Olympic evictions

[alan refail]

With the Olympics about to start , and having seen footage of the poor people evicted to make room for the Beijing Games, my thoughts go out to the Manor Gardens Allotments peoplewho were evicted to make way for a walkway for the 2012 Games. Anyone know what is happening down there?

[oldherbaceous]

Dear Alan, i think the whole situation with the Beijing games and the Manor garden allotments is very upsetting.

[alan refail]

I now find there is plenty of news of Manor Gardens on http://www.lifeisland.org/

[oldherbaceous]

Dear Alan, thank you for finding and posting the update.

[Chantal]

Thanks Alan. I've just been sitting in tears reading about what's happened to them down there. The new site at Marsh Lane is a bog, you can understand why it was called "Marsh" Lane. No one can grow anything and they've now had contractors in to clear (including any surviving veg)and rip the soil to try and allow the soil to drain. They're now going to try and start all over again.

It's an absolute outrage that this was ever allowed to happen.

[KGAdmin]

I have to be honest - I think at this point the Olympic games has completely lost its meaning. It's now simply a showcase for the biggest corporations to promote their wares, and for huge number of firms to make a LOT of money

It should be held in one place every time, with a small amount of joint funding from every country, and strictly limited to non-professionals.

The London 2012 is already draining vital funding from other worthwhile community projects, causing suffering for the sake of a 2 week media-led sport event.


KGAdmin

[Chantal]

I agree with you entirely and I'm not watching any of it.

[Compo]

The olympics have their casualties, this is sad and inappropriate I totally agree, however, not sure if the olympics have completely lost their spirit of competition, I shall be watching lots of it.

[Tigger]

It's not for me. This is only one of the allotments/public gardens that have lost their space and we can't even show that the potential sportsmen/women have had the sort of facilities on offer to them that enables them to train.

A bit of a poor mixed message, methinks.

[alan refail]

The great sports day is almost upon us.

This carries strange echoes of Beijing:

London council's 'social cleansing' of housing benefit tenants

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-17821018

[peter]

Playing devils advocate, subsidising people to live where they cannot afford to is also social adjustment and in London with its massive public transport network it seems slightly perverse.

I have colleagues who commute from Peterborough, and Letchworth and no they're not "well off", they just work where they can find employment. Similarly people from north London commute to Stansted airport to work.

[glallotments]

It seems that interest in the Olympics is at a fairly low level - living in Yorkshire other than I think the Chinese team staying in a nearby hotel it shouldn't really touch us - thank goodness.

It seems very perverse to be spending so much money on this when we are supposed to be strapped for cash as a country.

As for the treatment of the allotment holders - I think generally allotments are low on the government/councils priority list. As in most places our allotment rents are rising this year and yet we have been told no money will be spent on skips or fence repairs so I guess our rents will be spent elsewhere!

[Nature's Babe]

Looks like Leyton Marsh is another green space the olympics want, the locals and Occupy are trying to save it from the same fate. I agree with admin too.

[richard p]

weve got the torch coming through the town at 8.30 am on a weekday..... all the roads are being shut in the early hours till about 9.30..... no cars allowed to be left on the roads or in the carparks, nothing allowed on the pavements.
non of the highstreet businesses will be able to function, school busss cant run... all the through traffic routes will be closed so most businesses will have trouble getting their staff to work.......... effectivly the whole town will have to close for the morning.

[alan refail]

Returning to my yesterday's post viewtopic.php?p=101997#p101997
Whatever the rights and wrongs of housing benefit, it seems unacceptable to propose "forcibly" relocating people 160 miles away from family, friends and contacts. And why is this poorest of London boroughs becoming expensive? You got it - Olympic fever!

This sort of shuffling off of the disadvantaged (feckless, if you prefer) happened years ago, when Merseyside councils rented a large number of surplus housing association properties in Rhyl. This has caused no end of problems in this decaying seaside resort. It picked up the nickname "Benefit-on-Sea" a few years ago.

Back to the Olympics. The torch will pass quite close to us - in a van, as it will be for most of its journey. Great play has been made of the fact that 90 odd percent of the UK population will be withing an hours drive...blah, blah. Are we supposed to be blessed by the nearness of the holy fire? I liked the comment on Radio 4 a week or two ago: the Olympic motto - Faster, Higher, Stronger - in a van.