looked briefly at the friends website, and can see no mention of the park being registered as a village green.

If you want to stop this proposal in it's tracks, you really ought to be looking into applying for vilage green status for the park.

essentially village green status should be available to any land that can be shown to have been in used 'as of right' by 'a significant number of the local inhabitants' for a period of over 20 years, which I'd have thought wouldn't be too hard to prove.

Once granted village green status has been granted the land is protected for use by the local population as they have traditionally used it (something like that anyway), and cannot be built on. This isn't a 100% guarantee anymore due to recent ammendments which allow for the landowner to apply to get rid of the village green status by finding a suitable alternative site of the same size in the local area to transfer the village green status to. It's a significant hurdle to be overcome though, particularly if the council is looking to make a quick profit, and developers would be pretty wary about buying land that had village green status, and an active community campaign IMO.

Village green DEFRA guidance, guidance and support from Campaign for Planning sanity .

If you're serious about stopping this sale, then I'd suggest as a first step you write to the key players at the council, and copy it to all councillors, and issue a press release stating your intent to register the land as a village green. Even if the council sold the land, you'd have at least 2 years to complete the application for village green status even if the new owner immediately fenced the land off. Any developer will no this, and would be unlikely to buy any land with a village green application pending.

Don't let the council bully you, it's entirely possible for you to win this campaign if you play it right. It's not about you going to them begging them to save your park, it's about you standing up and demanding your rights under the law, and the law is actually on your side.

If you need some inspiration, Friends of Leazes Park in Newcastle was a small group mainly made up of elderly women, who successfully fought off Newcastle United from what had been considered to be a done deal with the council to sell off the park for the football club to build a new stadium on. NUFC are the most powerful organisation in the city, yet they were defeated by a determined group of pensioners, who went on to raise £6 million to renovate the park. this was before the village green legislation came in as well.

 

[fractionMan]

Hi Fractionman,

I've looked briefly at the friends website, and can see no mention of the park being registered as a village green.

If you want to stop this proposal in it's tracks, you really ought to be looking into applying for vilage green status for the park.

essentially village green status should be available to any land that can be shown to have been in used 'as of right' by 'a significant number of the local inhabitants' for a period of over 20 years, which I'd have thought wouldn't be too hard to prove.

Once granted village green status has been granted the land is protected for use by the local population as they have traditionally used it (something like that anyway), and cannot be built on. This isn't a 100% guarantee anymore due to recent ammendments which allow for the landowner to apply to get rid of the village green status by finding a suitable alternative site of the same size in the local area to transfer the village green status to. It's a significant hurdle to be overcome though, particularly if the council is looking to make a quick profit, and developers would be pretty wary about buying land that had village green status, and an active community campaign IMO.

Village green DEFRA guidance, guidance and support from Campaign for Planning sanity .

If you're serious about stopping this sale, then I'd suggest as a first step you write to the key players at the council, and copy it to all councillors, and issue a press release stating your intent to register the land as a village green. Even if the council sold the land, you'd have at least 2 years to complete the application for village green status even if the new owner immediately fenced the land off. Any developer will no this, and would be unlikely to buy any land with a village green application pending.

Don't let the council bully you, it's entirely possible for you to win this campaign if you play it right. It's not about you going to them begging them to save your park, it's about you standing up and demanding your rights under the law, and the law is actually on your side.

If you need some inspiration, Friends of Leazes Park in Newcastle was a small group mainly made up of elderly women, who successfully fought off Newcastle United from what had been considered to be a done deal with the council to sell off the park for the football club to build a new stadium on. NUFC are the most powerful organisation in the city, yet they were defeated by a determined group of pensioners, who went on to raise £6 million to renovate the park. this was before the village green legislation came in as well.

Thanks for that freespirit. I think they've already looked into the village green thing but I'll pass the info on to someone more actively involved than I am.

 

[free spirit]

Thanks for that freespirit. I think they've already looked into the village green thing but I'll pass the info on to someone more actively involved than I am.

nice one, worth pointing out that there's provision within the law for a neighbouring council to be asked to take the decision. it's usually the council in the area the park's in, but in this case they'd have to declare an interest and pass it on I think.

if you do go down that route, you'll need to get evidence that the park's been used 'as of right' by a significant number of local people for at least 20 years, so you need to start gathering up as much evidence of this as possible. This day of action thing would be a good time to start doing a survey of people in the park to get the evidence - you need to both show it's been used as of right, and that it's used by a significant number of local people, so word the survey accordingly.

Another way to do this would be to go door to door in the local area doing a survey, plus collecting names on a petition, and distributing 'save our park' style posters and asking everyone to display them.