City Farm riding arena (in the park)

[Deleted]

Then I suggest that a question from you to a full meeting of the city council is in order. Make them explain themselves, if you feel strongly about the matter. There's a meeting at 7pm Thursday next week.

[Deleted]

The police are denying that they support the riding arena plans. The Citizen reported that they did. I wonder where that piece of misinformation came from.

[Deleted]

I wrote a critical letter to our MP, and he wasn't too happy. He suggested that I should raise a petition - which is pointless. He also suggested that I should seek support from the local councillors - which is a non-starter, as two of the city councillors are related to trustees of Gymnasian, and the third is on the Planning Committee. I'd contact Jasminder Gill, but she doesn't seem to do anything; I've copied her into numerous emails relating to county council matters, and I've never received a reply. I don't know what councillors nowadays think that their job is. They seem to support the largest mob or the richest company, irrespective of what is right.

[Joe K]

I'm going to be testing what councillors think they should be doing, as well as what residents themselves think, in the run-up to the next elections, by offering to do those things myself if councillors won't. For in truth, I don't believe there's a single thing a councillor can do that an ordinary voter can't, beyond attend hush hush meetings.

I've just received the information about the park survey. I'm quite surprised that one of the responses, in the form of an email, is dated 2005. I'd thought the survey happened later. It does suggest, though, that someone had it in mind to enlarge the farm (to prepare the way for an riding arena?) very early in the day. All suggestions that the play area be placed (kept?) near the farm were ignored. That's convenient for the arena plan as well.

Just very dodgy...

Attachments:

[Joe K]

That's the small file. The other won't fit, apparently, though it's less than 1,000 KB...

[Deleted]

I remember taking part in that survey from 2005. It was at a time when Tredworth Residents' Association was booming and truly independent and there was an off-shoot group called Friends of St. James' Park. Ah, those were the days.

The reason that the play area had to be moved was actually that it was too close to the back gardens of the houses in Albany Street. When the old play area was built, there were no rules about location, but new rules came into force some time in the nineties or early noughties, making it unlawful to build a new play area anywhere near houses (because of the nuisance). It could have been moved over to the church side, but I presume that it was considered altogether better to move it right away from the football area where bigger kids would naturally congregate. I think that the idea was that the Moor Street end would be made more suitable for younger children and families, leaving the middle area and Upton Street end for the teenagers. Unfortunately, that didn't work out, as anti-social teenagers have congregated at the Moor Street end and used the picnic tables and benches intended for families.

[Joe K]

Sounds about right, Kay, but I can't help thinking that if Don Jones, or someone of his stamp, were still running the residents' association, things would be different now...

[Deleted]

Now I come to think about it in depth, I'm not actually sure that I did take part in the 2005 questionnaire. If I did, then I suspect that I'd simply have said that the dog bins needed emptying more often. I did attend a lot of the later meetings of Friends of St. James' Park, just as it was going down the drain. Don had enough on his plate, and he wasn't well, so he left it to Tony Ward to sort out, with inevitable consequences. I do remember that Don got the street lighting in the park sorted out, which was one thing that everyone wanted to happen; I don't know if you remember, but the park lighting used to be pants, and now it's good.

[Joe K]

I do remember a discussion about how much it would cost to dig trenches for the lighting cables, and offering to do it myself, if they had the details for other services that might be emcountered. The work went ahead without me, albeit slowly, so I guess they didn't want to take bread out of council worker mouths...

[Deleted]

My FoI request to the county council about the grant that they've given to the city farm has been refused on the grounds that it will harm their commercial interests. The city farm should have commercial interests. I bet they've told porkies on the application form. I've asked for an internal review. I don't see why it should be classified any differently from, for instance, an application form for planning permission.

[Joe K]

Hmm..

'We are required to undertake a Public Interest Test to qualify this
exemption, which will enable us to weigh the advantages for or against
release, but unfortunately we have not yet received all representations
from interested parties to complete this.


'We estimate that we will receive all representations and be able to reach
a decision by Friday 27 December 2013 and, pursuant with S17 (2) of the
FoIA, will then contact you by this date to confirm the outcome of the
Test. Please note that we will contact you as soon as the Test is complete
if we can conclude it before this date.


'This email therefore acts as a refusal notice under Section 17 (2) of the
FoIA, as some of the information you have requested is exempt from
disclosure at this point in time.'

Grant given to St. James' City Farm, Tredworth

All over by Xmas..?

[Deleted]

Talking of Christmas, what's the betting that the new planning application will be validated just before Christmas? That's what happened with the motorway services application. They don't give you any extra time to put in your objections, you know, despite the fact that the council offices are closed for a lot of the time.

[Joe K]

There's no sign of a new application being put in yet, though heaven knows how it would be significantly different from the 'original' if the only issue is lighting. I would hope that there would be more scope for discussion this time, even if it turned out to be stage managed at the open meeting...

[Deleted]

Saj Patel has had a fortnight to answer the question that I asked him at the last full council meeting, about when and how he found out about the riding arena plans. I tried to get answers at the cabinet meeting on Wednesday, and also asked if Saj was going to reply to my previous question. I asked if Saj is related to any trustee of Gymnasian, but the solicitor said that he didn't have to answer the question, and Paul James added that Saj's interests are listed on their website. I simply don't believe that they are. We now know that Said Hansdot is related to a trustee, but that isn't recorded on the website either.

[Joe K]

I'd be surprised if Sajid Patel was still around by the next council elections, but then, I'm always being surprised by the audacity of our local 'community leaders'. He seems to me to be a nasty sort, agressively defensive about his failings, if you know what I mean...