[Diggers350] Green Party cuts

[david bangs]

Allotments are a service to the poor. They are not private landlord's commercial lettings. 

I don't like your use of the term 'pen-pushers', Simon. A worker at a desk is no less a worker than a worker with a scythe !!

The Brighton allotments service has been managed in a threadbare way for years by single harassed administrators squeezed between their empathy with allotmentees and their control function for an under-budgetted council service.

I don't remember the latest on rents after the council's partial climb-down. Someone else can answer that, perhaps,

Dave Bangs

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Simon Fairlie 
  To: david bangs 
  Cc: diggers ; greenwomble ; Beth Tilston 
  Sent: Tuesday, May 15, 2012 11:36 PM
  Subject: Re: [Diggers350] Green Party cuts


  Why do allotments need subsidy? They are agricultural land and the rental value of agricultural land (fenced and with water) is normally about £100 per acre. What are Brighton charging per acre? Are they charging for hope-value? Or is the "subsidy" to keep pen-pushers in a job?

  Simon 


  On 15 May 2012, at 11:18, david bangs wrote:





    Green Womble,

    You are quite right about the Brighton Greens and their attempt at an allotment charge hike...but that is the least of the damage they are doing...with a cuts budget that hurts folk who are already hurting very badly from the recession and looking for a fighting alternative leadership...and the Greens promise us worse cuts in the next few years.

    You'll have to look for solutions to the left of the Green Party if you want a solid response to the attack on the poor...to folk like George Barratt, the Barking Labour councillor expelled from the party for opposing the Labour Council cuts budget, and now leading the local fightback against the cuts...

    Dave Bangs 


      ----- Original Message -----
      From: greenwomble
      To: diggers350 at yahoogroups.com
      Sent: Friday, May 11, 2012 12:44 PM
      Subject: [Diggers350] first take their land then charge them rent,then make them jealous of ea other.


      That's mostly what all the posts on here that people post here are about.

      the little and seemingly big squabbles in bubbles happening within
      the rent system.

      hardly anyone gets to the crux.

      which is:

      take their land/life away from the people, then make them exceedingly
      grateful to the new owners who make them pay rent for its use.

      Rent = tax, protection money, interest debt, and what we call rent. (a
      note that describes interest debt as rent: a sum is loaned, a rent
      called interest is paid for a time period, at the end of which the sum
      which is 'rented' is paid back)

      Were we all really born to pay for our lives!

      Winstanley and all the recent historical natives didn't think we were.

      Don't forget we all were natives once.

      We have b earth right.

      money, at any level excludes.

      here is my reason for posting. on the rent prices of allotments:

      www theargus.co.uk/archive/2012/02/20/Letters+to+the+Editor+(argus_letters)/9539240.Raising_allotment_rents_is_one_hot_potato_for_a_Green_council/

      Raising allotment rents is
      one hot potato for a Green
      council
      I HAVE been a Green voter in
      Brighton all my adult life, and
      have put posters in my
      window and actively supported
      the Greens for more than 20
      years.
      The Green Party is the party
      of sustainability, of low carbon
      footprints, low food miles and
      locally-grown food. These
      make up the Green manifesto,
      along with a commitment to
      encourage allotments. This is
      why I voted for Green
      councillors.
      So why is Brighton and Hove
      City Council , run by the
      Greens, about to cut the
      council subsidy for allotments,
      resulting in a 65% rent rise?
      You now have to grow £110
      worth of vegetables to break
      even. Surely allotment
      growing underlines the basic
      principles of the Green
      movement? Surely this should
      be one of the things the
      Greens should be
      encouraging?
      The more people encouraged
      to grow food locally, the
      better for us as individuals
      and the planet. Every potato I
      eat from my allotment is a
      potato not flown in from Egypt
      by big supermarkets. This
      should be encouraged. In fact,
      the council subsidy should,
      according to Green principles,
      be increased.
      In my opinion, allotments
      should be heavily subsidised
      or even free. How else are we
      going to get people to start
      growing food locally? If we
      want to feed ourselves in a
      sustainable, low-carbon way,
      and to encourage
      responsibility for food
      production, promoting
      allotments is the obvious way
      to go. Instead the council is
      cutting help for allotments.
      I am flabbergasted, shocked
      and disillusioned. When...................continues





      

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