GREEN FINGERS

31-03-2007

Birmingham's camcorder councillor Martin Mullaney has been out filming again - this time giving a voice to keen gardeners desperate to preserve Billesley Lane allotments in Moseley.

The allotments which date back to the 1920's are on land ownedby thenext door Moseley Golf Club, which swallowed two thirds of the site at Christmas 2005, following a monumental local authority blunder.

Attempts by the Council to issue a Compulsory Purchase Order were rejected by a Public Enquiry in 2002 - a verdict later described as flawed by a Judicial Review.

In the meantime, the Council claimed it had legal advice to the effect that a second CPO would fail; in fact, an e-mail released in 2005 under the Freedom of Information Act showed that they had been told the opposite.

As if being misled wasn't bad enough for the allotment holders, they now have just 11 years remaining on their recently shrunken site, and now fear they could be kicked off altogether.

The plan now is to raise objections to thegolf club's plans for a practice area in the hope of winning back the lost allotments; or at least securing some kind of compromise which guarantees their future.

To watch the video click here