My colleague said they’re building flats on the park next door to her in Harrow!’ a friend announced the other week. Hold on, I thought, this is supposed to be stopped! The government said they have stopped local councils from doing this…. But it turns out to be easier said than done! I had been suspicious about building on parks for a long time, but had read that the brakes had been put on … Councils are strapped for cash for one reason or another (and we may not agree with what they spend our council tax on either) and so are not able to maintain parks properly. It must seem appealing to sell off the land for housing – one less park to maintain plus the new residents will be paying council tax, parking charges and so on…
I’ve long been worried about two large swathes of green land near where I live for a good while – one is used for rugby and cricket in the summer, the other for picnics and walking. I dare say Brent council have their eye on them. They’ve already nabbed some land further down for a development of houses and a school – craftily getting all the costs and planning permission sorted out before we were even supposed to know about it – relying on most people to be too busy to notice the announcement on the website when the builders are ready to start work….
When I was a child not only did we play freely and safely in the street, but we took ourselves to the local park without our parents – we told them of course, but we ran around and made the most of it. It was always full of boys playing football, people sunbathing, dog walking, relaxing and so on. Our only fear was that of maybe a bigger kid nicking our ball perhaps. But parks were part of our lives and taken for granted. They were everywhere, and all had park keepers. They were also extremely well maintained, with beautiful trees, flower beds, bushes and huge greens in the middle. I’m not saying there aren’t any parks now, but they are diminishing rapidly, by some accounts at the rate of one per day in the UK. And with more and more people and housing developments, surely we need more parks not less? How long before it becomes compulsory for all spare land to be handed over for building? An exaggeration maybe, but it does feel like we are being squeezed into smaller and smaller spaces…
On top of that children’s playgrounds are also being shut down at a rate of knots due to ‘budget constraints’… hmm now I wonder what on earth they could do with that land once it’s shut? At least 600 have shut since 2014 – probably a lot more as councils don’t always reveal their figures straight away. In fact take a look around you, or have a think, and it doesn’t take long to realise that any green or unbuilt-on land is fair game for taking and selling or developing. Once upon a time it didn’t matter how poor you were, you could still go to the park and enjoy it, but soon if you cannot afford a garden that possibility will be gone.
I even worry about beautiful expanses of green like Hampstead Heath or Hyde Park. I find it hard to believe that someone somewhere isn’t plotting how to start building on those as well… The parks and playgrounds are being shut without our permission or knowledge, so its almost like a practice run for moving onto the really big grabs of land.
Councils say they cannot afford to maintain parks, so they are left unkempt, grass uncut, trees and bushes unpruned, rubbish everywhere, fences unfixed, staff numbers reduced and generally in a bad state. This is apparently due to ‘austerity’ – or maybe just not giving priority to the things ordinary hard working people need to have for any quality of life. Huge sums of national lottery money has been given for the upkeep of parks but still that is not enough… And now parks are becoming places for crime – muggings, knife crimes, drug taking, none of it seems shocking any more unless we look back to how parks were years ago. Not all parks are badly kept of course, and not all have high rates of crime, but they are not as safe as they once were because the streets themselves are not…. and the councils say people are using them less but this is not my experience – where I live the parks are often busy at the weekends. And are very much needed.
With the obesity epidemic, children obsessed with sitting staring at ‘screens’, heart and lung disease increasing due to pollution, and the mass building going on, surely we need our parks and large green spaces more than ever…
As with many things, if we don’t stand and up and be counted soon, the grab of our open space will continue until the only view we have is of concrete and more concrete, whether we look up, down, sideways or across. No wonder our wildlife is disappearing too… the eviction of much of that began decades ago.
So what’s next you may ask – building on our national parks too? Well, funnily enough, just the other day a government advisor suggested just that….
Janet your article strikes a chord with me. I have been furious at the way the Britain has been destroying its’ wonderful green countryside, it’s wildlife and it’s rural culture through large scale migration since I was ten years old. And that was a long time ago. It beats me how very few people seem to understand that destruction of the countryside and cramming more and more people into an already overpopulated Island is of any benefit to anyone in the long term.
More people equals less space, more destroyed farmland equals more dependency on imported food and more open to international blackmail. More cities means more pollution, and more alienation.
I used to believe that there was someone in charge that would never let it get out of hand. I think a lot of people still do. The truth is that there isn’t. If you question advocates of unlimited population growth they will always say that we haven’t reached our limit yet. Then ask the what the limit is and they won’t give a straight answer. You see there is no limit and never will be,This is where Ukip can be different from liblabcon (and bonkers Greens) and promote the saving of rural Britain. I bet it would be a vote winner. Especially if Ukip spokesmen stopped apologising for being anti Immigration and stop saying “oh we’re for immigration too, but…” That’s not good enough!
Say it loud and say it clear, “mass immigration’s not welcome here!”
A few months ago now, I moved to Billesley in south Birmingham, and the one thing I love about the surrounding area is the number of open green spaces. At a recent ward meeting organised by our two local councillors, this was one subject that was agreed by all who attended.
At the same meeting our attention was drawn to a local petition that had taken place, as plans had been submitted to the council to build a new high school and sixth form college in nearby Yardley Wood. As I don’t expect anyone to be familiar with this area, here’s a link to Google Maps: https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.4136756,-1.8630299,1182m/data=!3m1!1e3
The site of this new school is to be the open grassland/playing fields off Ravenshill Road, next to Christ Church. The proposals include one single entrance from Ravenshill Road, so most of the objections have been the usual car parking and traffic issues, especially as School Road narrows where it crosses the Stratford-upon-Avon canal. My objection was the fact that open green space was being sacrificed to build this new school, and to his credit, the Labour councillor pointed out that an alternative site on nearby Warstock Road, currently occupied by disused industrial units in the process of demolition had been suggested.
What really beggared belief though was learning that this new school (which is to be a free school/academy), was intended to replace the Baverstock Academy in nearby Druids Heath which was closed last year. I have since learned that this site is to be demolished as part of the regeneration of the Druids Heath estate. But it wasn’t just me questioning why this site couldn’t be reopened as a new school.
So this problem isn’t just confined to London, and it seems that all open green spaces are up for grabs to be developed on. I accept there is a need for a new secondary school in the area, it just seemed senseless and a waste of money to build a new one, when a recently closed one could have just been reused instead.
Stuart, you are right. Just one example amidst many. See this farmland :—
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Three+Mile+Cross,+Reading/@51.3932814,-1.0005463,2361m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x48769c9274e509d3:0x87249f9969de134b!8m2!3d51.4047211!4d-0.9734519
If Reading, Wokingham and Newbury Councils have their way all the farmland you can see will be obliterated by a development of 15,000 houses and more. Grazely is a tiny hamlet which has the misfortune to sit at the junction of three so-called Unitary Councils. We cannot keep letting in 300,000 people PER YEAR due to lax rules, incompetent government and causing deliberate desecration of our countryside.
UKIP must promote it’s policies on this subject vigorously.
Same mad planning developments everywhere. My wonderful labour controlled district council is very keen on new housing since they realised Sajid javid was so serious about his targets he could eventually take over the council. Faced with losing their attendance allowances they suddenly approved development on grazing land, cornfields and the green belt. The numbers are staggering and the pace is lunatic. Yet, still the political class will not allow comment on immigration and talk about a housing crisis as just a lack of housing.
Immigration is the overwhelming cause of our overpopulation and all the symptoms of frantic house building on green and farm land, traffic congestion, overload on the NHS, faster growing demands for government benefits and increasing numbers of those in poverty ( as reported by the UN recently) with demand for and upon food banks.
I would like to know what “Net Migration” is. The BBC, Grauniad and others in the media always quote the stats as “Net Migration” NOT “Net IMMIGRATION”:—
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/nov/29/eu-net-migration-uk-falls-lowest-level-almost-six-years
Notice the Grauniad and BBC headlines concentrate on the immigration from the EU rather than the shocking figure of 248,000 immigrants from Non-EU. “Non-EU net migration was at its highest since 2004, with 248,000 more non-EU citizens arriving than departing, the ONS data shows.”
Strange that the EU figure should magically decline just before the key vote in Parliament on the Withdrawal!!
Now, of course, we must not suggest for one minute that these figures are in any way manipulated and how dare anyone suggest that the Office for Notional Statistics could ever do such a thing. However, it is a fact that this “DATA” and “OFFICIAL FIGURES” as the Grauniad describes them are in fact merely “ESTIMATES”. See the Government Briefing Paper 24 August 2018 on Migration Statistics :—
https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN06077/SN06077.pdf
” …… there is no definitive answer and the most appropriate answer depends upon the nature of the data that is available. This means there is no single measure of migration.” Actually all figures on migration involve a lot of guesswork and there is also the matter of the completely unknown levels of illegal immigration into the UK. I bet there isn’t much illegal emigration to offset against that influx.
So, we cannot really entirely believe the ONS figures and I would like to know HOW under our current strict border controls AT LEAST 248000 people from Non-EU countries came into the UK last years????
What the hell is going on??
Indeed. What the hell is going on?
Same with public spending. The benefit bill per year in London is approx. 30 billion pounds a year. (hard to get accurate figures for some reason this fig. Comes from 2012) More than defence spending. What in the name of hell is going on?
Matt,
Our governments for the last 40 years have willfully, deceitfully and deliberately promoted a total change in the UK population. They have promoted diversity and multi-culturalism with NO mandate from the UK population. It has NEVER appeared in ANY manifesto, nor would it.
The Tories have promoted this to compress wages and gain a cheap source of unlimited labour to assist their corporate funders. The Labour Party have promoted this agenda to import and farm an identity politics voting base, in the hope that eventually, power will be cemented forever (once numbers are high enough).
Of course, this open the floodgates mantra, in reality, is a disaster for the host population. We are seeing the fruits of this policy today. The answer, MORE OF THE SAME, year on year. If the government WANTED to cut Non-EU migration to ZERO, it could do this tomorrow, and the EU could not stop this. The government however, DOES NOT want to stop this.
As for the London welfare bill, it is frightening and the real cost will be covered up. I would imagine Birmingham will be similar. London, or as I call it LONDGONE, will be the UK’s first version of Detroit. It will be a home for welfare dependents and criminals. Eventually when the money runs out (and it will run out) it will be a very dangerous place indeed. All the pro-diversity liberals flag-wavers will be the first to flee to the shires.
The answer is simple, put your ‘X’ in the right box on election day.
For the benefit of anyone who has not read it yet, David Vincent’s book “2030: Your Childrens Future In Islamic Britain” answers many questions and is a gripping read:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/2030-Childrens-Islamic-Immigration-Disaster/dp/1514633817/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1543775582&sr=8-1
Tony Blair’s Labour government from 1997 onwards basically implemented an open-doors migration policy to the rest of the world, in particular to countries like Pakistan. The fact that the Conservative government, on taking power in 2010 (in coalition with the LibDems) did NOTHING to reverse this, just proves the level of collusion going on, and how nothing really changes regardless of whichever party is in power.
John Locke, I utterly agree with your comment. This is an area in which UKIP must become much stronger and vocal if there is to be any chance of saving our country from disaster.
There is no chance. It is too late. All that can be done is to try to delay the inevitable. The mosques make no secret of the fact that they believe “Allah has given them this land” and in a few years Sharia law will prevail on a nationwide basis.
What is going on? The political class has seen off UKIP as a potent enemy, with the factional squabbling threatening to turn us into just another pressure group. I have no wish to be a pressure group obsessed with Islam, immigration,whatever.
We have a better policy offer than the other parties. We have better people. But internal fighting has reduced our appeal to the point when we can be ignored as a threat.
LibLabCon, because of this, are off the hook. They can say or do anything, knowing that there will be no consequences. Whichever of them gets elected the same people get their snouts in the trough.
How to change things? Make sure that betrayal by our elected representatives has consequences. Or..
Fight, you bastards, fight them.
JF
Should read
How to change things? Make sure that betrayal by our elected representatives has consequences. Or,put another way …
Fight, you bastards, fight them
JF
Getting a bit worked up here. Fingers can’t keep up.
Good article Janice and very relevant to what is happening not only in towns but also in the countryside. Where I live there are plenty of green fields but the same thing is happening in villages and small towns. Our parish council is opposing two developments which if approved would connect our village to a town on the northern boundary and another on the southern edge.
Yesterday I signed a petition to the government and I looked at the map of constituencies. I was taken aback to see that most are now over 90,000 and many are over 100,000. This is the problem of course and explains why there are so many houses being built, over population caused by immigration and people moving from cities to country areas.
Yes it’s mindless and endless . There will be nothing left just a Soviet style concrete jungle
Could not have put it better my self