SHIREHAMPTON residents are being encouraged to dig out their picnic sets and unfurl their rugs for a special event designed to help highlight public opposition to possible development of community land.
Local campaigners Charlotte Leslie and Councillor Siobhan Kennedy Hall are inviting people to take part in the Shire’s Big Picnic event, on Saturday, July 25th.
The event, which will be held at The Lamplighters open space from noon until 3.30pm, has been organised to give residents the chance to show how much they value both the Lamplighters and Daisy Field land, which could be designated as “low value” land by the council.
Under the council’s Parks and Green Spaces strategy, open space designated by the council as ‘low value’ will be sold off and developed, with the intention of enhancing remaining open space in the city. Two of the sites identified as ’low value’ by the council for possible planning include Shirehampton’s so called ‘Daisy Field’, and part of the lamplighters open space.
Responding to initial public objection to the possible proposals, new Avonmouth councillor Siobhan, with support from Charlotte, set up a petition to allow residents to voice their objections to the council’s plans, which are due to go to public consultation next year.
Now, to further demonstrate public opinion over the possible moves, Charlotte and Siobhan have organised the ‘Big Picnic’ event to help show the level of local support for keeping the green spaces as they are.
Charlotte, who is also the Conservative Prospective MP for Bristol North West – which includes the areas in question – said:
“ The Big Picnic is both a peaceful protest against the Council’s possible plans to designate this land as ‘low value’, and a positive demonstration that this land is highly valued by the community.
We will also be encouraging picnic-goers to submit individual letters to the Council to explain why the land should not designated ‘low value’. This is all part of our campaign to prevent plans to develop this land from even reaching consultation stage. Because residents in Shirehampton say that based on previous experience, they feel that when a decision goes to consultation, it is already a done deal.”
