Those green fingered hippies are at it again!
Story from The Argus
Guerilla gardeners have broken back into the community green they created after it was chained off by a security firm. For the past month residents around Lewes Road, Brighton, have been enjoying the recreation space they carefully installed on the derelict site of a demolished Esso petrol station at the corner of Edinburgh Road.
They cleared rubble, laid a circular lawn, brought in benches, flower pots, sculptures and other decorations and planted flowers and shrubs into eyesore concrete blocks. The site had previously been disused for five years but since it was spruced up during a series of "guerilla gardening days" it has been well used by residents. They have taken responsibility for locking it each night and opening it in the morning. Their activities had gone unchecked by the site's owners until Tuesday, when they arrived to discover a security firm had chained up the access gate and installed a warning sign to deter intruders.
Duncan Blinkhorn, a spokesman for the group behind the "Lewes Road Community Garden", yesterday said: "The gardeners were not so easily defeated and immediately set about lifting the gate off its hinges to allow continued access to the site." The group also launched a petition which has been signed by more than 1,500 residents in two days.
It called for support to help keep the garden open and continue the good example of the community working together to beautify the area and create a facility from a derelict site. King Sturge, the London-based property group acting on behalf of the site's owners, yesterday said the relevant member of staff was unavailable so it could not comment on why the gates had been chained or what it intended to do in future.
Gabriel Wulff, one of the garden organisers, said: "The point is we are not doing anything harmful to anyone. We are just providing a space for people to come together. We don't know what they meant by locking the site. We are not squatters, we are just using the site while it is available and will be happy to move it all if it is needed for use again."
Full story here.
1 comment:
Under land value taxation, after demolition of an existing building, the owner of the site would continue to be liable for the land value tax on the site on the assumption of ongoing retail use. They would have marketed and developed the site very quickly, thereby providing new employment opportunities. Keeping a site empty for five years would not be an affordable option.
The lack of land value taxation, combined with taxation of the poorest, is the reason why so many people are held in poverty and welfare dependence.
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