Hi all,
I'm hoping to bring the plight of 42 acres of Green Belt in South Bristol that is now firmly under threat from development to a wider, sympathetic audience.
The area is known as Ashton Vale Fields, a recognised SNCI Wetland area next to the Long Ashton village and Ashton Court areas of Bristol.
The majority of the land is regularly flooded and attracts a vast range of birds, insects and mammals for this reason. Otters, kingfishers, woodpeckers, owls, kestrel, dragonflies, even an osprey spotted as a flyover!
A link to a great website that has recorded the species in the area is here:
http://www.ashtonvalewildlife.com
The site is under threat from a local multi-millionaire who owns Bristol City FC. His intention is to bulldoze and concrete the site, build a 45,000 seat stadium and dig out the wetlands to use as flood-water run off ponds. Other intentions are hotels, drive-through restaurants and housing.
The community of Ashton Vale have put forward a successful application for Village Green status on the area, which has yet to be confirmed in law by the City Council. Unfortunately the local media (controlled by the Daily Mail Group) is gleefully slating us as nimbys, bigots, vexatious, etc. (I'll add that the consortium heading the development stated they had '£2 million in fighting funds' for exactly this purpose).
I regularly walk the area to forage the excess berries, see the local fauna and, at this time of year, to watch the migrating flocks rest up and feed. It's a beautiful, tranquil area that makes you forget you live in a city. Our campaign has the support of Friends of the Earth, Avon Wildlife Trust and many others, but we still struggle to make our voices heard above millions of pounds worth of media hype.
Can I ask that, after consideration of our situation with all due regard to both sides, you add your signatures to our petition that supports the due legal process of confirming protection of the area for future generations and the conservation of the wildlife in the area.
Petition link: http://epetitions.bristol.gov.uk/epetition_core/community/petition/1206
Many thanks,
Still Waters
Supporting the local wetlands
Welcome to the forum, Still Waters. Have signed the petition.
Thank you!
Why do multi-millionaires never have enough money???
It's obscene.
I have signed the petition, SW, and I wish you and the community of Ashton Vale all the luck and support in the world.
Pipit
My opinion is greed and collusion. And my thanks to you.
I've signed the petition, and I wish you and your group all the best with it.
Cheers, Linda.
See my photos on Flickr
Thank you (and I love your signature!)
Ah Still Waters,
Giving the whole story are we?
- No mention that the stadium is being built on a former landfill
- No mention that half the site (the SNCI and areas that flood) is not being built on
- No mention of the 8.2 acres of wildlife wetlands area that is being created right by the stadium with rhynes, ditches, reed plants, dipping ponds that will be managed to attract wildlife and protected.
- No mention that the housing is not on the fields you mention (it's a few hudred yards east) and that the restaurants and hotels will all be on the former landfill site
- You fail to mention that all the footpaths you walk will remain
- You fail to mention the ground that is currently very difficult for anyone of limited physical ability to walk on will have access to it under the new proposals
So are you really on some noble cause or just trying to prevent a new stadium in your back yard by using a shockingly bad law to scupper development that would create a fantastic wetlands area, provide a new community school classroom, community gym, enable disabled fans of the club to sit in an area that isn't at ground level, muddy and cut off by rain (as they currently have), could provide fantastic number of jobs and income into the area during a time of recession and potentially world cup football which has with it a host of brilliant legacy programmes?
Your right to object but your post on here misses some crucial points.