ALLOT OF TROUBLE IN HANDSWORTH

20-11-2008

So what has happened to the playing fields and allotments promised when a new housing estate was built in Handsworth? Simon Baddeley has an update.

As we reported yesterday, the new facilities - agreed after a long campaign to gain compensation for the loss of Victoria Jubilee allotments - still haven’t been finished, even though the estate has been now completed by the developer Charles Church (see link here).

Simon Baddeley attended last night’s ward area committee meeting for East Handsworth & Lozells and has the latest:

“It was clear that councillors and officers had been able to extract no news on the standing of the delayed S106A on the Victoria Jubilee Allotments but that they had an assurance that Alan Orr, Perry Barr Constituency Planning Officer, would report back to the committee at its next meeting on 21 January 2009.

“I was assured by Cllr Kim Brom that she would pursue this earlier, so we are waiting 10 more weeks with the hope of hearing news of progress, if any, on an agreement to lay out allotments and playing fields that was supposed to have been delivered by now – in time for the 2009 growing season.

”The positive side of this is that various sections of the city council – education, parks, allotments – are poised with revenue streams to take over the running of these promised resources as soon as the land is laid out by
the developer in line with the terms of the planning gain agreement.

“Our concerns is that there will be slips betwixt cup and lip.

“What happens if the developer Charles Church runs into serious financial difficulty or worse?”