[Diggers350] Sat24Nov - RUNNYMEDE - Land & Freedom gathering

[david bangs]

I want to add some more general contextual remarks to this debate (and 
apologies to those who've heard this stuff before).

At its start, The Land Is Ours had two main lines of campaigning...one was a 
campaign in favour of the right to roam, and the other was campaigns against 
predatory (mostly urban) property developments. It also had a lot of new 
traveller activists associated with it.

After its steep decline it was sort-of-held-together by good folk like Simon 
Fairlie, who had a strong focus on homesteading, or low impact development, 
as he, and many others, called it.

For good or for bad, this has given English land rights activity a very 
lop-sided stance over the past decade and more...

Very little priority is given in the network to wildlife and landscape 
conservation issues in their own right, despite passionate anger against the 
destruction of nature and the countryside being the main launching pad for 
the movement's earlier re-birth, via the work of folk like Marion Shoard.

Very little priority is given to working class (and that means mostly urban) 
issues, like housing, patterns of urban change and development, and so on.

The lop-sided character of the network has meant that notions that would be 
basic common sense to any balanced land movement, like a protocol that no 
semi-natural ecosystems, such as ancient woodland or archaic grasslands, 
should be homesteaded, have little resonance with some activists.

That is a depressing part of the mixed legacy of The Land Is Ours, to 
date...

Dave Bangs





----- Original Message ----- 
From: "david bangs" <dave.bangs at virgin.net>
To: <ian.stardust at ukgateway.net>; <diggers360 at lists.riseup.net>; 
<theLandIsOurs at yahoogroups.com>; <diggers at lists.riseup.net>; 
<diggers350 at yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, November 15, 2012 4:33 PM
Subject: Re: [Diggers350] Sat24Nov - RUNNYMEDE - Land & Freedom gathering


> Yes, Ian, if I expected any kind of response from yourselves it was of the 
> sort which you have given...describing the heart of the site as 
> 'wasteland'...
>
> Woodland...including ancient woodland...is not just closed canopy stands 
> of trees. It includes areas of open ground (rides, glades, meadows, pools, 
> swamps) and pioneering regrowth (of opportunist species like your Sycamore 
> and Ash and thorny and bushy species, like Hawthorn, Roses, Sallow et al).
>
> Even areas of wholly cleared ground (and I have several in mind which were 
> clear-felled for forestry and development purposes) still retain the 
> status of ancient woodland, for their soils, root systems and seed beds 
> remain intact.
>
> In one recent Sussex controversy developers argued that an area of ancient 
> woodland which had been turned into meadow at its heart was NOT ancient 
> woodland, and the planning debate turned on just the kind of argument that 
> you have just made...Luckily we won, because our experts were able to show 
> that ancient woodland is, in fact, a matrix of complementary habitats...
>
> Your coppicing is not at the heart of the matter (though you demonstrate 
> no local legitimacy beyond the concept of 'finders-keepers', and confuse 
> the benefit to yourselves of the coppicing and the benefit to nature, 
> which is a matter of judgement)...
>
> Your settlement and habitation of the site, however, IS at the heart of 
> the matter...and is in the best opportunist tradition.
>
> The Vale of the Thames is one of the most endangered natural 
> areas...endangered by many kinds of human settlement and building 
> activity...airports, gravel digging, roads, housing, industry, et al. It 
> is a dreadful mess...Its relict semi-natural habitat is under huge 
> pressure from all kinds of subtle and not-so-subtle 
> intensifications...including many recreational ones, such as wargaming, 
> shooting, horseyculture, and homesteading.
>
> Every rich so-and-so want to put a gazebo, man's house, children's house, 
> fancy tree house, party barbie area, fishing platform, gallops, exotic 
> arboretum, pheasant pen, caravan park, storage ground, etc etc etc in 
> their own bit of private woodland....and your settlement of this ancient 
> woodland is qualitatively NO different from their activities...
>
> Our countryside desperately needs to be open to all...so that we can 
> re-connect with nature...but, with a population of our size, it will only 
> retain its intrinsic qualities if it is treated with the utmost respect by 
> all its users.
>
> Your private dream is other folks painful and damaging intrusion...
>
> Dave Bangs
> PS. With reference to your notion of a 'vendetta', Ian, I can only say 
> that I make my case robustly...and you should learn that a robust 
> democratic debate is a long, long way from being a vendetta...
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Ian" <ian.stardust at ukgateway.net>
> To: "david bangs" <dave.bangs at virgin.net>; <diggers360 at lists.riseup.net>; 
> <theLandIsOurs at yahoogroups.com>; <diggers at lists.riseup.net>; 
> <diggers350 at yahoogroups.com>
> Sent: Thursday, November 15, 2012 12:52 PM
> Subject: Re: [Diggers350] Sat24Nov - RUNNYMEDE - Land & Freedom gathering
>
>
> In a attempt to put the record straight and having looked quite closely at 
> the tree distribution
> of the Runnymede site, it is very far from ancient woodland. It is a site 
> that has been cleared
> sometime about halfway through the last century. After that there has been 
> little attempt at
> woodland management. It has become very overgrown with Sycamore, the only 
> trees
> managing to compete in any numbers being Ash, which also grows very 
> quickly. Around the
> margins, there are indeed a better variety of trees including a few very 
> old ones, but the
> main part of the wood is indeed wasteland which can only benefit from the 
> coppice felling of
> some of the sycamores. We are next to National Trust land, which is being 
> managed and
> whose trees we have not touched. Having spoken with the NT rangers, they 
> have no real
> problems with what we are doing over the fence. We have invited Dave Bangs 
> to come and
> visit us and see for himself, but he hasn't. It feels like he is 
> conducting a vendetta against
> us.
>
> Ian
>
> On 13 Nov 2012 at 21:51, david bangs wrote:
>
>>
>>
>>
>> The description Simon gives of the Runnymede site as "disused land" is 
>> wholly misleading. The
>> site is, in fact, ancient woodland, a description which is used to denote 
>> woodland with a likely
>> ecological continuity back to the year 1600.
>> After a long and uphill struggle conservationists have, in recent 
>> years,succeeded in getting
>> recognition in national planning procedures for the value of ancient 
>> woodland, with a presumption
>> that it not be developed.
>> The implication, therefore, that this is an appropriate site for 'low 
>> impact', or any other settled
>> development, is disingenuous at best.
>> Indeed, Simon's use of language places him in the best tradition of 
>> predatory developers...who
>> specialise in such disimulating language.
>> NO relict semi-natural habitat, be it ancient woodland, heath, archaic 
>> grassland, wetland, or
>> wotever, should be homesteaded.
>> It's exhausting enough having to fight mainstream capitalist developers 
>> without having to fight
>> daft folk on our side who should know better...
>> Dave Bangs
>> ----- Original Message -----
>>
>> From: Simon Moore
>>
>> To: Gareth Newnham
>>
>> Sent: Tuesday, November 13, 2012 7:03 PM
>>
>> Subject: [Diggers350] Sat24Nov - RUNNYMEDE - Land & Freedom gathering
>>
>>
>>
>>     Hello,
>>
>>     You
>>     are invited to the Land & Freedom Gathering which is taking place
>>     at Runnymede Eco-Village, near Englefield Green, Surrey on Saturday 
>> 24th
>>     November. All ages are welcome.
>>     A full schedule of the days event can be seen below.
>>     For directions, transport information and a map please visit:
>>     www.diggers2012.wordpress.com/map
>>
>>     Schedule for the Land & Freedom Gathering.
>>
>>     Hot
>>     drinks will be available. Please bring food and refreshments if you
>>     can. We recommend wearing suitable footwear as it can get muddy.
>>     Its all free. We welcome donations.
>>
>>     12-4 p.m workshops.
>>
>>     -Spoon Carving & Green Wood-working. Julian.
>>     -Clay Sculpture- Stephen Vince.
>>     -Make your own waterproofing naturally- Phillipa Auton.
>>     -Introduction to Permaculture- Andy B + Matyas.
>>
>>     4-6 p.m Talks in the Geodome.
>>
>>     up to 20 minutes each + questions + discussion.
>>     -'Why land
>>     rights are civil rights': Kevin Cahill author of Who Owns Britain.
>>     -'The radical history of Egham + Diggers': Prof Justin Champion Royal 
>> Holloway Uni.
>>     -'Planning law, land and livelihoods': Mike Hannis, The Land 
>> Magazine.
>>     -'Internet livestream feed from Ghana': Mawukofi, Communities of 
>> Resistance, Ghana.
>>
>>     6.30-7.30 p.m spoken word & music jam.
>>
>>     7.45-9.00 p.m bike powered cinema
>>
>>     About Runnymede Eco-village:
>>
>>     Runnymede
>>     Eco-village is home to a group of people attempting to live in a low
>>     impact sustainable community established on Friday 15th June. It is
>>     located on the disused land of the former Brunel University Runnymede
>>     Campus which has remained vacant since being purchased by property
>>     developers 7 years ago. Since being on the land, we have built low
>>     impact structures, dug a well and set up renewable energy production
>>     systems.
>>
>>     For more info on the project, please visit:
>>     www.diggers2012.wordpress.com
>> 
>
>