NO GAIN, MORE PAIN FOR ALLOTMENTS CAMPAIGNERS

19-11-2008

Campaigners waiting for new playing fields and allotments in Handsworth are demanding to know when the “planning gain” they were promised in return for a new housing estate will finally be delivered.

In 2004, Council planners allowed the existing Victoria Jubilee allotments to be bulldozed by the developer Charles Church and replaced by a smart new housing estate.

A clause was inserted insisting that two new football fields, a cricket pitch and pavilion should be built.  80 replacement allotments were also promised.

The Stirrer’s Birmingham Mail column revealed in January 2007 that there was a secret clause in the deal, allowing Charles Church to delay implementing the trade-off until 40 homes had been sold (Birmingham Mail link here).

More recently, Simon Baddeley of the Handsworth Allotments Information Group has come to us with concerns about the continued wait for the new facilities – especially as Google Earth maps seemed to show a building or hard surface on the new green areas.

Our enquiries to Birmingham City Council brought a soothing but inconclusive reply – and Baddeley now intends to raise the issue tonight at a Constituency meeting.

Good for him.  As Baddeley says, “Daily news about recession adds to the urgency of this matter.

“As in the 1980s, despite many improvements in recent years in Handsworth and Lozells, recession’s impact is likely to be amplified here. We are at risk.”

What’s disappointing in all this is that the Council, instead of chivvying the developer on behalf of the taxpayer, seems reactive rather than proactive about this issue.

They – and the developer – should remember that a deal is a deal.