Action Briefing Feb 2005 - Mar 2005
	The Newsletter of Birmingham Friends of the Earth

Victoria Jubilee Allotments

Supporters of the long-running campaign to prevent a housing development obliterating the Victoria Jubilee Allotments (VJA) site in Handsworth will know that planning permission was granted on 13th May this year, by a tiny margin on the Development Control Committee. Our last resort was to seek a Judicial Review of that decision.

The initial cost of having our case for this Review assessed by a barrister (let alone the far greater cost of the actual Review) was prohibitive without legal aid. Finding a candidate for such aid took some networking. Two applications were turned down. On the third attempt Phil Shiner of Public Interest Lawyers obtained the necessary Certificate on behalf of Lucy Le Faye.

On 14th October 2004 we received a report from a leading planning barrister who, with reservations, concluded that we were unlikely to succeed before a Judge, so thoroughly had the City Council’s lawyers covered the arguments for the application. Nathalie Lieven of Landmark Chambers writes in Para 28. of her Opinion that "I have concluded with some reluctance there is no reasonable prospect of success on challenges based on the substantive issues."

Heavy hearts
The opinion of Counsel is measured. We accept it with heavy hearts. We read it as confirmation that though we've been campaigning for nearly ten years against an injudicious planning decision, it is not likely to be viewed by a Judge as illegal. City Councillors have, by a small margin and after eloquent arguments against the application from longstanding elected supporters, allowed the biggest loss of green space in Handsworth for over fifty years.

Anyone interested in the legal reasons for our decision not to go on to judicial review can contact me at Handsworth Allotments Information Group on 0121 554 9794 or 07775 655842 for an e-mail containing our barrister's Opinion.

The irony is that if the Planning Gain from the loss of green space is fully implemented we shall see eighty new municipal allotments laid in the north west of the VJA site. This, we’ve been told by people more knowledgeable than us, is the largest new allotment site laid out in the UK since the end of World War II. It’s unlikely this would have been achieved had our opposition to the original application to build over the whole VJA site not been so robustly and skilfully sustained.

The Handsworth Allotments Information Group thanks you all for your support, advice and understanding over the years. We shall give every support to the Council’s allotments section in spreading the word about the new plots when they are handed over by Westbury Homes to the City Council, but we doubt such publicity will be needed.

Simon Baddeley