"...a change in the heart of things"

Skimmed  by the bulldozers - the site of the new Victoria Jubilee Allotments in 2004

The soil spread by the developer, when re-creating the space for growing things, is acknowledged problematic. Didn’t Susan Green from Douglas Road, other side of Handsworth Park, phone me the day the site opened for inspection by those who wanted allotments?
“No way am I taking up a plot, Simon! The ground's full of rubbish. There’s dry clay just below the topsoil.”
My enthusiasm overrode her carping, but she had a point. The site's in a wonderful place, a great green space under two miles from the centre of Birmingham, marching beside Handsworth Park, whose trees provide its skyline, backdrop and, when the wind blows, sounds that override the city's rumble. In some parts the topsoil, such as it was, got bulldozed back into place, over the heavy-plant-compacted ground of the builder’s work yard. Ralph’s dug down several feet on his plot, broken up the hard surface down there, and, with pick and shovel, removed a ton of hardcore so his plot can drain. Our plot, next to the Park fence, is out of that zone, but since I’ve been working it I’ve removed the remains of the previous gardeners’ equipment, fragments of brick and slab, parts of greenhouses  - frames and broken glass - wire, pipes, guttering and plastic bags – skimmed by the bulldozer into a stew of soil, wood and shattered sheds that sat like a dyke, a good 15 feet high, 80 yards long, squatting for nearly a decade behind the terrace houses along Holly Road. I saw it through a friend’s upstair’s window.
“One day” I assured him “there’ll be a cricket pitch there and beyond that allotments”
“I’ll believe it”

For years I peered through a barrier as the developer's workers dug over the site

Of that agreement, only the allotments have so far arrived. The ground for them was laid out by sifting out the trunks of a couple of ripped up sycamores, and bulldozing the pile back into place across the north west corner of the site – 80 plots divided by gravel and drained paths.

Then in 2008 the layout began

The surface was raked of its most obvious obstructions and allowed to sit and grow weeds for a couple more years...

Weeds were spreading and the site was still not open in 2009

... until in June 2010 the Victoria Jubilee Allotments went public. Lin and I chose our plot in an ideal spot, adjoining a tap, near the remaining hedge, a gently sloping aspect down to Handsworth Park for whose restoration we and many others had lobbied over many years. I couldn’t have been happier, enjoying the extra pleasure of knowing that these allotments might never have been but for the prolonged local campaign I’d led to gain a city negotiated Section 106 Agreement that had the developer, who’d wanted the whole site for building, passing two thirds of it back to the public domain for allotments and playing fields - the latter still to come, despite an agreement made in 2004. Thereafter the challenge has been mine. John Martin teased me gently “Simon! You’ve been excited by the idea of working an allotment”
By 2013 I was arriving back from a time away, reluctant even to go out to the plot. It’s not just that the soil left us by the developer was so intractable. Far from it.  A few gardeners on the Victoria Jubilee Allotments have been producing successful harvests since they started here. I am not one of them. I have struggled to turn the 'idea' that John spoke of into a properly worked garden producing food that Lin and I can cook and eat at home or pass around the family. There’s a sturdy shed with the tools I need. Paths. There are fruit trees, and of course Gill’s beehive has a home here. I’ve won a few crops – broad beans, runner beans, potatoes, spinach. But they’ve arrived in desultory ways.
"How can I prepare something with your veg unless you warn me?" Lin complains
Other enthusiastic applicants for plots have left after a brief struggle with the ground, with couch grass and the latest annual weeds. I have no intention of ‘giving up’. The 'idea' keeps me going. I’ve argued with Ziggi.
“I’m generations from the land. My ancestors were city people from the start of the industrial revolution. We don’t do ‘back to the land”
She disagrees. We were at Dukes in St.James. She said she was as removed from the land as I.
“It’s wanting to cook and eat things you’ve grown”
We're both right. You must know how to grow; know how and when to crop and store and you must know how to cook and enjoy the eating.
What matters is that perseverance and a decision to work harder on the soil last autumn has marked a change. I've abandoned - at least for now - the idea of cheap home grown veg and spent money that would be beyond imitating the ideal envisaged in the 1908 Allotments and Smallholdings Act*  passed to help a working man feed his family in the city from an 'allotted plot'.
I've invested in manure. I've bought top-soil. I've paid our helper from Handsworth Helping Hands - Taj - to concentrate on digging and weeding, digging and weeding, digging and weeding; adding in the manure as he goes and removing the larger stones, piling them at the back of the plot or using them to edge paths. I - no 'we' - are beginning to get some degree of farming on this 200 square metre piece of ground. Even far away from it, I dream about the plot. I imagine seeds germinating, saplings blossoming, seedlings, if they survive the pigeons, settling in to grow. While Gill waits to find another swarm, I've worked around the empty beehive and replaced John's slightly shaky net structure...

...and in the last few days of England planted and planted - potatoes, Jerusalem artichokes, spinach, onions, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts. I dragged furrows. Laid topsoil there and bedded my young plants and seeds in it, watered them in and added another thin layer of new topsoil, friable as a nursery play garden's, and then raked a small layer of the cruder earth over the top, chatting to them the while like an idiot, keeping an eye out for Oscar watching at the steel fence for passing dogs to growl at; bitches to pursue via one of the opening's in the fence I've failed to block.

In you go, darlin's

At Luton in the night we waited for a dawn flight to Greece. I'd slept on the coach to the airport missing tedious stops on the way and now we chatted and did dopey things to pass the time.

At last we're in the sky, reading, snoozing, snacking, in the compact spaces of budget flight until we're 'aware of the horizon beginning to strain at the rim of the world: aware of islands coming out of the darkness to meet us... '

Karaburun Peninsula from our Easyjet to Corfu

 ...descending beside the Albanian mountains west of Vlorë, hardly a hundred miles north of the green island and beloved Greece where I kneel to touch the concrete half pretending a problem with balance.

In hours we're at work again, cutting the greenery that blocks the path below the house, tidying the small garden, and - at last - cutting out rotten sections of the wooden balcony...

...straightening the floor in the small bedroom upstairs where some 'lazy idiot' - we know who - had laid a chunk of flooring grade chipboard with no cross beams between joists...

...so that it sagged the width of the small room. We sawed out the chipboard in two sections to extricate its edges from the wall plaster; put in cross beams, fixed them with angles screws to the joists while resting on battens I'd nailed to the joists. Screwing down the curled up edges of the chipboard, we removed its sag; all this before we can add varnished skirting of wood recovered from a dismembered palette waiting in the garden.

Rotting balcony wood replaced

*There are plans to remove certain statutory protection of allotments, by giving local councils more 'responsibility' when it comes to being blamed for implementing the new national planning policy framework:   The full list of secondary legislation, orders and regulations (with commentary provided by the DCLG) that the department intends to abolish or amend is as follows:

1. The Small Holdings and Allotments Regulations 1919 Remove. This required councils to get the consent of the CLG Secretary of State for certain actions in relation to allotment land, such as if they want to purchase allotment land or lease allotment land to an association or lease allotment land for more than a year at time.  It is not considered that these regulations have effect any longer and this will help clean up the statute book.  

"Angela Merkel's in Athens today"

On the whole Linda and I don’t go walking in Handsworth and other parts of Birmingham. I do. I also cycle in and out and around most of the city within a radius of about three miles, sometimes further when cycling along the canal towpath to Amy’s house on the edge of the city. Lin does not cycle. In the Highlands my walks, at least in the last few years, have been solitary but for the dogs as Linda doesn’t share my feelings for that landscape – “too bare” she said, preferring the pastures and woods and river banks of Herefordshire and Gloucestershire around our Rock Cottage in the Forest of Dean. It’s in Corfu starting with Ano Korakiana itself that we have recovered the pleasure of shared walks. We set out with our long olive sticks – gifts from Mark; mine he topped with a deer’s cloven foot for my thumb, Lin’s more crooked with a fork for hers. Leaving the house so equipped our neighbours nod 

“Βόλτα; a walk?”

“Ναι, βόλτα”

 Walking in and around Ano Korakiana is one of our pleasures. It’s thus we see its agriculture

Grazings below Ano Korakiana

“Angela Merkel’s in Athens today.”
Richard Pine reminded me over Tuesday lunch at Bellissimo – a place Lin and I like, in Lemonia Square, off Nicholas Theotoki, just across, as I’ve been told, from an old brothel and its annexe. It was unlikely that the troika would be anything but unhappy about progress on the – how many was it? – ninety-one – perhaps - reforms attached to the third bail-out
“Of which” said Richard “they’ve done part of about three...I'm writing another op-ed at once on the basis the excrement's about to hit the air-conditioning"
Our conversation - over a shared Greek salad, omelets, sausages and bread with house white wine - drifted through the events that would follow a refusal of more money for Greece from Europe; a national bankruptcy, civil servants unpaid; leaving their desks to find other ways to support their families; national stoppages, direct and indirect…we can’t add much; what’s it feel like to leave the road on a high bend? A moment, almost of relief, of a decision made for you, silence, floating in the peace, soaring into the unknown, then – gravity applies – and “the film cuts to the view of a spectator; a cacophony of things plunging."
Earlier in the morning I’d remembered that on the previous evening’s walk, as Lin and I came down the zigzag at the western end of the village, below Mougades, we noticed, inside one of the hairpin bends, opposite wheely bins and the last bus-stop, a broad concreted circle, ever so slightly convex, a parking space under branches, between shrubs and flowers.

“Could that have been a threshing floor?”
Lin looked at it having seen my photos of them – of an alon, ἅλων, signature of a pastoral economy.
“Maybe”
“No no. It’s a large well, covered over. A cistern perhaps. Convenient beside the road”
Our conversation in Lemonia had drifted to discussing agriculture. I’d liked Richard’s reference to the ‘idea of terroir… rootedness of people…intimate relationship between land and people…vines and their olives.’

Ο Παύλος - Ήταν στο πάρτι γενεθλίων μας

Earlier I’d asked an old lady if she’d always lived in Ano Korakiana which of course she had. In my ragged Greek I said “Where is the alon, the threshing floor”
Katerina wandered over and leaned on the railing on Democracy Street looking down
I repeated my question, doubting I was making myself intelligible
They discussed this and Natasha spoke to them from her upper window above us, from where she often has conversations with neighbours in the street. It’s why I was so glad we recovered our balcony - to be able to have conversations between the house and the street. I held up a crude drawing I’d made of a circle with two stick figures holding threshing poles, looking as if they were fighting
“To make corn” I said in English which she understands “From wheat”
“Yes I know. Alon”
There was a spirited discussion between the three women.
“Would Lefteris know?” I asked Natasha
“He makes wine”
Gradually my lack of observational skills sunk in. Of course, Ano Korakiana doesn’t make flour nor thresh out corn. It’s a village of vines and olives; of sheep, goats, chickens, turkeys, guinea fowl, rabbits and geese and some pigs and donkeys. Natasha was already running down a long list, tapping the fingers of each hand as she leaned on her balcony
“Spinach.Tomatoes. Marrows. Squash. Melons. Peppers. Cabbages. Lettuce….”
“Of course" I tried to catch up "and oranges and lemons and…and bees…and nuts” I tried to recover.
“But there is no alon”
Later in town Richard, who I was telling about this, asked
“How much does it cost to process a kilo of olives?”
I prevaricated, describing the organisation of the machinery for extracting oil from olives as shown me by Sebastiano Metallinos last February at the Co-op. The farmer delivers his olives – say 50 kilos; they go into a hopper and are washed of leaves and twigs; washed twice, I think; the pomace piles up to be used later for compost and, in some cases, to be made into blocks for stove fuel. Did the olive stones go into the masher or were they removed into the pomace? I didn’t know. There’s no longer a circular grindstone. The mash goes through two centrifuges. This is kept for what? Olive paste. At the other end of the sequence a slightly turgid flow of green gold oil pours from a horizontal pipe into waiting containers.
“There’s not an olive press in Corfu that makes any money. I thought there was one up by you in Peritihia that I was told was a working business, but I’ve since heard it's a rich man’s hobby”
“So how much does it cost to get oil from a kilo of olives, say?” repeated Richard
“I forgot to ask about prices. I don’t know. How does any village make a business of agriculture now? Everything has to be vast, intensive, mechanised and regulated with the means of export to places across the world. We know all that. Ano Korakinia’s agriculture was always more or less local, sustaining the village. Now it looks as if we are surrounded by vegetable gardens, allotments, at best, orchards, small holdings – half an acre of olives here, a few rows of vegetable there, a small vineyard, a patchwork of roughly defined spaces, fenced, gated, with an apothiki."

That evening we were walking by the co-op when Sebastiano, who’s this year’s Chairman, drew up outside one of its double doors and got out out of a truck with a trailer. He was in dungarees, chatting with his passenger, one of the Co-op committee.
“Good evening, Sebastiano. I have a question”
“Go ahead”
“How much does it cost to process a consignment of olives?”
"Ahah, you only want to know the cost of something that is a matter of the heart”
He peers at me with a broad ironic grin holding a hand to the centre of his chest.
“Of course of course, Sebastiano. I have a curious friend. As you know I care only about matter of the heart”
“Of course, Of course. The price is in litres not kilos. Early in the season…”
“You mean now?”
“From now until next June even. The olives produce less oil at the start – only about 12% of the original weight becomes oil, and that costs 80 cents a litre. Later in the season the olives produce more like 35%-40% oil and then the oil costs 30 cents a litre.”
Lin remarked “They don’t half mark it up by the time it’s in the shops...but going back to what Sebastiano's telling you, “I still think the price is in kilos….which would work out at 10 cents a kilo year round."
"How do you mean? You know I failed 'O' level maths"
"At the start of the season when you’re getting 12% - about one eighth - it takes 8 kilos of olives to make one litre of oil. Later in he season - the best part - it only takes about 3 kilos of olives to make one litre of oil. 8 kilos at 10c makes 80c at the start of the season; 3 kilos at 10c makes 30c later in the season."
"Oh right. Yes. Hm?"
I pointed to the rusting machinery beside the Co-op that I’d noticed earlier in the year.
“That was the first machinery for processing olives?”
“Some of it, yes, but some of it was for grinding corn” said Sebastiano
I suddenly remembered when he’d been showing me round the co-op earlier in the year that Sebastiano had mentioned bread-making as well as a shop. He’d also shown me the space where the belt had run to the engine that had once generated Ano Korakiana’s electricity – in the 1920s, or earlier, the first village in the island, in the the country possibly, to have its own electrical power.
“So where did the corn come from?” asked Lin
“From hereabouts” He pointed downhill
So perhaps there has been a threshing floor in Ano Korakiana, an alon, and wheat harvested from flatter ground below the village was brought up to have the corn beaten from it.

Flatter land below the village

** ** ** **
 I had a salutary lesson from Mark about knots. It was supper in his and Sally’s house last night. along with her brothers Tim and Henry and R, an octogenarian mariner with a yacht at Benitses. We’ve been planning the arrangements for slipping Summer Song and replacing her engine. Discussing with R why a new engine was needed I confessed the stupid thing that I’d allowed to happen on the boat in a prolonged katabatic squall off Barbati three summers ago when we were motor-sailing back towards Ipsos through short steep seas, leaning over and getting wet. The jib sheet had slipped its figure of eight stop knot, pulled free of its deck eyelet, dragged overboard and wrapped round the prop-shaft. I’d glimpsed it over the windward side running taut under the water and knew at once what had happened. We reversed the engine and pulled it free.
Not good, eh? Worse to come. On the other tack the same thing happened; this time stalling the engine. We re-started in neutral, went into reverse and recovered a well ripped sheet end. I freed the rest in the harbour next day, diving beneath the hull with goggles.
“So what” I asked “is the normal knot to secure the end of a jib sheet?”
“Figure of eight” said someone.
I looked meaningfully at Lin who’d been on my court martial for this event - repeatedly.
“No. No” said the others, including Mark.
He fetched a length of rope; tied a figure of eight in it and banged it on the table a few times - just what a brisk breeze will do. His knot came loose in seconds.
“Give it here” I said, skeptical, and tied an eight knot tighter, banging it on my end of the table
“There, that’s holding”
Meantime Henry had tied a kind of three ring blood knot in the other end of the rope. I was looking at this doubtfully, continuing to bang my tight figure of eight on the table, when of a sudden I was looking at a clean end of rope. It had taken just seconds longer than Mark’s to unravel. I didn’t see it happen. One instant the knot was there, the next - gone.
“Jeez! Thanks Mark”
I was chastened. Lin looked vindicated. Seldom have I had such a salutary demonstration of the frailty of a device I’ve relied on since I learned to sail. I studied Henry's knot; Lin memorized it.

And now the weather's shifting towards autumn; leaves falling, and some rain, with the landscape now and then turning ochre as though viewed through a filter. The oranges below the balcony are innumerable, green - ready for Christmas - and our lemons are, at last, turning yellow. The thought of leaving is deplorable; feels almost like desertion.

*** *** ***
Syed Ahmed’s report dated 3 October - summarized - to our ward committee, followed a request for news about what progress on laying out sports fields, a sports pavilion and children’s playground next to the Victoria Jubilee Allotments (VJA).

REFERENCE:  VICTORIA JUBILEE ALLOTMENTS S106 Agreement (2003/01514/LA) – Persimmon Homes

Purpose 1.1 To update the Ward Committee on the delivery of the obligations arising from the S106 Agreement, (the Agreement) since the last briefing (18/07/2012).

Background  2.1 On 23rd August 2004, the City Council secured an Agreement for part redevelopment of the former Victoria Jubilee Allotments. The Agreement contained obligations for the developer, Westbury Homes (now Persimmon Homes) to deliver the following:  

2.2 In May 2011, the City Council (Legal Services) wrote to Persimmon Homes, reminding them of the S106 obligations and advised that legal action would be taken, unless there was a new commitment to the satisfactory and timely completion of the S106 projects. 

3 Progress / Action Outstanding  3.1 Affordable Housing Provision by Persimmon Homes. City project officer overseeing: Simon McDonald. Completed - 24 affordable housing units have been built and are occupied through partnership arrangements with Midland Heart and Family Housing Associations. 

3.2 New allotments: Overseeing city council service and project officer - Parks & Nature Conservation, Bob Churn. These were transferred to the Council on 11th August 2010 and £21,620 commuted maintenance was paid in September 2011. 3.3 Handsworth Park and Play Area Improvement: Overseeing city council service and project officer - Parks & Nature Conservation, Bob Churn. A contribution was received and work has been carried out as part of the Park’s major Heritage Restoration project. £25,000 was received for Play Equipment to enhance the Park’s play area.

3.4 Sports Pitches. Overseeing city council service and project officer - Children, Young People & Families (CYPF), Gillian Dovey. These have been laid out but have not been transferred to the CYPF portfolio, as there were defects. The Project Officer is in ongoing discussions with Persimmon Homes to rectify the outstanding defects. The Project Officer carried out a site visit on 28/09/2012 and confirms that work is underway on the cricket square and it appeared that the ground has been levelled. The Project Officer is now organising an inspection to finalise the completion of this project. 

3.5 New Public Open Space, incorporating a children’s play area. Overseeing service and project officer - Parks & Nature Conservation, Bob Churn. Project Officer has now received outline specifications of the scheme. The Public Open Space has not been laid out within the development, but Persimmon Homes have submitted draft design proposals, including an informal children’s play area. The Project Officer is now seeking detailed schemes specifications from Persimmon Homes. Upon completion the City Council will receive a commuted maintenance sum of £27,350 for this scheme. 

3.6 Sports Pavilion. Overseeing city council service and project officer - Children, Young People & Families, Gillian Dovey. Construction is outstanding. The Project Officer has requested a formal update from Persimmon Housing with timescale form implementation of its project. 

Recommendations 4.1   That the Ward Committee note the progress made since the last briefing and that further progress is reported to the Ward Committee in the future.

Contact Officer: Syed Ahmed, North West Planning & Regeneration Team (0121) 464 9839 syed.ahmed@birmingham.gov.uk

Plan of the VJA site showing the allotments next to the projected sports areas

I wrote back to our ward councillors on 8 Oct’12:

Dear Ward Councillors. I appreciate the latest news following the meeting between Ghaz Hussein and the Project Officers responsible for following up on the implementation of the 2004 S106A on the Victoria Jubilee.  Para’s 3.4, 3.5, and 3.6 in the 3/10/12 report to Lozells and East Handsworth Ward Committee describe a situation unchanged since you drew this matter to the relevant officers' attention in June this year.  

I’m not clear why para 4.1 states 'That the Ward Committee note the progress made since the last briefing and that further progress is reported to the Ward Committee in the future’. 

What progress?

We knew that the S106A payments described between para 3.1 and 3.3 had been made and their provision implemented. The issue raised in June 2012 (and indeed in 2011 on several occasions) related to the lack of discernible progress on the playing fields, play area and sports pavilion.  We heard over 18 months ago why these delays were occurring - state of the sports pitches (3.4), objections by a tiny minority of new residents on the Victoriana estate to the positioning of the children’s play area (3.5) and differences regarding quality standards for the projected sports pavilion (3.6).

These problems have been well rehearsed. Unless I’m missing something, Syed Ahmed’s report repeats what was already known - certainly to councillors and other interested parties.  Naturally we all hope that your representations on this matter will end the extended delay in the full implementation of the 2004 VJA S106A.

It may be that positive things are happening that are not referred to in the report copied to me, but nothing in it suggests there has been progress since this time last year or even before that.  Is it possible to elicit a date when the playing fields might be available to the community? Are we going to miss out yet another sports season in 2013 before these start to be used?

The attached report makes no mention of the matter of access to the sports area. It would seem that there are bound to be issues arising in making it convenient for schools and other users to get into the site via Crick Lane, especially in coaches and minibuses. Will the children’s play area be accessible from the Victoriana Estate or will parents from there have to leave the estate and walk or even drive from their homes onto Hamstead Road and back up Holly Road and Crick Lane? Has this matter even been considered yet, or does it lie in wait as a further excuse for delay? Yours sincerely, Simon Baddeley, Handsworth Allotments Information Group (HAIG) s.j.baddeley@bham.ac.uk 

Generations

"What a joy it is to have you all here" said my mother "It's amazing how all the children love Scotland and now their children are up here too. They could have gone to so many other places but they came here. I take it as very flattering."
Sharon took a photo - Mum in the centre with her great grandson Oliver, Amy and me in the shadow.

My sister Bay and I were volunteered by James Murray to judge the Pets Parade at the Moy Game Fair, that Angus, my mother's late husband, helped start over three decades ago, and enjoyed ourselves selecting winners. First was a Lhasa Apso, a fearless Tibetan furry toy descended, I learned, from a breed of small mountain wolf, used as monastery guard dog. That took an imaginative leap. It'd go in a game pocket. Joint second - a milky eyed Australian sheepdog and a re-homed Greyhound; third, a re-homed middle sized mongrel mutt with a hint of Scottie and a wonky tail.

Our choice of winner earned a clap around the main ring. I'm fairly confident we hurt no precious feelings. In the committee tent I took care of Oliver - a novel responsibility. He smiled at me now and then as I re-accustom myself - after 26 years - to the heft of a babe.

The Fair was bathed in sunlight. The soggy ground was drying out, the wettest bits efficiently fenced off. Amy, Guy, Bay and I and Oliver - snoozing in his push-chair - went to the drinks tent, loud with friendly chatter, no boom boom noise or wide flat screen, and instant service despite the numbers.
"I needed that" said Guy as we drank our cool nicely foamed bitter; lager halves for Bay and Amy. I'll remember that interval together; the scent of beer and wet trampled grass inside the canvas, sunlight seeping in; glinting on metal and glass, casting shadows.The Fair was bathed in sunlight. The soggy ground was drying out, the wettest bits efficiently fenced off. Amy, Guy, Bay and I and Oliver - snoozing in his push-chair - went to the drinks tent, loud with friendly chatter, no boom boom noise or wide flat screen, and instant service despite the numbers.
"I needed that" said Guy as we drank our cool nicely foamed bitter; lager halves for Bay and Amy. I'll remember that interval together; the scent of beer and wet trampled grass inside the canvas, sunlight seeping in; glinting on metal and glass, casting shadows.
We wandered round the rest of the ground, sometimes greeting friends, showing off Oliver to Dave and Tracey who bumped into us; Oliver smiling like a trooper; waving his arms and legs. I bought two rabbit pelts to take to Mark in Corfu for dog Teal (now Drake as well) - as I've done the previous two years. Mum for the first time in 35 years could not get to the Fair which may not have been so bad given the difficulty of push-pulling her wheelchair over wet ground.
"Tell them" she made the point to me "that my not being there is nothing life threatening. It's a Prince Philipish thing!"
At 4.00 Oscar entered the Terrier Race; adding to the barking cacophony for fifteen minutes. This time with encouragement from Amy he chased the sock on a string all the way to the end of the field where I was waiting. Not bad, given his tendency to burst from the box, pick a fight with another terrier, flirt with a bitch or both before rejoining the barking chorus.
Around 5.00 I set off the way I'd come on my Brompton with Oscar in the front pannier. Out onto the A9 for a slightly hair-raising mile on the main road - though no-one shaved us - then a left turn on to General Wade's Military Road (the Youtube clip shows the part I used from 2.03) where Oscar jumped down to run free. Gravel track and not another person in sight as I cycled and occasionally walked four miles to Wester Lairgs Farm, then down to meet the Farr Road to Inverarnie; so home for supper.
*** *** *** ***
I emailed Cllr Zaffar. Was there any news yet about the long delayed Victoria Jubilee playing fields:

Simon B: Olympic legacy. Time to check on the VJA S106A playing fields with Ghaz Hussain?

Waseem Zaffar: Spoke to Ghaz earlier. A meeting has been arranged by the council with various concerned parties on 5 Sept. Ghaz will brief us after the meeting. Looking positive.

**** ****
Lin's latest news on Handsworth Helping Hands:

Hi Everyone, Just to let you know what's happening....

Bank Account
We now have our Unity Trust bank account, but await chequebook, etc. I've transferred £1000 from CHPCP account to the new account as part of the setting up process. I've ordered 2 pre-loaded cards (£12 charge for these) and put £200 on each. I'll set up separate accounting for these, so we keep track of the pennies. They're mainly for fuel for the van, but can be used for other things with Committee approval. We'll only use one at a time, unless there are exceptional circumstances. As one runs out we'll have the other to use, giving time to reload the first. We'll soon have internet banking, which will require authorisation by two of the four signatories.

Public and Employer's Liability Insurance
This is now back in place as from today. I've changed the broker to Finance Redirect, the one recommended by Unity Trust Bank. The company we're now insured with specialise in insurance for social enterprises and other similar organisations. It's about £25 more expensive than the previous company, but, on reading the documentation, I felt that the previous insurance didn't offer the full cover we need for use of portable power tools and mowers, etc. Also we now have £5,000,000 public liability as opposed to £1,000,000 previously. We also have £5000 cover for the tools, which weren't previously covered. Finance Redirect are also a social enterprise and give grants from their trading surplus in areas where they have clients. We'll be able to apply, so I'll find out details when I've got time.
For the insurance we need to have a 'vulnerable adults and young people protection policy'. I'm looking for one that's appropriate for us - not too long and complicated, common sensical and to the point. There are lots on the internet, but they're so long, i shouldn't think the people they're meant for ever read them! I'm going to contact one or two people who might have one we can adapt. If you know of anyone else who might have something that fits the bill, please let me know.

Current Jobs
CMAT garden: Denise (and Dennis) and I went down last week. We finished tidying the frontage, planted the two planters with pelargoniums, did more tidying in the garden and I gave most of the lawn a first mowing, until the rain set in and I had to stop.
Planters in Putney Avenue: This morning Denise rang me and asked if there were any jobs we could do today, so we decided to make a start on the above. I didn't bother sending e-mails - couldn't expect others to come, as it was such short notice. We've cleared the weeds fron the planter on the corner with Putney Road, which is now ready for planting. I'm going to try to get plants this week and hope to do planting next Monday or Tuesday. There's still another large planter to do, so any help would be appreciated. It'll take about 3 hours for two people to get it ready for planting. If you want to help, let me know which day's best for you and what time. I'll bring all the tools.

The Van
Now we're  officially HHH, we need to change the name on the van insurance and on the registration document. I'll deal with this in the next few days.

Community Chest Grant Application
Having received our answers to questions she sent last week, Yvonne Wager has now approved the £4000 Community Chest grant. We'll talk about exactly what we're going to do with it at the meeting on the 16th.

I think that's all for now. Lin

In a place far far away...

After the misery comes humour

Strife. Strewth. Getting jugged by spouse, daughter, son-in-law, mum's carer, for saying though looting is double plus depressingly stupid, there might be a link between contagious urban pillage and the most severe cutbacks in public services since WW2 beside global recession. They believe I condoned this, caused it and would like to take part. There's no arguing with these mindless thugs - I mean - beloved family and friends (:)) Simon in Scotland - not planning to torch the village shop!

"A cautious thumbs up for the Big Society?"

Just after midnight GMT from Connecticut:

Dear Simon. I heard tonight on the BBC television news that the rioting in UK has spread to Birmingham.  Are you and Lin OK?  Aside from the shooting by police last Saturday (I thought the London police didn't carry guns unlike the US police) which seems a trigger not enough to account for this extraordinary outburst except that the Conservative austerity plan is finally driving people to the breaking point.  I can't make out the cause from the BBC whose coverage seems poor for once. But most important are you OK? ...anxiously, Tony & Helen

Dear Tony & Helen. I’ve been sat at my laptop in the Highlands of Scotland – 10 miles from the town – with my daughter Amy (in the West Midlands Police) and her husband Guy as they watch events on BBC 24 Hours rolling news on the widescreen TV, she on her mobile, and he on his laptop, discussing events as they emerge - Tolystoyan style - across the country and from different parts of London and Birmingham, from whence come messages – questions, observations, exclamations - by email, twitter and facebook from strangers and relatives and friends. Now you’ve just  emailed to ask after us and I’ve just come off the phone to Linda at home in in Handsworth who’s also on her computer and watching the TV, while my son, Richard, in the house with her has just come back from taking photographs in Soho Road a mile away. 

I know this place...

and this...

...too

We are getting sounds, images, film and interconnection on various channels with the rest of the world including you. It’s sweet of you to be concerned. I appreciate it. We’ve been through a succession of urban riots here over the years each bringing months if not years of post-mortems, analyses, enquiries and ever contested narratives. Have a glance at some of the links in the second paragraph of yesterday's blog entry. I’ve also been having a lively socio-political debate on-line about cause and effect with a couple of academic friends in other parts of the the country, agreeing, disagreeing.... Here the weather by the seaside has been sublime with brisk winds blowing a short surf onto an iron grey sea skirting the long shallow pebble and sand beaches of the Moray Firth as we stroll with the world to ourselves, dogs romping joyfully around us. Love Simon

In the Highlands ~ Amy and her grandma with dogs

From America:

Whisked through the link you sent me. Seems much like the Arab Spring. See Casey Rain's entry (and here). Hopeless youth. Having been through a period of unemployment myself I know that there is nothing more emasculating than being unemployed even if one's food is not is question. This is the best explanation I have seen of the cause of the rioting. Still inexcusable - on both sides - and no solution either. Cameron's austerity program will lead to more of this. It will happen here too if the #'s get larger enough or if it goes on long enough while the fat cats are siphoning Midas's gold through the tax system and bailouts. But wasn't there some moral about Midas where the gold turned molten when he tried to eat it and he was killed by his avarice? fill me in. Perhaps an apt metaphor for our times. Regardless of the lessons, so glad to hear you both are ok. Tony

Quotes from one line of chat -

Sarah Jane West · Wallington High School for Girls: Mike, I'm sorry, but I live in Croydon, I live with these people, have worked with these people.We had riots in our town centre last night. I promise you, the kids taking part in this are not engaged with the things you are talking about, they don't read papers, they don't watch the news and they won't read this. They tweet each other about where the next riot is taking place, dress up in their "costumes" and bus themselves over to where the looting is going on. They won't have heard of Mark Duggan, they won't have heard of Rupert Murdoch and they don't care about student loans because they won't be going to college.They just like wrecking stuff.

Susie Brain · Manchester, United Kingdom: The kind of rights they clearly feel have been taken away from them or have never been given. A small handful may understand the reason behind it, but most of them have just jumped in to get some easily acquired freebies - the way they already probably spend most of their life anyway. They're not worth even spending any time thinking about. In fact I don't even want to spend any more time on a reply about why they may be doing it. They 'simply' shouldn't be doing it and that's that.

Steven Keyser · Owner at PC Fix-IT Shop: Burning of buildings and cars is a sign of ignorance. If your protest is with the police why destroy your neighbors lives. I suspect the people who burned and looted had no idea why the original protest started. I understand the events in photo's like 4, 5 and 11. But, 9, 13 and 23

Me: ‘Depravity in the oppressed is no apology for the oppressor; but rather an additional stigma to him, as being in large degree, the effect, and not the cause and justification of oppression’ Herman Melville, Chap 14 White Jacket

...and (back to the future - 23 Oct '11 - on BBC R4  Today Programme's organised public debate on the riots in Birmingham Town Hall, hearing Martin Nairy, ex-Prison Service and Barnados, during the last hour rough quote (at 05.41) the vexed shepherd's words from Scene 3 of Winter's Tale:

I would there were no age between sixteen and
three-and-twenty, or that youth would sleep out the
rest; for there is nothing in the between but
getting wenches with child, wronging the ancientry,
stealing, fighting...

In Ovid's Metamorphoses XI Dionysus found his old schoolmaster, the satyr Silenus, missing. Silenus had wandered away drunk. Found by some Phrygian peasants, he was brought to Midas, Μίδας, their king. The king's guest for ten days and nights, Silenus entertained Midas and his court with stories and songs. On the eleventh day, Midas brought Silenus back to Dionysius. In gratitude Dionysius offered Midas whatever he wished. Midas asked that whatever he touched be turned to gold. His wish granted, he turned a holm-oak twig and a stone to gold. Utterly delighted he ordered his servants to prepare a feast. Everything he touched became gold; but when on trying to eat he found his food grow rigid and his drink harden into molten gold. By mistake he touched his daughter, transforming her into a golden statue.

Horrified, grief stricken he prayed to Dionysus.
"Father Dionysus (Ovid called him Bacchus), forgive me! I have sinned. But have pity on me, I beg you, and save me from this costly evil!"
Bacchus restored him, kindly taking back what he had granted.
"So you do not remain coated with the gold you wished for so foolishly go to the river by great Sardis, make your way up the bright ridge against the falling waters, till you come to the source of the stream, and plunge your head and body at the same moment into the foaming fountain, where it gushes out, and at the same time wash away your sin."
The king did as he was told. His hated gift flowed into the river and its sands turned to gold, which explains why the river Pactolus is still so rich in gold. Midas was freed, his daughter restored. Hating wealth and splendour, he moved to the country and became a worshipper of Pan, the god of the fields - my favourite god.

***** **** *****
A Facebook exchange with my friend Jonathan Davies last night and next morning:


Jonathan Stephen Davies According to Nina Power, the only things getting smashed up on Walworth Road are 'bastions of economic misery - loan shops, bookies and banks'. But, inchoate rage is by definition unfocused, so inevitably people who should not get caught up in it. That is regrettable and sometimes has tragic consequences. But, that just makes naming the enemy and providing grounds for hope - politicization - so much more important.

• • John Moore The Gordon Rioters had the Bank of England at their mercy but decided to prioritise the release of the prisoners at Newgate. Having burnt down Newgate they returned to the Bank of England only to find troops defending it. Random targets?
  • Simon Baddeley The Gordon Rioters like Enoch Powell's dockers had a nasty agenda.
  • Jonathan Stephen Davies Enoch's dockers became Heath's nemesis four years later.
  • Simon Baddeley Because he was one nation where Thatcher wasn't
  • John Moore Gordon, the marchers and the petition had a very nasty agenda but the subsequent rioters had were far more than a tool for the protestant associations and had a number of their own agendas.
  • Jonathan Stephen Davies In other words, there can be many outcomes to tinderbox situations like this and movements that start with reactionary agendas, like the Powellite dockers, sometimes develop authentically emancipatory ideas.
    
  • Simon Baddeley If Heath had been prepared to use the police as Thatcher did he might not have been replaced by her. He'd a vein of common decency that comes from being in war.
    
  • Jonathan Stephen Davies @Simon - they did use Thatcherite tactics and Heath considered worse (he showed no decency in Ireland). Remember Saltley Gates? The police were actually defeated by force of numbers and the very real threat of a general strike in 1972, th...
  • Simon Baddeley The history of those times is as contested as the present. It teaches me that in the last resort Heath blinked - and some saw that as weakness other's as decency. At what point to maintain the Queen's Peace do you call on water cannon, plas...
  • Jonathan Stephen Davies Absolutely - but he may also have blinked because he thought he would lose. As we're seeing in various parts of the world right now, sending in the army does not translate into automatic victory for the state. It is not the bottom line and...
  • Simon Baddeley 
    

    We are in conjecture land. Tolstoy was so right about how events that are later called history unfold. I think you are right about Cameron's direction but recall that it was Willie Whitelaw who challenged Thatcher's view that 1985 in Handsworth was just criminal. i was at one of the many meetings where one of the brightest civil servants I've met came up to listen to small groups of Handsworth people saying they deplored the riots but that the rioters were not criminals. There was, whatever you think, some listening. More optimistically I think there will be a great pulling together of the Handsworth community - in fact even in Scotland where I am, I'm engaged in the rebuild - material and psychological.

Linda to me: People with your condescending, 'it's not their fault, we need to do something for them, laisser-faire attitude' are the reason for things like this. It is their fault, they should be getting off their butts and doing something for themselves and they shouldn't be able to do as they please! I'm fed up with people thinking they're 'entitled' and can just do as they please. You're seeing the results of not practising 'tough love' in a big way!

But my friend Susan Green, long term Handsworth resident,living up Antrobus Road defends me: Of course their is a link. Kids in places like Chipping Norton aren't out looting. Poverty in all it's manifestations provides a rich breeding ground for resentment, envy and frustration. So many young people around here are boxed in by lack of options that when a bunch of criminals decide to go on the rampage they drag along a lot of disaffected youth. In fact I think last night they counted on it in order to ensure there was enough diversionary activity allowing them to concentrate on high end stuff like the jewellery shop. My local shop keepers are really upset and afraid as are local residents I've spoken to this morning.

*** ***
I just streamed another of Jack's films. The Falcon pipe he lays down - still smoking - on the table beside him stands on a shelf in our kitchen with another he never used. The bowl of the Falcon still has a whiff of that Gallagher's Rich Dark Honeydew I remember from childhood and all the later years.

"I have no doubt that in about 200 years time the people who occupy my patch will find one of these - one of my pipes lying around the place and no doubt they'll take it to the local museum and ask them what it is.'"

An episode - or rather half an episode - of one my stepfather's 30 minute 'Old Country' broadcasts made in the early 1980s. Many thanks as usual to the viewer who recorded this at the time and took the trouble to find me so I could stream it on YouTube. As usual off-air copies on '80s video recorders are seldom of the best quality, so apologies for fuzziness.
*** ***

In the late afternoon Amy and I walked the dogs along the heathered esker above the house. Two buzzards, their territory invaded circled mewing. "Sending them to prison won't do any good. What will they learn there? We need some restorative justice despite the popularity of harsh retributive justice" "Make parents account for their children?" "Confiscate goods that were stolen" "Get rioters to clear up the mess." So we chatted over the esker laid down before men walked here when ice stood five miles above the ground. You can't steal a walk I thought but then I thought of those respectable men who steal landscapes.

Dammit! There was a S106 Agreement -  the same that after four year's delay brought us the hard won Victoria Jubilee Allotments, but which has still not brought us the cricket pitch and two playing fields and sports pavilion that were part of the same agreement. When we got back to Brin Croft we had supper, after which wrote to our new councillor, Waseem Zaffar:

Dear Cllr Zaffar 

I may be 400 miles away for a few more days but Handsworth is in my mind every moment. In Oct 2009 as part of lobbying over more than a decade we were getting closer to having the 80 allotments many people now enjoy next to Handsworth Park as part of a S106A deal with Persimmon Homes. But there was meant to be more to come. Instead there has been a continued delay in providing sporting facilities next to the allotments. The significance of that delay in the light of current events you will immediately grasp.

For context, this was my letter to Cllr Martin Mullaney after Basil Hylton, many years Secretary of the cricket club in Handsworth Park and the promoter of sports for local young people in our area, had again asked me if I knew anything about the delay in the implementation of the S106A on application N/01514/03/FUL:

Dear Martin. I’ve been pushing the allotments, but as background to Basil’s enquiry, the S106A of May 2004 included the following:D. Planning Application No. N/01514/03/FUL – Victoria Jubilee Allotments ... approved under a Section 106 agreement to provide the following:• Eighty new municipal allotments plus an index linked payment of £21,000 towards their maintenance.• An index linked sum of £27,000 towards the maintenance of a play area and £25,000 in lieu of a second play area.• An index linked sum of £15,000 towards the regeneration of neighbouring Handsworth Park.• Two playing pitches and a cricket square plus a pavilion and car parking to the Council design.• The inclusion of twenty four affordable homes.Yours sincerely. Simon

Can I suggest you try your hand at accelerating the play area and most especially the two playing pitches and cricket square plus pavilion and car parking? At present all we see from the allotments is a vast and inviting flat green space on which hundreds of young people should be involved in sport.

There appear to be three reasons for the delay which may well make the problem seem to you intractable, though the log jam might be loosened by current events.

1. Local residents on the new Parklands estate (Secretary: Marcellus Lindsay have objected to the planned locations of the play areas included in the S106A. Marcellus is a sensible and intelligent man and very ready to discuss this matter and share residents' concerns. marcellus@catalystsforcommunity.com

2. The developer Persimmon Homes, project manager Cliff Nixon at last report, claim the recession affects their ability to pay for the work which, when completed, like the allotments, are supposed to be transferred to Birmingham City Council and indeed should have been transferred 4 years ago. Planning officer Alan Orr, presuming he is still our constituency planning officer, (or his successor) is the best informed on the status of the S106A. alan.orr@birmingham.gov.uk (Note: in fact it's now: Stuart.Morgans@birmingham.gov.uk, Stuart Morgans,  Principal Planning Officer)

3. Unlike the allotments on which the plot holders themselves have been dealing pretty well with debris strewn top-soil spread by the developer (we said to city allotments officer Adrian Stagg "Let's just get gardening" despite his dissatisfaction with the preparatory work of the developer, so the site was opened in June 2010), the City Education department which has taken responsibility for implementing schools use of the playing fields is unwilling to receive the site until it is in a fit state to be played on, fearing, very understandably, the possibility of having to spend city money rather than the developer's money, to get the ground fit for soccer and cricket.

Whenever I raised this matter at Ward Committee - many times over the last 4 years - I said officers could do nothing without robust political action by elected members. The problem was constantly referred back to officers by ward councillors. My point that they might need to lobby politically to get movement on the delay in getting those playing fields was not grasped. Local people campaigned for over ten years for that S106A with crowded public meetings, petitions, letters and regular stories in the media. We thought that the conclusion of the S106A marked the end of the need to campaign.

I really hope you may be able to achieve progress where we have failed.

Kindest regards

Simon Baddeley
Handsworth Allotments Information Group (HAIG)
mobile 07548 820658