ACOCKS GREEN BLUES

08-11-2007

A couple of days ago a shocking story cropped up on our Message Board that demanded further investigation. Ged Hughes from Acocks Green told us about a popular local wood that had been sold off without the knowledge of local residents. Here's her full disturbing story.

Last year a wooded area of over 730 square metres, on the corner of Woodcock Lane and Warwick Road in Acocks Green was sold off to the adjacent resident for £6,500.

The land formed part of the verge and grounds to the flats on Woodcock Lane and was owned by the City Council Housing Department. Some of the 20 mature trees date back to the old Acocks Green House, which stood at the end of Woodcock Lane up until the 1950s, where they formed a part of the original driveway.

This wooded habitat was also home to bluebells in the springtime.

The first any of the locals knew about this arrangement was when the new owner turned up with a chainsaw in an attempt to chop the trees down.

Fortunately the diligent residents came out and managed to protest and stop him – but they had been kept in the dark about the loss of this publicly owned land, which offered a green oasis to the community.

The residents have since campaigned to protect the trees and, in May last year, Tree Preservation Orders were placed on all the trees on the land. Unfortunately this is not the end of the battle.

In the last two weeks the present owner of this once public land has erected a 2-metre fence which now fully encloses it. This week a digger has arrived, taking down the shrubs and fence that divided the wooded area from the owner's back garden.

Campaigners against the sale of this once public space have it in writing from the Planning Office that a fence over 1 metre high, which is adjacent to a public highway, needs planning permission. The owner has none.

We are asking; how did this underhanded deal ever come about? Is the council so hard pushed for cash that it will sell off green spaces from its 'cleaner greener safer' communities to anyone who approaches them? We would like to find out.

Apparently a notice did appear in the Birmingham Post for two days in 2005 to inform the people of Birmingham about the arrangement. This does not exactly constitute a Public Consultation.

None of the residents, who had come to think of this area as theirs, knew anything about the sell off. As one resident has commented, if they had known that the council were determined to sell it, then they could have raised the money amongst themselves to preserve this piece of pleasant green space for all to enjoy, now and for future generations.

We feel that the council should put an end to this regular selling off of public assets, whereby the local area loses out and the council gains financially. Its is a terrible shame that this precious space that locals have enjoyed for 50 years is now gone from the public realm.

So much for the council's talk of 'thriving neighbourhoods' and 'community cohesion'!

This is Birmingham City Council's comment: "The disposal of land was appropriately advertised and no objections were received.

"The land was sold subject to it being used as an extension to the existing garden area only, that the mature trees on the site be retained, that boundary fencing being erected, and that planning permission for the above be first obtained.

"We understand that fencing has been commenced without planning permission which is currently being investigated."