Save Meanwhile Gardens!

Councillor Pat Mason talks to WestWay.TV about Kensington & Chelsea's plan to put luxury flats on one of Golborne's few green spaces. Support the campaign! meanwhilegardenscampaign@yahoo.com

Comments

[Pat Mason]

I want to thank Westway TV for helping the Meanwhile Gardens campaign and the people of North Kensington in our battle to stop Kensington & Chelsea Council building luxury flats on this green space. If we can persuade the council to find an alternative means of providing a new community building for the garden groups, then we will all have done a service to this and future generations. We have a scarcity of green space in the borough and we cannot afford to lose any of it. Either the council protects Meanwhile Gardens with an environment-friendly development or their green policies are just empty words.

[Kelvin Moyses]

Thanks to Westway TV for publicising this wretched Council's Greed. It seems to me that Cockell suffers from Shirly Porterism in trying to make North Kensington Coservative by intimidation! This man has presided over the closing down of creches, housing action organisations etc in order to 'encourage' the poor to move out. Please expose this nasty, quasi-fascist council for what it is. Cockell should be sacked -and soon!

Kelvin Moyses

[Kelvin Moyses]

Thanks to Westway TV for publicising this wretched Council's Greed. It seems to me that Cockell suffers from Shirly Porterism in trying to make North Kensington Coservative by intimidation! This man has presided over the closing down of creches, housing action organisations etc in order to 'encourage' the poor to move out. Please expose this nasty, quasi-fascist council for what it is. Cockell should be sacked -and soon!

Kelvin Moyses

[Mike]

The proposals must be stopped as we stopped them last time, so lets get campaigning and leafleting. Green space is too precious to lose and we don't need more luxury housing.

[clare]

It's really easy to publish slick newsletters saying how green and pleasant the council is. But they're not keeping records of how many trees they're chopping down - 5 within sight of my home alone!

The thin slip of green that is Meanwhile is probably risible to people who have big, private gardens, two homes and can afford to get out of London. It's not preened or landscaped, and aren't there enough facilities for people with learning difficulties and mental illness already?

This area is being socially engineered. That is a big fat hairy fact. Wornington is being 'redeveloped' so that privately owned houses, obviously way beyond the means of people who live on the estate can be built. Meanwhile is to be flattened to make way for private luxury flats. Wouldn't it just be easier if poor people were just sent off somewhere - anywhere! - else so that the young rich can move in unimpeded, as part of their plan to move to a nice home in the country?

[Jul]

Perhaps we should avoid getting distracted by the rich vs poor / social engineering argument - it just alienates a group of people that might otherwise join the campaign. Being well off doesn't preclude having community spirit or caring about Meanwhile; it's precious to the whole community (although one might wonder how much it means to those who ignore the hard work that maintains it and desecrate the area with litter. However...)

The issue is the council should not be building on this beautiful bit of green at all. The addition of flats - 'luxury' or otherwise - would increase the footprint of the existing building that requires refurbishment, destroy the Scented Garden and a big chunk of the Wildlife Garden. And the reason for this proposal is K&C doesn't want to spend available budget on the necessary refurb of the existing building; they want to keep their money & fund the project externally at the expense of precious green space. And THAT is wholly unacceptable. Shame on you K&C.

[Pat Mason]

I agree that the rich v poor/social engineering argument can be a distracting one when the core issue is building over green space, into the Wildlife Garden etc. But Meanwhile Gardens is surrounded by streets and estates with obscene levels of overcrowding while there is 10,000+ people on the council housing list waiting for housing.

Many of these people are outraged that the council talks loudly about increasing the amount of rented social housing in a borough with extreme land scarcity, and therefore sky-high land values, but all too often they allow housing to be built that is not directed where the need is.

However, the people angry about the luxury flats are also overwhelmingly opposed to building over green space, the same people who defeated a previous Council housing development on Meanwhile Gardens in 2000/2001. So let us understand that whilst people may be attacking the council on issues they find important that may not be important to everybody, it is the opposition to building over green space and the Wildlife Garden, especially, that binds us all together.

[tom bristow]

this is a very crucial issue and is rightly gaining profile due to the concerns it raises: fundable community projects; affordable housing; councils\mps claiming green policies but lacking the substance; discussions with people at the local level; the power of pressure groups etc etc.

please support this campaign if you live in the local area, london or even the UK. kensington and chelsea are criminal. david cameron is a liar and has no relationship to his local space. we do not want our public, green spaces turned into business opportunities; we want to show government that innovative ideas, energized people and ethical-green policies can be deployed to great success.

[Maggie Ollerenshaw]

Living in Maida Vale I have walked alongside the canal and Meanwhile Gardens to have coffee in the buzzy Golborne Road area for years. I am apallled at the destructive insensitiivity of the Council regarding the Gardens and their development plans. Let's do all we can to prevent them.

[Pat Mason]

The Friends of Meanwhile Gardens, battling to stop Kensington & Chelsea Council building a luxury flats development on the gardens, are running the BIG MEANWHILE GARDENS CAMPAIGN GIG at INN ON THE GREEN, W10 on SUNDAY 14TH OCTOBER 2007 from 4-11pm.

We are hoping that about 20-25 bands, artists and other performers will donate about 15 mins or so to the event we are organising in association with westway.tv, the hottest new local issues & music site on the block.

If you would like to play on the gig email meanwhilegardenscampaign@yahoo.com or call Pat Mason on 020 7361 2444 (day)/3514 (voicemail)/020 7792 8316 (evening). We will post a dedicated gig number in a few days. Thanks in advance for your support.

Pat Mason, Friends of Meanwhile Gardens campaign group

[Pat Mason, Friends of Meanwhile Gardens]

IF YOU GO TO WWW.SAVEMEANWHILE.COM YOU CAN GET INFORMATION ON THE BIG MEANWHILE GARDENS CAMPAIGN GIG ON SUNDAY 14TH OCTOBER AT INN ON THE GREEN, LONDON W10.

THERE WILL BE 7 HOURS OF MUSIC AND PERFORMANCE WITH THE MESSAGE -NO, TO BUILDING LUXURY FLATS ON MEANWHILE GARDENS, YES, TO FINDING ANOTHER WAY TO PAY FOR A NEW COMMUNITY BUILDING THERE, AND SHAME ON OBSCENELY RICH KENSINGTON & CHELSEA COUNCIL FOR FAILING TO ASK LOCAL PEOPLE WHAT SORT OF DEVELOPMENT THEY WANT. AND DEFINITELY THEY DON'T WANT THE COUNCIL BUILDING OVER GREEN SPACE!

Pat Mason, Friends of Meanwhile Gardens

[Pat Mason, Friends of Meanwhile Gardens]

What a spectacularly brilliant Big Gig we had at Inn on the Green (IOTG) off London's Ladbroke Grove on Sunday 14th October 07.
7 hours of non-stop music & performance organised by Friends of Meanwhile Gardens, (FOMG),IOTG and also with westway.tv & Tony Benn.

This was an awareness-raising event that brought FOMG and Meanwhile Gardens Community Association publicly together to work in co-operation at last, so we can sit down together with Kensington & Chelsea Council. FOMG want the Council to find an alternative to building flats on the gardens to pay for a new community centre, if we can. And if they won't listen, then we have to try to get a deal that preserves green space (Scented Garden)and various garden facilities. The battle continues.

Giving their services for free at the Big Gig: Got2Remember, Ashebar, Subzconscious, Ryme& Reason, Billy Oblivion & the Legendary DNA Cowboys, Lancaster Youth Club Allstarz, Pat Mason, JC Kamau, Jon Curtis, Delirium Tremen, OPAL, Shaky Vick's Blues Band, Saxibella, David Lebor, Ivanhoe Norona, Gerard Galvin, D.Form, main mc - Marianne Alapini. DJs-Tina & Isis, sound Yan.

Thanks to all our supporters,
Pat Mason, Secretary,Friends of Meanwhile Gardens campaign group