Getting ready to go to Greece

Coming back from a meeting in Stafford to plan scrutiny seminars later in the year, I decided to get off at Smethwick Galton Bridge. What makes this location a delight is that the station contains, on separate levels, intersecting lines to New Street and Snow Hill - both going to a destination hardly four miles away, yet, at Galton Bridge, forming a cross roads which makes me lose my orientation as I emerge with my bicycle from the lift to take another lift to get to the street exit. There are surrounding roads and junctions and a pedestrian walk - Roebuck Lane - across Thomas Telford's high Victorian cast-iron bridge, from which you see - a few yards away - another bridge carrying trains from the north, and then, peering over Telford's fine railings, I glimpse a smooth zigzag leading down to the towpath of the Birmingham main-line canal and know my way again. I headed down the slope and cycled a mile and a half to the exit next to Black Patch Park, inspected the place and headed up to the Soho Road and a long meal at Sangams before going home.

Amy's finally reclaimed her bicycle from our garage, changed the knobbly mountain tyres for hybrids. I gave her a lesson on mending punctures, changing tubes, putting talcum inside the tyres, checking pressures. I fished gadgets for her from my tuck box of cycle bits and pieces including a light set. So now she's cycling into the city centre from Minworth via the Birmingham-Fazeley towpath. ** ** **

Honey snaps a marrow in the garden at Democracy Street

Lin's packing our cases. "Let me know the books you want to take." I'm getting ready for the journey, thinking about where we're going and ticking off jobs to be done here - tap washers changed, lawns mowed; physical things. Preparing for work can be done anywhere. Honey's sent us pictures of the garden at 208. "Lots of weeds but we'll have lots of stuffed marrow." Yesterday Richard drove me down to Rock Cottage.

It needed checking for damp "and hornets" said two friends who'd stayed a night instead of the week they'd planned. Switched to 208 we've been spending little time in the Forest of Dean. Wabi sabi (侘寂) cottage - a place of such happy times as the children were growing - bought the year Richard was born, 70 miles south of Birmingham, approached by a footpath up Bell Hill in the centre of the long village of Lydbrook, backing onto the forest - another village with a band.

We trudged up the steep familiar path to the cottage. It wasn't so bad. Dusty and musty perhaps. I put the heating on; electric blankets; scrubbed out debris from mouse-riven tea bag boxes in the kitchen drawers and swept the bathroom, cleaned the bath and shelves; cut away the Virginia creeper filling the gutters and the bramble tendrils reaching for windows and under the doors. How swiftly the forest takes over.

Once the beds were made up and the messiness reduced we left and went further into the forest, stopping in a layby beyond Ruspidge. Just inside the trees as we wandered through a scowle, Richard said "Look, dad" There, as close as I've been to any in the wild, were two stags and a doe, gazing down from the grassy spoil heap. We drove to the river's edge at Alvington and walked along a narrow path lined with tall nettles and brambles under the railway, emerging on a grass covered slipway before a panorama of the Severn estuary. Spring high tide. An expanse of brown water moving neither way, turgid, slightly sinister. Walking back I picked and savoured rich blackberries and got a tingling sting and a scratch. Then to the small church at Hewelsfield and back to Lydbrook to visit our friend Steven Outram in the converted church that is his studio. For twenty years he's painted the local landscape, defining its appearance as composites - the result of sketches made on long walks.

* * * I’m nursing two disappointments. We’ve been warned by Birmingham’s allotments officer that the arrival of local allotments on the Victoria Jubilee Allotments (VJA) is again postponed - this time indefinitely. Email 19 August 2009:

Simon, I have no further news. In short, I do not have a firm date for completion of the works and I also understand that the land acquisition is not complete. Given those facts, we cannot occupy the land as I had assumed we would have been able to by now. Without specific detail I am not in a position to tell people anything more. However, my view is that we will have to delay opening until 2010 - we have the added problems of losing a key staff member, Gardeners Weekend and the imminent rent period and these have huge implications on our resource. My optimism is therefore evaporating but there is little more I can do except shout. Adrian Stagg, Allotments Finance & Records Officer.

Dear Adrian. Thank you for your swift reply to my query about when plots on the VJA would be becoming available after we had heard rumours of yet further delay. It's clear that within the constraints of officer's neutrality you've been doing your professional best to encourage the development of allotments including the VJA. It's not too strong to say that I and a lot of others will be very disappointed and indignant at not being able to apply for plots on the VJA for yet another year, and indeed will have to continue to worry that our hopes have been frustrated and - given past experience - that this waiting might not even end in 2010. Over a year ago on 20 May 2008, at a site meeting with Alan Orr, our community planning officer, local councillors and other local representative's were told by Mr Orr that the developer, Persimmon Homes, had agreed that the 'trigger' point for proceeding with the contracted terms of the Sections 106 Agreement on the site had arrived. Details of that meeting and an image are here. Basically Alan Orr said that a representative of Charles Church, the developer of the housing on the site, would now be proceeding to implement the terms of the Section 106 Agreement (planning gain agreement) on the site - a legal agreement concluded between Birmingham City Council and the Applicant on 20 May 2004 after their application - N/01514/03/FUL - had been approved by the City's Development Control Committee on the grounds that in return for building on green space next to Handsworth Park, the developer would lay out on the rest of the land, 80 new allotments, a cricket pitch, two soccer pitches, sports pavilion and children's play areas and that these resources would be passed on to the City as soon as an agreed number of the new houses had been sold - the 'trigger' point referred to above. I'm sorry for being repetitive but this is a legal agreement whose terms are not being implemented and in that respect it seems to us that both parties bear responsibility for this continued failure to realise its terms. Yours sincerely, Simon, Handsworth Allotments Information Group (HAIG)

Adrian’s a sober and politically sensitive officer, but we can tell how he feels about this succession of delays and broken promises. I'm writing around, letting people know.

The other disappointment is that our Amy missed - by five seconds - passing the fitness test to transfer from Community Support to the Police. It’s the same test for men as for women; unjust by Olympic standards of physical differences between men and women, but possibly right in terms of doing the same job on the streets. She must wait 12 weeks to take the test again. On this occasion, apparently fairly typical, 8 out of the 9 women candidates failed while 1 out of the 11 men failed.

* * *

Cycling back from campus I met Robin Clarke cycling the other way. He lives high in a city tower block in Ladywood. We stopped in the shade of sycamores by the Vale Bridge for one of our biannual chats about the end of the world. He drew, from his bag, his paper ‘Will there be an abrupt collapse?' We discussed what might collapse, when and how - currencies, credit, commodity markets, especially energy and food, retailing, transport, communications, water supply, government operational systems, trust in government and in legal, social, and informal norms, trust in, and cooperation with, other persons of varying familiarity. Robin suggests potential causes of abrupt collapse: hyperinflation, crossing of balance-sheet thresholds, under-recognised key roles, market failures (short-termism, panic-paralysis), 'unexpected' events in a context of corner-cutting, loss of confidence in various assumptions..."Make sure you're down for an allotment!" I said. Next day he sent me an e-mail and a link:

You'll have heard that not only are France and Germany "recovering" but so is the US. Meanwhile in the real world.....

Campaigning for green space in the city

I woke early this morning feeling feisty about green space and decided to do a little more lobbying over the delay in laying out allotments and playing fields on the Victoria Jubilee Allotments - using some of my friend Luke Unsworth's images of the site in 2004 before it was cleared by the developer. I've sent this to various people in Birmingham City Council - Scrutiny in particular but also to the Portfolio Cabinet member that includes allotments, and to Adrian at The Stirrer - who mentioned the VJA on 20 November last. I'm also seeing Friends of the Earth at the Warehouse this Monday evening, in particular Ben Mabbett. His e-mail of a few days ago:

Hi There. Sorry about the delayed response, I've been a bit busy of late. Anyway, from a planning point of view as far as I know Section 106 agreements are legal agreements, so should be quite difficult for developers to wriggle out of. This is why they are used rather than conditions of planning approvals. I would imagine there is some sort of trigger level that the agreement would come into action on, and this is mentioned in one of the links on an earlier email. Do we know what this is? So many dwellings completed, so many dwellings occupied, so many dwellings sold? Also, is building work completed now, or is it still ongoing, or have the houses been finished to shell only? It may be given the current financial situation that some sellers or occupiers have pulled out of sales, or that the developer are only finishing houses to shell with no fit outs. If this is the case then they may have receded from the agreed trigger level. Equally, I know that Persimmon Homes (and Charles Church who they are part of) are having of financial difficulties at the moment and have made a large amount of redundancies, so there's the chance that they have no funding for the work, and/or the people dealing with it have left the company. They may well have agreed a breathing space with the council, or they may simply have no money and have chosen not to implement it and hence may be in breach of the Section 106. Not sure if I can make Monday as it's also my office Christmas party, but if I can offer any advice over email then you know where I am. Thanks, Ben Mabbett

My reply:

Dear Ben. I spoke to Karen and I'll drop down to the Warehouse as soon as I get back from York on Monday evening - around 8.30 pm. It should at least allow us to swap notes without disrupting your well deserved Christmas party. Our understanding from the site meeting with Alan Orr in May this year was that the trigger point - based on selling sufficient homes - had been arrived at and that work on laying out the green space next to the new houses was to begin in August 08. Alan Orr has said he understands our frustration at the delay in implementing the S106A and that the developer is now in breach of the what was legally agreed. Best wishes, Simon

* * * * Two pieces from Malcolm Brabant for the BBC on events in Athens - one an op-ed on the Greek crisis politely challenging the views of a military friend with experience of rioting in Northern Ireland who patronises events in Hellenic cities as an exercise in "blowing off steam"...

The officer, whose identity I cannot reveal, was convinced that the international media had overplayed the story of the biggest civil unrest in Greece since the end of the Colonels' military dictatorship more than 40 years ago. "You had the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia. These are the Velvet Riots," he said. "No one has been hurt in the disturbances. There is an unwritten pact between those throwing stones and the riot police. Neither side is trying to hurt the other...Sure, buildings have gone up in smoke. But the government should be praised for allowing all these young people to vent their anger and that there have been no casualties. This has been a huge non-event," he said. I have nothing but respect for my friend's military experience. True, there have been no serious casualties (since the death of Alexandros Grigoropoulos). But to dismiss this past week as insignificant because nothing has really changed, is premature in my opinion...Greece has the potential to be the most wonderful country in Europe. Besides exquisite landscapes, brilliant climate, unrivalled history, it is blessed with a well-educated youth whose ambitious parents are willing to sacrifice their present to enable their children to have a better future. But young people's expectations are suffocated by a system that borders on the feudal...

...and the other reporting further violence in Exarchia last night - though no-one seriously hurt - after a day of peaceful vigils by those brave ones earnest to hold the centre. * * * * Last year the Friends of Black Patch Park knew they'd succeeded with a mix of lobbying and luck to save this park from being decommissioned and zoned for industrial/retail development. Ted Rudge's superb study of the park's connection with Gypsies gave the place prominence in history, but most delightful was having the descendants of Gypsies evicted violently from the Black Patch at the turn of the 20th Century to make a treeless cindered heath into a green oasis amid the smokestacks of Smethwick, turn up to help us save it and sign our video petition - just one of many things that helped us turn a corner. Ted's dissertation as part of a Life Long Learning Programme at Birmingham University, tutored by Carl Chinn, was published by Birmingham City Council. It's title Brum Roamin'. It recovered the history of the Black Patch onto which we added its subsequent story as a Birmingham and then a Sandwell MBC public park. Sandwell could give little attention to a small green space up against the Birmingham border, from which most surrounding industries had disappeared along with residents, that designating it as a place for new shops, houses and factories made sense to them. We made their sense look more and more like non-sense, writing surveys of the place's natural history and value to footballers and residents from Birmingham just over the 'border', running events in the park, having our own folk song by Bryn Phillipsand meeting officers from Sandwell Council, so that quite abruptly, after Emma Woolf from BBC WM had picked up that YouTube petition and made it into a broadcast item one evening in May 2007, we got a meeting arranged by her with Councillor Bob Badham - our preferred enemy - portfolio holder for the built environment in Sandwell Council, agreed to meet and talk. Almost at once it was agreed to re-write the structure plan - the local plan for that area of Sandwell - to again include Black Patch Park. Without an enemy our group faltered. now the problem was one we had to share with Sandwell. Even though we know the park is popular - especially with footballers - how is the money to be found to recover it from its state of somewhat shabby dereliction and maintain it thereafter? There are red herrings and false hopes especially around partnership - a term suffering from increasing word-fatigue. Not that we do not need to know who are our friends and how deep are their pockets but pondering the park's future, now it's 'saved', leaves us bewildered at times. Watch this space - literally - in the sense that we've drawn up a draft plan to use as a basis for proposals, negotiations and lobbying. * * * * I realise it's early days but I wonder which people amid the marches, confrontations and public forums on streets and campuses is emerging to lead in this crisis. Are there charismatic students in Athens or further afield with the ideas and the capacity to stand when histories are written? Is there anyone out there capable of making history? What ideas, among the many that might provide maps for the future, will emerge as a result of these events? Googling 'student leader' I came up with Natalia Bersi who gave Helena Smith for the Guardian an overview of the last week in Athens. Were I a student I'd be discrete about naming 'leaders', even if I lacked the spittle to say "I am Spartacus!" But when the teargas and the smoke clears who, if anyone, will emerge with what ideas about what is to be done? * * * E-mail from IA:

S. I'm writing a piece for FirstPost.co.uk tomorrow [19/12/08 - actually published in Guardian comment] and wanted to ask for your comment on whether this explosion of student feeling is exclusively related to Grigoropoulos' death, if it's a principled stand by a newly-politicised generation, or if it's one of a series of tantrums being thrown by a spoilt generation threatened by the sweep of globalization. All best, iason Well yes indeed. Have you heard any voice of substance from those who hold the streets – men or women of the potential of Cohn-Bendit, Rudi Dutschke, Petra Kelly, Angela Davis, Mario Savio, Steve Biko and others I can think of? I cannot believe they are not there and may be spoken of with assurance on the streets and campuses. Who if anyone is emerging? Perhaps you with your journalistic links know who these must be and what thinking they bring to possible futures for Greece. The ideological stuff I’ve heard so far seems juvenile. Who's been writing about how things ought to be for Greece – perhaps over a much longer time? Any new ideas would have surely to come linked to a set of workable economic and social ideas that don’t look like the one’s I’m hearing. For example - On the Greek Riots But that could be because I don’t speak Greek and am too far away. Any thoughts? I guess the leadership or lead ideas and vision could come from other places than Athens – could come from Thessaloniki or other energised populations including the Greek diaspora. There have after all been student manifestations over Europe and even in the US and there’s talk of a big pow-wow on 20 December, with bold chaps (it seems to be chaps) talking about when we are in government. There’s also the matter of who else in Europe speaks interestingly and usefully about radical reform and workable futures different from the pragmatic extrapolations that seem to be failing – technically and psychologically. All the changes I can take seriously are incremental – and to do with local government and place-shaping linked to sustainability. S PS. Googling "student leader" I came up with this article dated 13 December by Helena Smith in Athens for the Guardian mentioning Natalia Bersi; mainly a diary of the last few days. S.

S. Thanks for that Guardian piece and this thoughtful comment. Reading the piece, I can't say that she bucks the trend and her testimony comes across as a narrative of what she did rather than a vision of what she hopes to create on the ashes of the current establishment. I'm deeply disappointed with my generation and I've lived them up close and personal. The ones who are half my age (the 15 year olds) are even more dispiriting, as far as I can tell...iason Iason. ...On being 'disappointed with my generation' - people of my age are supposed to say such things about a younger generation. I would like to go on a sort of tour of Greek campus’s – dressed as a cleaner or something – and listen out for political talent. Best, Simon

Photographer Melinna Kaminari's Christmas Card

received 15 December 2008

* * * * A blog called Tapes gone loose provides reflections, analysis - including translated Greek op-eds - and a variety of links on the developing crisis.

A society in denial (personal rant): To kick off with a necessary disclaimer, I haven't turned into a political analyst overnight. To the contrary, my knowledge of political theory is very limited & either too bookish or too cartoonish, plus I always seem to not comprehend &/or leave out some important details. If you choose to read what follows, then, do not take anything for granted - do your own research & form your own opinions, don't take it from me. (More importantly: instead of reading the entire ranting below, read the translations I point out in it, those articles are really insightful.)

* * * A survey for Kathimerini, reported 15.12.08, supports descriptive terms such as 'social unrest' and 'mass phenomenon':

As an opinion poll yesterday showed that six out of 10 Greeks believe the past week of violent riots were a 'popular uprising' and not the work of 'minority activists', politicians from across the spectrum expressed differing opinions about what action should now be taken. According to a survey carried out by polling firm Public Issue for Kathimerini, 60 percent of Greeks believe last week's unrest, triggered by the police killing of a teenager, had been 'a mass phenomenon'.

Trouble in Newtown

We made up some sandwiches for Amy and I took them down to her on six hour cordon duty after a shooting in Newtown on Friday evening. Lin had put her some cola in a little wine bottle we'd got on a flight, "Dad! I can't be seen drinking from that." I went off to the local shops at Newtown and got her a coke.
It looks as if gun crime is on the increase again after a lull with a linked shooting in Bilston. Mark Cowan and Laura Corcoran wrote in the Birmingham Evening Mail last Wednesday - before this incident:

'that the police and the council had been hoping to rely on civil injunctions to ban so-called 'nominals' (people about whom information is kept on files shared between agencies) from city streets or hanging around with each other in a novel way of ending tit-for-tat gang violence.'

Police and the council were hoping initial interim orders were having an impact.

'But two months ago, the Birmingham Mail revealed the project had hit a snag after a High Court judge dismissed an application for the first full ground-breaking injunctions in January.
West Midlands Assistant Chief Constable Suzette Davenport told a commission on gun and knife crime (video) that firearms offences had started to climb since January. "Having been very successful at the end of last year where the number of gang-related shootings were reduced, since January those figures have gone back up," she said. The figures include gun-related incidents and street robberies. Mr (sic) Davenport later stressed the number of incidents had not reached the same levels as before the operation, codenamed Malva, was launched last summer.
The gun crime setback emerged as Mr Davenport gave evidence to the Channel 4 Street Weapons Commission, chaired by Cherie Booth QC, when it came to in Birmingham yesterday to hear evidence on what could be done to tackle the problem. While the use of injunctions under Section 222 of the Local Government Act 1972 to target gang members is a break from the traditional use of the legislation, which is normally used to target dodgy traders, the authorities are confident they are on firm ground. Birmingham City Council lawyers have lodged an appeal against the decision. Mr Davenport said it was ruled that so-called Section 222 injunctions could not be used they hoped to encourage Government to work on alternatives. She added: "I am hoping we can encourage the Government that if they do not feel Section 222s are appropriate, we can look at other things which can give us an element of control over these people so they are not shooting each other or innocent people in the community."'

E-mail: Simon. Thank you for your email and your kind comments on the story. Unfortunately, it would seem a production error resulted in a few key words being changed regarding the title of Suzette Davenport, who is obviously a woman. I shall raise the matter with the news editor later to try and find out what happened. Regards, Mark Cowan

Trigger points
On Tuesday morning we have a meeting arranged by Councillor Mahmood Hussain at the Parklands Housing office off Hamstead Road to try to hasten the promised playing fields and allotments on the site of the old Victoria Jubilee Allotments (VJA). In return for building on a good third of the site the developer contracted, on 13 May 2004, when planning permission was granted to build on the site, to use the remaining space to lay out 80 allotments which would be transferred to the City Council, to provide a toddlers' play area and associated open space, a play area for older children, to pay £150,800 towards open space improvements off-site, to lay out and transfer to the city council two playing pitches and a cricket square, a pavilion changing room facility and car parking, and 24 affordable housing units on the same site. The section 106 Agreement was completed on 23rd August 2004 and we've been assured by the Constituency Planning Officer, Alan Orr, that at the end of April 2008, 'no changes to the Agreement had been made.' (e-mail sent to Mark Jackson while we were in Greece, dated 30 April 08)

According to Alan Orr 'the required affordable houses have been provided. The developer (initially Westbury Homes, and now Charles Church) entered into a partnership with more than one Registered Social Landlord, to build affordable housing on the site, and there are now more than those required under the S106 Agreement.

Alan went on to say in his e-mail to my friend - and fellow campaigner - Mark Jackson:

that in respect of the other provisions of the 106 Agreement, it is 'common practice' to work to a number of 'triggers' (my italics) depending on the stage of the overall development or the housing element of the development. Thus, the provision of the allotments and the sports pitches is related to the occupation of 40 open market dwellings on the new housing development (but, guess what? '40 dwellings' does not include the 24 affordable housing units. Currently, the sports pitches, according to Alan, have been laid out 'but their transfer to the City awaits the completion of the changing room pavilion and associated car park.'

Alan believes the trigger point for the allotment provision 'has been, or is soon to be reached' and claimed to be arranging a meeting with representatives of Charles Church to ascertain their detailed timescales for the delivery of the sports pitches and allotments to the City Council.

'The provision of the tertiary (older children's) play area and associated open space is required within 6 months of the completion of the final residential unit of the housing development, and the sum of £25,000 towards the provision of a secondary play area (off-site) is to be paid on commencement of the laying out of the open space. The sum of £150,800 (to be used towards open space improvements in Handsworth Park) is to be paid by the developer on approval by the City Council of the works carried out to provide the allotments and sports pitches. '

There's much room for fudge and further prolonged delay, especially if Charles Church are not marketing these properties with any enthusiasm - and housing sales have slowed. I ran a check on Parklands in Handsworth and came up with nothing - though Midland Heart, one of the area's prominent Registered Social Landlords, has property for sale on the Parklands site. The collateral impact of playing fields, allotments and play areas in this area of city can help fight crime as surely as greater contentment can help people's health. I'll say as much at the meeting on Tuesday morning with the developer's representatives, ward councillors, Alan Orr and the chairman of Handsworth Cricket Club, Basil Hylton. We can only perservere.

* * *

I have had a phone chart with Paul, my stepfather's biographer, about the VJA after he pointed me towards a website on which he's doing podcasts about allotments - the Allotment Channel. He also pointed me towards another interesting site which I've linked to Democracy Street - Home Farmer. Narrowcasting works so well for important interests that aren't as yet mainstream.

* * *
I've been enjoying a variety of journeys to work in the Midlands this week - negotiating the canal between home and campus and taking the bus and tram on the way to Dudley on Friday. I got change for a tenner from the conductor on the Centro tram. "Gosh that's nice" I said to a chap older than me even as he handed me my change. "Like the old days" he said with a smile. I have the conviction that were the cost savings of single staffed buses and the disappearance of park keepers balanced against the cost of the harm done to urban civility by these so-called savings, the wages of those who provide stewardship of public space would have been amply justified. But you can cost putting out a fire. It's far trickier to cost stopping it happening in the first place. How do you measure and justify the tax bill for prevention and maintenance. I conjecture that rather as the Titanic disaster and the recent Asian tsunami produced almost immediate responses in early warning measures, regardless of cost, so the slow burn growth of public squalor in the wake of the widespread withdrawal of stewardship of public places, has taught us that if people are to return in large numbers to public transport, to parks and urban streets, they must be confident such spaces are afforded protection. Our learning is the product of a long slow decline, lasting over 40 years. It will take as long to recover, and in the meantime we have trickier lessons to learn - about how to ensure our inclination to acquisitiveness, or in the case of most of the world the need to have reliable food and shelter, while protecting and sustaining the Earth's diverse yet mutually supporting system of living things. We are just learning 'to wake from a 300 year old dream' and challenge the tragedy of the commons.

* * *
An exchange with my friend Jan about my talk in Tokyo:

Dear Jan. Just getting acclimatised to England again. Hope you're well. I'd appreciate your views on the talk I need to give in Tokyo to Japanese civil servants in June on 'how to ensure standardisation of services across local governments'. Yes, they want me to talk about that - not how to nurture local choice. Best S

Hi Simon. Good to hear from you. I've kept in touch via your blog. Regarding 'how to ensure standardisation of services across local government', it seems to me that Britain is the perfect example. Despite verbal utterances to the contrary this is exactly what the Government has tried to impose and with some success through: targets, national indicators, inspection regimes, intervention (e.g. Hull & Lincolnshire), ring-fenced funding, capping, 'naming & shaming', to mention but a few. The postcode lottery has been used as an excuse. In the present political climate where Conservatives and Liberals are the dominant forces at local level I can not see any significant decentralisation take place. In fact I think there will be further neutering of local democracy under the banner of local democracy. Sorry to be so pessimistic but I simply cannot see any meaningful 'place shaping' taking place in the foreseeable future other than rhetorically and tokenistic. Hope I am wrong! Best Jan

Dear Jan. I think much can occur in the informal space between legislation and politics. Humans are ingenious. What I have found fascinating from preparing this talk - hardly more than 30 minutes (with translation) - is that in Japan which certainly contains distinctively different areas, the idea of standardised services across the country is a matter of pride and their absence regarded as a problem to be put right quickly. Local choice is not high on the agenda. So I am unclear what this man's work involves.
And what am I to make of this - the local decentralisation law. Thanks for your response. I'm delighted you are taking a look at my blog. Best Simon

Simon. This is fascinating stuff. I suppose national cultures play an important role in all this. I think he is the equivalent of a local government minister in the national government. I also get a strong sense of local ADMINISTRATION being the most important element of decentralisation rather than local GOVERNMENT. I do think developments here since 1997 are interesting in terms of what localism now has become and what the drivers are. The content of Local Area Agreements are almost identical in every locality. The same goes for Community Strategies. Variations, as they exist , tend to be linguistic and in terms of impact and emphasis rather than substance. Everywhere you will see safer & stronger communities, healthier communities, sustainable communities, economic development, wellbeing of the vulnerable, being the priorities. The reason for this is that these are the national priorities upon which LAs are judged through CPA and other inspection regimes and their star rating determined. Also LAs can only access additional funding though performing well on national priorities (e.g. stretched targets). Decentralisation can never be absolute but the absence of powers to raise revenue for local priorities based on popular demand is a major obstacle to local democracy. I think the profiles of local councillors and turn-out in local elections tell their own story. Best Jan

Yes indeed, Jan. The core fact is that only 4.71 pence of every one of my tax pounds is paid directly to local government (I dug that out from Chris Game this morning). I know more is clawed back through grant - but with many many conditions as we all know. In Japan far more of people's tax yen are raised locally. Thanks for your other thoughts. All grist to my mill on this complex subject. S

Simon. Although I remain sceptical, perhaps in a paradoxical and perverse way the present circumstances may just be conducive to more meaningful decentralisation. Given the government's unpopularity they may throw caution the wind and be more inclined to pass powers downwards (it helps with the blame!!) although their track record is not good and I don't think it is in Gordon's nature to give up any powers. There's a Scottish bean-counter for you! It is more likely this debate will ebb and flow with changes hard won and substance difficult to achieve. 'Place Shaping' can only ultimately happen with more powers (of the positive kind, not spying on people's bins or surveying people for school catchment areas) and more revenue being collected locally. It means fundamental questions about policing, health, transport, development, being given much higher local determinants. There are dangers in too much power at local level e.g. Southern states of USA in 50s & 60s re race is a sobering lesson. Only federal intervention turned it around. The dark forces of local determination must somehow be curtailed by national government or counterbalancing forces locally; a real conundrum. Some real challenges for officers and members - local collusion vs professional engagement, corruption - moral & financial. You can see the Japanese anxiety. Best Jan

This is great, Thanks Jan. Yes I know the horror stories. The village can be a source of companionship and care and the locus of a lynch mob. Simon

Good luck with your trips to Australia and Japan. Keep writing your blog so I can keep up with what you are doing. Let's get together when you're back. Best Jan

* * *
From Kalamos Books: A law extending a smoking ban in Turkey to most enclosed areas - including taxis, ferries and shopping malls - came into effect Monday 19 May. Outdoor smoking was also banned in locations such as stadiums and playgrounds. A ban on lighting up in bars, restaurants and coffeehouses will be implemented next year. Smoking is already barred on buses, airplanes and in larger offices.

Petition to save forests in Greece. The Save our forests and give our planet a chance Petition to The Greek Parliament,The United Nations,The European Union was created by and written by Konstantina Stafylaki (ambelos_village@yahoo.com).

One of the best issues of Carfree Times is just out - edited by Joel Crawford, author of Carfree Cities. There's a fascinating conversation with the traffic scientist Professor Hermann Knoflacher of Austria in this issue.
* * * *
On 17 May it was Arthur's 90th birthday, enjoyed at home with Dorothy in Bevan Lee Road in Cannock. Lin decorated the cake.

Handsworth

Whenever someone goes on about the notorious inner city area of Handsworth with its history of riots and crime I ponder this view from our balcony looking over towards the tower of St.Mary's Church and the trees of Handsworth Park, a quarter of a mile from the Villa Road. Urban pathology is an important area of academic study and no-one should down-play the injustice of unequal wealth but given the choice I've no wish to live anywhere else in the city than here - for the place and for the people who are our neighbours, known and unknown. So it looks as if we could be selecting plots on the VJA by January or March. Betty, at Walsall Road Allotments, tells me this means missing planting things that ought to be going into the ground now to be ready for Spring. I replied to Martin Mullaney, the city Cabinet member with the allotments brief, who's trying to 'get to the bottom' of why the delay in delivering on the S106A continues - having been given an anodyne reply telling him nothing he and we didn't know.

To: martin mullaney Sent: Friday, October 09, 2009 2:28 PM Subject: Re: Section 106 Agreements...

Dear Councillor. Please find ... details of the ... S106 agreement (in) Lozells and East Handsworth ward.

Hamstead Road N/01514/03/FUL - Developer to construct a pavilion. Provision of affordable housing. £22,120 allotment money for the maintenance of 80 new allotment plots being constructed by the developer at the moment, with a view to commence letting in January 2010 - due on transfer of allotment land. £27,350 for the maintenance of public open space due on the transfer of the land.

No land has been transferred yet to BCC. £150,800 Handsworth Park sum. £25,000 Handsworth Park play area sum. These two sums plus indexation totalling £191,482 have been received. Of this, £183,828 has been drawn down re. spend incurred at Handsworth Park. Please contact me if you have any further queries. If you require any detailed information regarding the open space projects please conatct Andy Hogben. Regards, Robert Thatcher. S106 Projects Team 0121 303 3654

Dear Martin. Many thanks for this information. I’ve put it on my blog and circulated it to as many as I can. I rather doubt that Robert Thatcher will tell us more than we knew when the VJA application received permission back in 2004. I do not expect him to tell us why there’s been such a long delay in delivering the allotments and the playing fields and indeed the city acquiring the land. The questions that remains unanswered are – among others - what penalty clauses for non-fulfilment are there in the S106 Agreement and who has the power to enforce those penalty clauses if they exist? The problem of the continuing delay exists somewhere at a higher level in arrangements between Persimmon Homes, the City Council Planning Department and legal services in the Council. We're constantly being placated by assurances which we have little alternative but to accept. We had assurances in May 2008 that the new allotments on the VJA would be ready by that Summer (see image and accompanying text):

The developer had, at that time, assured the constituency planning officer, Alan Orr, that a ‘trigger point’ in terms of sale of properties, had been reached and the S106A should have been implemented shortly after. It was not. We could get nothing out of Alan Orr for several more months. That has been the pattern since. This year there were assurances of plots being available by late July/August 09. The City Allotments Department thought this was the case and, in good faith, circulated a newsletter to that effect.

By August it was obvious the allotments were delayed again – and so we were informally told by an officer from allotments section who shared our frustration. Alan Orr was ‘summoned’ by ward councillors to report to the Ward Committee. On 23 Sept ‘09 we got the latest news – kindly passed on by John Tyrrell from you – that plots were delayed but should be available in early 2010. Only our optimism gives credence to this assurance – given the history of promises broken by continued delays. Plotholders on existing allotments are planting for 2010. Those who applied for and were assured of plots on the new VJA will miss this opportunity even if the latest promises are honoured. We thank you for your persistence in this matter. Finding out the reasons for these delays is important but not as important of getting the new allotments and playing fields up and working for the community. Kindest regards, Simon

On 11/10/09 22:40, Basil Hylton wrote:

Dear Martin. Is there any similar movement on the cricket facilities? Previous query on the quality of advice being given regarding laying of the square and the building of the pavilion had largely gone unanswered. Updated information would be very much appreciated. Basil Hylton, Chair of Handsworth Cricket Club

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

Simon Baddeley

Handsworth Allotments Information Group (HAIG)

FOR INFORMATION ABOUT THE VICTORIA JUBILEE ALLOTMENTS AND TO GET ON THE SHORT LIST FOR A PLOT WHEN THEY BECOME AVAILABLE PHONE ADRIAN STAGG ON 0121 303 3038 allotments@birmingham.gov.uk

or complete the on-line form.

*I assume the difference between the sums I've quoted from 2004 and those just quoted by Robert Thatcher are to do with them being index-linked. I haven't done the calculations.

** ** ** It's been almost exactly two years since I divorced my car. Of course I'd been cycling for work and play for much longer than that, mainly reliant on my folding bicycles, but on an impulse, I got out the old bike I haven't ridden for a good while. Been sitting in the garage. Having been riding one or another of my four 16" wheel Brompton folders with 6 gears for over a decade, I got a yen to try cycling with 21 gears and 24" wheels. This Eco Real (I can't even find it on the web) was my first proper bicycle. I'd always had bicycles - usually second-hand, costing anything between £10 and £50. Staying in the Highlands, I dropped into Halfords in Inverness. For fun they let me try out this bike, on sale in 1995 for over £400. I went mad. I cycled out of the shop and up the long hill of the A9 south from Inverness without a break - nothing to an experienced road cyclist, but for me, at 53, being able to do that seven mile journey back to my mother's house in Strathnairn with such ease and pace was a revelation about the difference between the bikes I'd ridden until then and one in a different class. People have asked me about the cost of a Brompton. When I tell them they often go "phew!" (to avoid that exclamation and give a bit of encouragement I do mention that they start at around £350). Ignorance about the cost difference between a high and low quality bicycle is widespread. I switched to a folder because I needed to go to lots of places by train and bus - what the transport planners call multi-mode travel, and I call versatile. Taking full sized bikes by public transport is difficult; often impossible in Britain. So I've put up with the lower hill climbing capacity of the Brompton to be able to combine cycling with long distance travel for work and play. I cycled in and out of town this afternoon on the Eco Real and got no small pleasure out of the extra turn of speed I got, but - oops - it's a lot harder getting my leg over the saddle when dismounting. On the other hand cycling with toeclips is a renewed pleasure. But I need to do a bit of tuning yet and of course, because I can't take it into places with me like the folder, I'll have to go back to using a lock. I doubt it'll replace the Brompton, but it was fun. I caught Amy in town directing traffic and she sent me to the grocers to get her some toffees. * * *

I'm really pleased with the way the Oz clips are coming along plus extracts from fictional films that feature political-management relations. This is not just a matter of having film but of compressing all the films needed so they can be displayed on screen ready for swift use in discussion. In addition we hope to get permission to webstream extracts from films Annie and John and Barb have made in the last few month via Democracy Street - as with the UK films of political-management conversations. This looks to be our coming itinerary.

At last it may be happening

It may just be that by August we shall see work starting on the sports pavilion on the old Victoria Jubilee Allotments site off Hamstead Road. On Tuesday morning I was at a meeting on Parklands Avenue with - left to right in my photo - Cllr Mahmood Hussain, residents who I've not met yet, Cllr Kim Brom, Alan Orr our Constituency Planning Officer, my good friend Liz England from the Handsworth Park Association and Basil Hylton, Chairman of Handsworth Cricket Club (hope I've got that right) and Frank James, Basil's representative on the park committee. Alan said he'd met the representative of Charles Church, the developer of the housing on the site, and that he had agreed with Alan that the 'trigger' point for implementing the terms of the Section 106 Agreement on the VJA site had been arrived at. In other words we are now about to get the 80 new allotments, cricket pitch, two soccer pitches, sports pavilion and children's play areas. I will be sceptical up to the moment I see the work beginning but it was a good meeting.
* * *
I'm just about to board my Quantas flight to Sydney, sitting in a coffee shop at Heathrow, having got up at 5.00 this morning, taken a taxi to Digbeth Coach Station and caught a National Express Coach direct to the airport - impossible by train, and far cheaper, e.g. £18.50 return as opposed to £75 by rail. The news splashed over the papers is that oil prices are unprecedently high and will remain so for the decade. Not unexpected.

Planting a vine

After a morning and afternoon's paperwork, I cycled with Oscar to Plot 14 to plant the vine - Vitis Boskoop Glory -  I'd bought Lin for her birthday.
"What's the best way to plant this?" I asked Vanley
"Dig deep and wide. Put some compost at the bottom."
Danny's on the plot next door to Vanley. She gave me a bucket of manure "Mix it with earth and water them together but leave earth between that and the vine roots or you'll burn them."
So I dug a good sized hole and planted the vine by the shed. I hope it'll grow around a trellis I'll raise on a veranda frame for our shed. I damped down the turf I've started to lay in front of the shed on a layer of riddled earth.

The scarecrow came from Scotland

*** ***
In Ano Korakiana the heat and humidity of August brings out family and friends - η μεγάλη οικογενειακή και φιλική παρέα της γειτονιάς - to sit in 'concentrations' - «συγκεντρώσεις» - chatting quietly - σε χαμηλούς τόνους - in the narrow streets.

Έξω από τα σπίτια της Νίνας Τσιριγώτη και της Θάλειας Μπαλατσινού

*** ***
I just came across my son Richard's posting - words and images - Violent Exposure

During this time, the flow of information/news from myriad sources has, at times, been overwhelming in content and volume.  Other data on the events has been distorted, exaggerated and imagined.  There have also been times when the flow of new information comes close to standstill. Scenes from television programmes on the night the Birmingham unrest quelled.  The TV schedule for that evening included the usual pulp-vision; films such as “I, Robot” and “Alien Vs. Predator,” and an ITV Police Drama starring Caroline Quentin. Popular mantras seeded and perpetuated by news media through such events are referenced with disarranged subtitles.

[Here his images of Handsworth Unrest posted 9 Aug'11]

*** ***
I got a call from the council planning department this morning, took notes and circulated what I'd learned:

CURRENT POSITION ON THE VICTORIA JUBILEE S106A

I’ve had a 20 minute chat with Stuart Morgans this morning. Stuart is the Principal Planning Officer for this part of the City now leading on overseeing the delays in implementing the S106 Agreement on the Victoria Jubilee site. It seems things had slowed down with the retirement of the long standing officer Alan Orr who was Stuart’s predecessor, plus other staff retirements. The Council's Landscape Development officer in Local Services (Andy Hogben) has also retired; his job now done by Bob Churn (useful always to have these names and I’ll seek emails). Stuart and Bob between them have had a recent meeting with Persimmon's Technical Director, Simon McDonald and Cliff Nixon to establish an agreed way forward. The City Council's Planning Solicitor has reminded them of their legal obligations and the Council's powers to pursue legal action if the matters cannot be resolved. Stuart said the meeting had achieved some effect and Persimmon have expressed their commitment to get things completed. Persimmon are keen to fulfil their obligations and get clear of the site. They are however pleading economic pressures and the fact they have already spent more than what was in their pot to fulfil this particular S106 Agreement. 

1. The allotments: There are a few minor ‘snagging’ problems to be sorted before the City Council can sign off the works. There’s nothing too serious needing doing now and problems, including one of rain run-off on a sloping area of the car park, should be dealt with in a couple of weeks.

2. The children's play area: The play area if built to current spec by a contractor on the Council's approved list would be far more than Persimmon state they can afford. They have suggested using one of their own contractors to do it for less. From the city’s point of view agreeing to a contractor who is not on the approved list could raise potential quality control issues and they don’t want to create a precedent developers could exploit in future agreements of this kind. However, the contractor has been working with officers to demonstrate that they can provide the required quality, and Stuart is awaiting confirmation from Bob as to whether they are agreeable to this compromise. Progress here is also complicated by the opposition of a number residents on the Parklands estate to having a playground near them on the grounds it could become a security risk.

3. The playing pitches (photo taken this morning from the allotments): On the subject of the playing pitches Stuart says the area in question is currently mowed. There are ‘technical issues’ relating to the cricket square that have been identified by the parks manager. It must be regraded and re-seeded, There must be a period of time for the land to settle and be ready as working playing pitches. Gillian Dovey is the officer in the City’s Education department with responsibility for overseeing the handover to the city of this facility. Her view is that it is pointless for the City to accept the playing fields unless the sports pavilion (with changing rooms for both sexes, plumbing, toilets and electricity) is ready. Persimmon cannot afford in the present economic climate to build any of the recently approved designs. It is also agreed that in the light of recent events, that whatever is built needs to be ‘robust’. Stuart says it will be a ‘basic’ building with the necessary changing facilities, but designed to be robust to vandalism. Gillian is ready to accept the situation and has submitted a suggested revised spec for the pavilion to Persimmon. They have appointed contractors to assess what's involved connecting it to power, water supply and sewer. Persimmon have agreed to prepare a new design and to get this costed with a view to having contractors on site this Autumn if possible. I asked Stuart for a judgement on when he thought the playing pitches would be available. Could they be ready by summer 2012? He said it might be safer to say by 2013.

I was grateful to Stuart for his detailed frankness. The delays and the reasons for them are by now familiar to me, They applied to the allotments which most of us are now happily working, even though officers would agree the land was not in the best condition at the time we started paying for our plots. At least that part of the site Is being worked as allotments. Indeed those of us who’d been lobbying for the allotments pressed officers to ensure that happened, saying, more or less, that we would be responsible for top-soil shortcomings, just to get on site and get gardening. Obviously circumstances are different when signing off playing pitches, We could have still worked plots without the communal shed valuable though it is. But using the playing fields with at least changing facilities is far less acceptable. So there you have it. Best wishes

A meeting at Parklands in 2008 about the Victoria Jubilee site

At that time I wrote: S106A = A section 106 Agreement, otherwise known as a 'Planning Gain Agreement' - by which a developer, in return for planning permission to build private homes on an area of green space, agrees to give a benefit back to the community equal to the opportunities lost by the removal of that space for leisure and recreation. It may just be that by August '08 we shall see work starting on the sports pavilion on the old Victoria Jubilee Allotments site off Hamstead Road. (The homes here have been built on part of the site. In return the developer - Westbury Homes and then Charles Church - will fulfil the contract of a planning gain agreement with Birmingham City Council). On Tuesday morning 20 May '08, this site-meeting on Parklands Avenue with - left to right in my photo - Cllr Mahmood Hussain, residents who I've not met yet, Cllr Kim Brom, Alan Orr our Constituency Planning Officer, my good friend Liz England from the Handsworth Park Association and Basil Hylton, Chairman of Handsworth Cricket Club and Frank James, Basil's representative on the park committee*. Alan said he'd met the representative of Charles Church, the developer of the housing on the site, and that he had agreed with Alan that the 'trigger' point for implementing the terms of the Section 106 Agreement on the VJA site had been arrived at. Sales of new homes on the site have been given impetus through affordable housing schemes overseen by Midland Heart, a locally prominent registered social landlord and Housing Association. (There is already a growing residents' group on Parklands - the name of the new housing). In other words we are now about to get the 80 new allotments, cricket pitch, two soccer pitches, sports pavilion and children's play areas. I will be sceptical up to the moment I see the work beginning but it was a good meeting.
Background.  Other images. Follow up correspondence.
*Since 2008 Liz has died, one councillor has resigned, the other de-selected, the planning officer has retired and Basil is no longer active with the local Cricket Club.