Marsh Lane Allotments

Dear Bob, SLM-ers, Lammasites, Adrian & EMAC, and others,

Re: Marsh Lane Fields Allotments.

Sorry this email is quite long, but I want matters to be made absolutely clear.

If you haven't time to read the whole narrative, just read the paragraphs I have marked with an asterisk (*).

As you will see at the end, I need to send an email to Leon Welford of the Waltham Forest 2012 Legacy Team - today, if possible, and I hope to do so before 4.30pm (as I then have to go out).

 

So if anyone has any comments, or suggestions about what we should be asking for, please let me know quickly! (Opinions on Cypressa Lawsonii would be appreciated too!)

At the 'Save the Lea Marshes' (SLM - formerly 'Save Leyton Marsh!') meeting on Monday evening we had a situation report about the Marsh Lane Fields allotments site from one of the SLM core executive group, who is also an Eton Manor Gardening Society allotment-holder and on the Management Committee of the Manor Gardening Society (MGS).

Just as a reminder, MGS were pushed out of the Olympics site and were not offered any alternative site by the Borough of Newham, whose obligation it probably should have been to relocate them (presumably Newham did not feel obliged to do so because the Borough did not own the land where the allotments were situated).

The original allotment site had been purchased by Major Villiers of the Eton Manor Club at some time in the 1920s or '30s, quite close to the Wilderness (Eton Manor Playing Fields south of Ruckholt Road). The site remained in the ownership of Eton Manor until the Club folded, and its assets within the Lee Valley Regional Park (LVRP) were then transferred to the newly established Lee Valley Regional Park Authority (LVRPA) - which in general left these assets to fall into disrepair, disuse and dereliction. The LVRPA did not offer MGS any alternative temporary allotment site either, so it was presumably not their legal obligation to do so (although they had owned the Eton Manor site for a long time and own large swathes land in the Lea Valley).

So the plot-holders ended up in a waterlogged new allotment site on former Lammas Lands at Marsh Lane Fields (where Ben Moseley at Marsh Lane Cottage grazed the horses brought to him for breaking in), in Leyton Ward, Waltham Forest (WF). Most allotment-holders lived in the Borough of Hackney, but the beautiful original site, on a hill above the Channelsea River was across the Old River Lea in Newham).most allotment-holders lived in the Borough of Hackney, but the allotment site was across the Old River Lea in Newham).

SLM were told on Monday that there have been several meetings over the past few months between the MGS Committee and Borough Officers. Charlie was, however, quite confused by those discussions, which seemed to be more an exercise in "divide and rule" than negotiations. The officers from WF appeared at one point to be saying that the powers-that-be were obliged to offer an alternative site within the "Olympic Park" only to those allotment-holders who had actually relocated from the old site.

* SLM had been aware, from attending LVRPA meetings, that part of the Authority's former lands on what had been the Eton Manor Playing Fields (EMPF), also in Leyton Ward, had been designated by the LLDC as a replacement allotment site.

* It seemed fair enough that LVRPA should have some of their land used for this purpose. since they had owned the original site. However, this would mean a permanent nett loss of public open space in Leyton Ward. I rang Leon Welford at the time, and despite his initial denial that this obvious fact was true, I eventually wore him down and got him to agree verbally over the phone that it would indeed represent a nett loss of however many acres it is (1.1 hectares, I think) to the residents of WF.

We had a subsequent ding-dong about the matter when Leon and John Widdows turned up at the following Lea Bridge Ward Forum meeting. Although the allotments are in fact in Leyton Ward, to the residents of Leyton and Lea Bridge Wards, Marsh Lane Fields are a shared whole - and none of the Councillors present attempted to shut me or anyone else up on the grounds that it was a different Ward (probably they didn't even realise it!). After the meeting I found myself by chance on a bus with Leon, and naturally we chatted - which was also quite useful.

* SLM were then told on Monday evening that Waltham Forest have just submitted a Planning Application to the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC), which has taken over responsibility for developing the Olympic Park (OP) from the Olympics Delivery Authority (OAD), asking the LLDC to drop the requirement for the allotments to be relocated within the Olympic Park on former LVRPA land in WF.

* You might think this means that my argument had been accepted, but in fact what is now happening is that as soon as the LLDC agree to drop it the way will be clear for WF to retain the allotments at Marsh Lane Fields. (This they intend to do.)

So the next day (Tuesday, yesterday) I rang Leon up in the morning and asked him if he could explain to me what was going on. I won't extend the length of this email by giving a verbatim report of the whole 20-minute phone conversation, so the salient points (and these are NOT quotes unless so indicated) are below:

* Whereas WF had no obligation whatsoever to offer the MGS an alternative allotment site in the borough, there was a lot of political pressure to put the Games on with as little fuss as possible - and the doers and shakers at Waltham Forest Council was bending over backwards to oblige the London Development Agency (LDA), who were amassing the land needed to hold the Games.

* Having transferred the allotments into WF, it has now become the responsibility of WF to provide an alternative site for the allotments.

* However, there is little political incentive to designate brownfield sites that could be used for housing as allotment sites - so the relocation would have to be onto some other bit of green open space. Therefore, it is inevitable that 7 acres (1.1 hectares) of public open land will be permanently lost to the residents of WF. That being the case, the area to be lost may as well be the existing site at Marsh Lane Fields.

The logic of this is, of course, absolutely impeccable. (It is up to us, should we choose to do so, to make a fuss and to suggest an alternative - which must be just as suitable or better, since it has to comply with the 1921 Allotments Act - brownfield site elsewhere in Waltham Forest.)

Given that the land at EMPF was previously owned by the LVRPA, I can also see the impeccable logic of transferring the allotments there. In fact, on Monday evening, SLM were told that there had even been discussions which would have involved moving only those allotment-holders who had come to Marsh Lane Fields and were still there, whilst retaining the allotments in Leyton for those who had come there later so as to use them to cut down the long waiting list for allotments in WF!

I asked Leon yesterday about this, and he said that it wasn't now being seen as an option because it would be too much loss of existing open space in WF. We agreed that Leyton as a town is generally deficient in green public open spaces.

* I asked him which department had been responsible for submitting the Planning Application to LLDC. He said a a number of departments were involved, but that the Application had come from the Council. I asked him if that meant it had gone to the Cabinet for approval. He said it had NOTgone to Cabinet. So it is not minuted or reported on anywhere.

So I asked him at whose behest it had been done. He was very cagey, and just said: "Senior politicians." I asked him if that meant Chris Robbins, Clyde Loakes and Terry Wheeler. He just laughed, and said something like "well, you could say that." So I am pretty sure I know who was behind it.

* Leon told me that the Application was submitted by WF to the LLDC at the end of last week, and has not yet been validated so does not have an application number yet.

I pointed out to Leon that the MGS allotment site at Marsh Lane Fields had been leased to the LDA, but was vested in Waltham Forest. So could the Condition about being temporary be removed under Delegated Powers? He said the Application to remove the Condition that the allotments have to be removed by December 2014 and grant permanent change of use of the area would definitely have to come to the WF Planning Committee. (Presumably there would have to be notices at the site and a 3-week consultation period, but I forgot to ask.) It cannot just be dealt with under Delegated Powers.

Just to finish up, some good news.

* I then said that since the Marsh Lane Fields site is currently in the LDA's possession and the site in the former EMPF, which is now within the purview of the LLDC, was in the OP, then there ought to be some compensation made by the LDA/LLDC to WF for the permanent loss of this part of the fields as public open space.

* I said there was no point asking for money for improvements to Marsh Lane Fields, as there has already just been loads of dosh spent on the fields as part of the compensation money for the loss for over a year of the Drapers' Field site further south (now returned to WF, which is carrying out the final remediation works to the pitches). There was also no point asking for exchange land, because there is none in the LDA/LLDC's gift in the Leyton area to give to the Borough in compensation.

* However, I told Leon that since 1994, when the Freight Road through the Grade 1 Site of Ecological Importance on the former railway sidings was being heavily pushed by the local Labour Party, local people had been asking that if the road went ahead there should be a bund and a thick screen of tall evergreen trees planted between Marsh Lane Fields and the new road. This would screen out the noise and mitigate the night-time lighting all year round (in those days, the fields at night were very quiet and dark, full of wildlife, and you could see the night sky).

* It had never been implemented - there wasn't enough room for a bund because a scarcely-used double cycle path was put in instead, and the wrangling over what trees to plant came to a halt when Nick Evans left the Borough (he was the Conservation Officer, and wasn't replaced for ages).

* I said local people had been asking for a green screen of trees for nearly twenty years, and now that the sidings were back in use, with floodlighting and everything, the need was even greater. It would also improve the character and 'feel' of the fields by hiding the industrial-looking train maintenance buildings. Why not ask the LDA/LLDC, if the allotments are to remain permanently, if they would pay to plant and maintain a green screen. And perhaps re-plant the hedgerow by the footpath leading to the footbridge as well.

* The line went silent for so long that I thought I must have lost the signal. But Leon was thinking about it. Then he said something like: "That's a great idea! Could you put it in an email and send it to me. We'll have a think about it."

* If anyone has any comments, please let me know, as I wish to strike while the iron is hot and get something to him by 4.30pm today.

Thanks,

Katy.