Thursday, January 31, 2008

Lib Dem position on Bristol's green spaces is not green!! And the council's position is even less green!!

6 comments:
No, no to Lib Dem Councillors Tim Kent and Neil Harrison (‘The future of Bristol’s park’s’, Bristol Evening Post Open Lines, 31 Jan 2008). Their position on green spaces is far from green! The Lib Dems were clearly in favour of flogging off a big chunk of Castle Park’s green space when they ran the city just last year, until public opinion stopped them via a huge petition (see previous post here)! They seem to have conveniently short memories. If they were running the city they would now be selling off a significant portion of Bristol’s green spaces too. In fact Knowle Lib Dem Councillor Gary Hopkins fails to outright condemn and oppose the loss of 90 acres, 2.4%, which now seems to be agreed with the Parks Forum, whilst trying to give the impression he would be happier with losing 40 acres, 1.1% (‘Parks saved by council U -turn’, Post, 31 Jan 2008) – either represents a significant loss (note that the Evening Post story title should say Some Parks saved... to be considered accurate)!! Far from losing green space, any ‘UK green capital’ should be greening up our city! Everyone will appreciate that it is not news the Greens like me want more green space in our city!!

All the big parties are out of tune with what Bristol’s public wants and what our city needs. Just take a look at the comments on the petition opposing the sell off of acre after acre of green space on the city council website http://epetitions.bristol.gov.uk/signatures.php?id=166 . You will find comment after comment from people saying that green spaces are extremely valuable, for our health, wellbeing, climate, wildlife, and security from floods, and they don’t want to lose any, let alone 90 acres (2.4%) or indeed 40 acres (1.1%). Allowing such a loss would simply continue the pattern of previous year on year eating away at what is often impossible to replace once its gone. This is an ongoing pattern - when will it end?