[Diggers350] Nottingham: City council moot allotment rent bombshell

[Mark Barrett]

Hi Marki!

Thanks for this. It's also being reported today in mainstream press a whole
list of examples of local councils putting charges up on everything they can
including allotment tenancies- see eg front page of Sunday Times. Another
opportuniity to unite at the local leve  and let's nopt let any Labour
councilors pull the wool over our eyes about where their eventual allegiance
will lie..

See for example piece in SW :
http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=23498

Calling for a call from libertarian local anti-cutrs groups for militant
people's assemblies at, and in local town halls on budget days let's put the
heat on those so-called working class labout party councillors (and the rest
of 'em!)

In solidarity

Mark
PS while I'm at it, tangentially, an interesting summary from CPGB of where
the SWP, including critique of Right to Work at the local level, might be at
these days: http://cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1004216
"The centrality of the SWP’s ‘recruit at all costs’ strategy is directly
reflected in the way it attempts to mobilise against the cuts. Not least
through Right to Work, which the SWP “helped to initiate” in 2009. Wherever
workers organise locally against the cuts, RTW must be there, the CC urges.
“Of course, we should push for RTW speakers at all anti-cuts activities, and
for affiliation to RTW of anti-cuts groups, but this isn’t enough - we have
to build a separate RTW presence locally” (my emphasis). Why? The reason is
not stated, but the answer is clear enough. Because RTW is controlled by the
SWP and is viewed as a recruiting conduit." Let's see RTW proved us wrong !

On 8 January 2011 12:02, MarkiB <mark at tlio.org.uk> wrote:

>
>
> City council rent bombshell for allotment holders
>
> Published: January 08, 2011 by Radfordian
> Ref: http://nottingham.indymedia.org.uk/articles/854
>
> Nottingham City Council is holding a consultation of changes to allotment
> tenancies, rent levels and plot allocation. They claim that the review
> "aims to encourage more people to get involved with growing food in
> Nottingham." In fact, the changes would involve the trebling of rents for
> allotments in Nottingham.
>
> A skim read of the proposed changes to tenancy agreements does not reveal
> anything too controversial. In fact, a lot of the proposals are good ones
> (in principle) because they aim to deter the passing on of allotments to
> friends when there are people on the waiting list for new ones.
>
> However, it is my view that these are not the core aims of the review. By
> far the biggest change to the current system is the proposed changes to
> rents for plots. The current figures, listed in a table in the consultation
> are: Ground rent - 7p/sqm, water charge - 6p/sqm (it doesn't say what the
> units are). However, they are proposing a gradual increase in grount rent
> so that, by 2016 it will be 20p/sqm for ground rent and 15p/sqm for water.
> This is a 180% increase for ground rent and 150% increase for water. These
> figures are well beyond the rate of inflation and will make allotment
> holding and growing your own food a much more costly activity.
>
> Given the massive cut to their budget, it's not surprising that NCC are
> looking for ways to make money, especially as they claim to be trying to
> provide enough allotments for the increasing numbers of residents who want
> one. However, passing that cost on to existing allotment holders seems
> extremely unfair. Allotment holders, after all, are usually the people who
> can't afford houses with gardens and grow their own food to supply their
> food needs.
>
> All allotment holders are being sent a consultation pack which they can
> use to object to the proposed changes. Given NCC's past record on
> consultations (ignoring the results they don't want, rigging them so they
> get the results they do) I don't imagine we'll get much positive
> interaction through bureaucratic routes. However, I'm sure there are more
> creative ways we could protest this unequitable move.
>
> 
>



-- 
"I am going to ask you something. Why are you being educated? Do you
understand my question? Your parents send you to school. You attend classes,
you learn mathematics, you learn geography, you learn history. Why? Have you
ever asked why you want to be educated, what is the point of being educated?
What is the point of your passing examinations and getting degrees? Is it to
get married, get a job and settle down in life as millions and millions of
people do? Is that what you are going to do, is that the meaning of
education? Do you understand what I am talking about? This is really a very
serious question. The whole world is questioning the basis of education. We
see what education has been used for. Human beings throughout the world -
whether in Russia or in China or in America or in Europe or in this country
- are being educated to conform, to fit into society and into their culture,
to fit into the stream of social and economic activity, to be sucked into
that vast stream that has been flowing for thousands of years. Is that
education, or is education something entirely different? Can education see
to it that the human mind is not drawn into that vast stream and so
destroyed; see that the mind is never sucked into that stream; so that, with
such a mind, you can be an entirely different human being with a different
quality to life? Are you going to be educated that way? Or are you going to
allow your parents, society, to dictate to you so that you become pad of the
stream of society? Real education means that a human mind, your mind, not
only is capable of being excellent in mathematics, geography and history,
but also can never, under any circumstances, be drawn into the stream of
society. Because that stream which we call living, is very corrupt, is
immoral, is violent, is greedy. That stream is our culture. So, the question
is how to bring about the right kind of education so that the mind can
withstand all temptations, all influences, the bestiality of this
civilization and this culture. We have come to a point in history where we
have to create a new culture, a totally different kind of existence, not
based on consumerism and industrialization."
J. Krishnamurti

http://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_525001&v=eX4toR2cogA&feature=iv#t=2m6s


"We hear men speaking for us of new laws strong and sweet /Yet is there no
man speaketh as we speak in the street.”
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