[Diggers350] Green Party cuts

Wed May 16 10:32:58 BST 2012

WDDC in Dorchester charge £15 pa  for  half a  standard  allotment, of which you get 22 to the acre-  some £660 pa per acre.
Subsidies ? hum.......   'Reason'  is the last consideration in  dishing out agricultural subsidies .  That's perhaps why they are not
mentioned in the Budget speech or debated in H of C. .  
I am still having last year's raspberries for dessert from my allotment  and eating parsnips (a bit fibrous but very tasty grilled.) James     

To: chapter7 at tlio.org.uk; kim.icity at googlemail.com; mark at dontlosetheplot.org
CC: diggers350 at yahoogroups.com; greenwomble at googlemail.com; bethtilston at googlemail.com
From: dave.bangs at virgin.net
Date: Wed, 16 May 2012 08:13:06 +0100
Subject: Re: [Diggers350] Green Party cuts

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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