Playing Farm Town In Real Life

Those of you who may have had occasion to check out my Crackbook profile will know that "I only joined so I could play Farm Town". This is true. While Crackbook may be the vehicle of choice for cyber-stalking by jealous ex-lovers, and competitive sadding by the hysterical masses, I genuinely only joined so, erm, I could play Farm Town. Why? Well, I've been on the Allotments Waiting List in Brighton & Hove for nearly six years now, and (as Diana Ross once said) I'm still waiting.

I first got the allotment bug a decade ago when my sister kept a plot just around the corner from her home in the South Manchester Muesli Belt. Her set up was ideal - a utopian exemplar of benevolent Victorian town planning, with a series of terraced cul-de-sacs abutting a field of allotments literally a minute or two's walk away. We spent lots of happy times there together, digging, mulching, planting things, and eventually pulling up tasty veg (not to mention enjoying a glass of wine in the evening sun after our labours). I was hooked*.

Anyway, when I moved back to Brighton in 2004, I immediately put my name down on the waiting list for a plot on a site about five minutes' walk away from home. There are only ten plots on this site, and the list subsequently closed in 2006.

Even though the Council has now taken the sensible decision to halve plots as they become available (thus doubling capacity and making plots more manageable), such is the shortage of allotments in my immediate vicinity (ie walkable within twenty minutes) and the demand for allotments city-wide, I suspect I will have moved house before I get anywhere near the top of the waiting list.

And although I probably could join a shorter waiting list for a site which is not within reasonable walking distance, I'm not interested if it means having to drive to get there - to me, this pretty much defeats the object, and would definitely diminish the pleasure of having my own plot in terms of hassle.

So I'm really not kidding when I say I only signed up to Crackbook** so I could play Farm Town - I know it's a bit donkey eyes***, but I had resigned myself to the fact that being a cyber-food-grower was the closest I was going to get to having my own patch of land for a long time.

With this in mind, you can imagine how ridiculously chuffed and excited I was when I heard late last year that a pilot food-growing garden was going to be set up in my ward, in Preston Park itself. The pilot is one of a number of initiatives set up by Harvest Brighton & Hove, as a joint project being delivered by the B&H Food Partnership and Food Matters, along with several other groups across the city.

Local food growing is a cornerstone Green Party policy, and since 2007 Greens on the Council have been pushing this. Cllr Paul Steedman in particular has done some excellent work via the City Sustainability Partnership, and with reference to Harvest, I was delighted to sponsor BHFP's original (successful!) £0.5m Lottery Food Fund bid, which is now providing funding for the Harvest portfolio of projects that focus on growing, cooking and eating more local food.

The official ground-breaking for the Preston Park demo garden took place yesterday afternoon >>>>>

It was excellent to meet the Harvest team in the flesh (after lots of emails), and I'm really looking forward to checking the work rota tomorrow to see when I can next go along to help out. The plot's been marked out, and now the hard work starts - building raised beds and sorting the fencing out first (sadly security measures will need to be in place to deter vandalism), then the fun bit of prepping the soil and planting the seeds and bulbs.

The beauty and the whole point of the demo garden is that (hopefully) it will show people how easy it is to grow your own food in a very small space - Mr K had speculated that it would be like an allotment in a park, but it's much smaller than that (4msq?), which reflects the fact that many people in B&H have titchy patios or balconies, and it's all about making the best use of the space you've got.

What's also particularly sweet is the evident whole-hearted support of the Tory administration (two of whom were in evidence at the demo garden launch yesterday - wonder where the Preston Park Labour councillors were?): we've come a long way since Greens submitted our response to the Core Strategy in August 2008, when Paul and I were told point blank that local food-growing wasn't a priority for the administration.

Maybe it's a cynical vote-grabbing exercise, maybe it's the zeitgeist - I don't really care as long as we keep making progress on this.

A massive well done to the Harvest team - can't wait to get my hands dirty ;)

* Despite the surfeit of Rainbow Chard one year [*blech*]

** Speaking of Crackbook - this is quality and pure lulz

*** Family expression for something which makes one feel ineffably sad

Zeitgeist Face

From: A Fan [mailto:a.fan@thefourthestate.co.uk]
Sent: 12 November 2009 13:26
To: Amy Kennedy
Subject: What does a zeitgeist face look like?

-----Original Message-----
From: Amy Kennedy
Sent: 12 November 2009 13:32
To: A Fan [mailto:a.fan@thefourthestate.co.uk]
Subject: RE: What does a zeitgeist face look like?

See attached ;)

-----Original Message-----

From: A Fan [mailto:a.fan@thefourthestate.co.uk]

Sent: 12 November 2009 13:37

To: Amy Kennedy

Subject: Re: What does a zeitgeist face look like?

> See attached ;)

Love it.

Blogging, Biscuits & Bonfires

The Brighton Politics Blogger was in fine form last week, posting a handy guide to local political blogs - a snappy round-up which quite rightly mourned the recent radio-silence from eminent local blogger Neil Harding (Neil, I miss you too and I hope things are OK at your end).

Eagle-eyed readers will perhaps spot an omission from the BPB's original Blogroll: but never fear, the BPB is a true lady/gentleman, and was quick to rectify this: although I can't help feeling that her/his précis of my blog makes me sound rather like the Pam Ayres of the Green blogosphere [*dons dowdy tabard in penance*]...

Meanwhile, Dan Wilson whinges that Brighton & Hove Green bloggers have been strangely silent on the ongoing pay dispute between refuse workers and the local authority, which resulted in industrial action and overflowing bins this week.

PROTIP: Dan, surely you have the wit to understand that speculative blogging about the delicate, high-level and confidential negotiations which have been taking place between the unions and the council in recent days might have been unhelpful, to say the least? Just something for you to ponder there.

Anyway, to those of you who think this blog has gone a bit soft of late, I promise there'll be fewer biscuits, less baking and more, erm, tough political opinion in coming weeks. But in the meantime...

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Regular readers will recall that I like a good bonfire, and that I was sorry that a recent bid by the Sussex Bonfire Societies to secure UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage status for the county-wide tradition failed.

So I was pleased to read that this year's Lewes Bonfire was an overwhelming success, with fewer crowds and only five arrests. Predictably, effigies of Fat Cats and Politicians were burnt on the pyres - they're nothing if not topical, those Lewes Bonfire Societies [*zeitgeist face*].

However, just over the border in Edenbridge, Kent, revellers were treated to the sight of this hideous and rather terrifying effigy going up in flames. Good grief - mine eyes! I'm starting to realise why UNESCO went cold on the idea...

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OK, I must retire to my garret to begin to ponder some serious blogging. A final thought though: is it just me, or do any other Bloggers find the tag suggestions for new posts ("scooters, holidays, autumn") exquisitely poignant?
[*looks around*]
[*SAD face*]
Ah, just me then...

In The Meantime...

Sooooo... it's four weeks since I last posted on this blog. Four weeks since our epic victory in Goldsmid, three weeks since Pride, two weeks since I "went on holiday" (aka got bustled around Cheshire by my Ma / sis / cuz in the pursuit of friends & family), one week since I came back (to an exploding Inbox).

Happy Summer Holidays! Whoever it was that said "honestly, nothing happens during August" with reference to council duties was clearly not a member of the Planning Committee and/or dealing with a lot of angry constituents who feel duped by the recent London Rd Station CPZ consultation, or frustrated residents in the Old Shoreham Rd area whose refuse and recycling collections have been non-existent in recent weeks. It's been a busy old time, all in all.

So apologies as always, dear reader, for being a less than faithful correspondent in recent days. Out of all the stuff that's been happening, Pride deserves a post all to itself, but in the meantime here's a couple of snaps of Brighton & Hove Green Party's contribution to this year's Pride Beside The Seaside:





L-R:

Captain Amy Kennedy

Dr. Caroline Lucas MEP, Admiral of the Fleet

Commander Phelim Mac Cafferty












OMG have you ever seen anyone look so happy to be this close to recycling bins? (my Mum worries my activism is "unhygenic")









More posting on all this and other stuff to follow, but my absolute favourite Argus 'Silly Season' story from this week has got to be the funky sandwiches piece: regular readers (and those who know and love me) will be familiar with my interest in Bento and Food Art, so to see such skill and expertise emanating from Littlehampton more or less made my week :D



"If I was a sculptor... but then again - no..."
(Mark Northeast, Littlehampton 2009)

[note to self: did E.John ever stay in Littlehampton? CHECK.]







My favourite ever Bento: Sardine & Red Pepper Heels.











Nom nom nom :D And ta-ra for now.

Woodcuts & Trees

This time last week Mr K & I took a lunch break together, and went along to Brighton University on Grand Parade for some tucker and to view the last day of the end of year degree shows for the Faculty of Arts & Architecture.

Lunch in the canteen was a total bargain at around £2.50 each - I had ricotta tortellini and it was lovely. Highly recommended for cheapness and tastiness, plus ambience - there was a jazz quartet playing in the marquee in the courtyard :)

The shows were great as always - I feel so proud to live in a city with such an amazing art college. Here are a few tasters, from architecture to ceramics:

The textiles were as wonderful as always (sadly no pix as visitors are understandably forbidden from taking photos), but my favourite this year was these wood cuts:

I just love the jolly pussycats' faces :)

Well done and thank you to all the students whose work I enjoyed - sorry I can't credit you (I will try and remember to make a note of people's names next year - it was all a bit whistle-stop this time unfortunately).

The quality and abundance of all this beautiful work made me realise how important it is to keep campaigning for more affordable creative workspace in Brighton & Hove, especially for young artists and makers who are just starting their careers.

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Afterwards, en route to the local party office to stuff some envelopes for the Goldsmid by-election, I passed through the 'Walking Woods', a temporary 700-tree mini-forest in Victoria Gardens, just outside the Sallis Benney building.


Ben Duncan wrote an excellent post about this installation, which was designed by architecture student Lucy Palmer, and partly funded by SEEDA as part of the 'Places from Spaces' project.

‘Places from Spaces’ aims to encourage new design thinking for urban public spaces. By working with students from local universities to create temporary landscaping installatons, the theory is that communities can "test" creative schemes for transforming public spaces, asking "what if?" – what might be possible in reinvigorating our shared places?

What a pleasure for the senses. I was sorry I didn't have more time to just hang out in this wonderful temporary arboretum and enjoy it - but it started to rain and duty was calling.

As I left the Gardens and began to make my way up North Road, I couldn't help pondering the vast ideological chasm between SEEDA's laudable intentions and the local Tories' plans (or lack of) for Victoria Gardens, and the green spaces to the south and north of the site (known collectively as Valley Gardens).

Praise where it's deserved: under the last Labour administration, officers had begun work on radical plans to transform Valley Gardens, reducing car traffic and making pedestrianisation a priority. The car-obsessed Tories have now dropped this like a ton of hot bricks.

More recently, in our response to the Core Strategy for the emerging Local Development Framework, Greens criticised the lack of provision for local food growing within the inner-city, and suggested that parts of Valley Gardens could be used for community food projects. Again, this went down like a cup of cold sick with our Conservative chums.

I wonder if David Cameron knows how short-sighted and blinkered his colleagues are in Brighton & Hove? Vote Blue Get Green my derrière.

Thanks nevertheless to Lucy for a beautiful if temporary glimpse of what the future might hold. What if, indeed?


PS The brown grass in the forefront of this picture is not part of the installation. It's the annual post-Ladyboys of Bangkok witherment... (hmm)

A good deed shines in a naughty world

I've been out and about in the ward over recent days doing some last-minute leafleting for the European Elections this coming Thursday, 4th June.

Plenty of other people have blogged at length about our prospects for this ballot, so I'm not going to jam up any more bandwidth with my hopes and fears for Thursday, but suffice to say I've never met so many people on the doorstep and in the street who say they're voting Green for the first time.

It's incredibly heartening and very exciting - people really do seem hungry for change, and the progressive vote seems to be going our way, not least because our Green MEPs have a track record in making their expenditure transparent, and in speaking out against the "Euro Gravytrain".

Sunday seems like a long time to have to wait for the results... I've got everything crossed, obviously for all our candidates, but particularly for our existing MEPs Caroline Lucas & Jean Lambert, and also for my friend and colleague Cllr Keith Taylor, and for Peter Cranie in my motherland of the North West.

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However, for all the good Green deeds afoot in Brighton and beyond today, the naughty light below was shining in the avenue next to Preston Park at 2.15pm this afternoon, on the hottest and sunniest day we've had so far this year:



You can bet I'll be reporting this, but to whom? Unless I'm reading it wrong, the council website seems to be saying that it's all EDF's fault, but, erm, they won't be doing anything about it:

Why is my street light on during the day?

Modern streetlights are switched on and off by a sensor that knows when it is getting dark. Older lights were switched on and off by area using a network of cables that are owned by the Electricity Utility EDF. These cables are very old and are beginning to fail. EDF when they discover a fault do not have to repair this switching facility and make the cable permanently live or on. This results in day burning columns.

So that's OK then, is it? (hmm) One to add to the list of things to do tomorrow.

From Petrol to Petunias

Another beautiful day today. This afternoon I wandered over to the Lewes Road Community Garden, where a group of local horticulturalists have transformed a derelict petrol station site into a blossoming green space for the enjoyment of all.

I know this site well, having spent two happy years living around the corner on Caledonian Road in my students days. Needless to say my housemates and I were frequent late-night shoppers at the old Esso garage, which closed several years ago.

Since then, the plot has remained undeveloped; so I was thrilled when I learnt that neighbouring residents had come together to beautify the land, and to create a community garden.

In a city hemmed-in by the sea and the South Downs, and where more than 50% of residents live in flats (as opposed to houses with gardens), I find my thoughts turn increasingly to common land and open space, and so I decided to check it out for myself.


Although the site is still fenced in, the gates were wide open this afternoon, and quite a few people were either working or relaxing in the garden.

My sincere thanks go to Anoushka, who warmly welcomed me to the garden, and told me a little bit about its journey from Fossil Fuel Dereliction to Community Resource.

The site has been empty for five years, so I was unsurprised to hear that the managing agents acquiesced when residents made their initial approach to take on the land on an ad-hoc basis. While this is very positive, on the flip-side the gardeners have also had to defuse local criticism that they're "hippies" and/or (*ahem*) "gypsies" who want to "steal" the land (hmm).

Happily, many of the original objectors are now actively supporting the Lewes Road Community Garden, and even bringing cuttings and seedlings to the site - because, according to Anoushka, "we just went and spoke to them, and they realised we were alright".

As a former petrol station, the site is classed as contaminated land, so there are stringent regulations regarding its development; the longer it "lies fallow", the fewer the groundworks and excavation required in order to make the site conditions acceptable for new development.

So it's pretty much a win-win situation: the landlords can point to responsible community engagement and a cleaner site for prospective developers, and in the meantime, local residents can enjoy a beautiful garden, made by the community for the community.

From a Green point of view, there's a wonderful sense of natural justice in seeing a former fossil fuel site transformed into an urban oasis :)


Great stuff from the Lewes Road residents. Is this something we could adapt for the Anston House site?

The 99p Exhibition: you do not have to make work about money, but you have to make work without money

From eco-art to cheapo art: Mr K & I also checked out the 99p Exhibition while we were in town yesterday. It's part of the Brighton University end of year shows, featuring work from first year Critical Fine Art Practice students.

Fittingly for an exhibition of work made from materials costing no more than 99p (see rules to the left), these enterprising first years have negotiated a free short-term lease on the old Music Library, which has been empty for several years.

This is a wonderful space: I think I enjoyed being inside this stately and dilapidated building as much as I enjoyed the work on display.







Jeffrey Cervantes: Three Falling





Carianne Whitworth: Fabrication


Well done to all the students whose work is featured in the 99p Exhibition - there are some excellent pieces, and the spirit of the project is very in keeping with the times - yo, the zeitgeist!

Congratulations are in order too for bringing the old Music Library back into use, albeit temporarily. Empty property is one of my personal bugbears, and there's lots of it in Brighton.

Happily, there's also a long and illustrious history of squatting in Brighton. Local hero Harry Cowley commandeered empty houses for servicemen returning from both World Wars, and now groups like Slack Space Brighton are working across the city to identify empty property which could be used for short-term creative projects.

The shortage of affordable workspace is a real problem for the creative industries in Brighton & Hove, a sector which employs around 10% of the city's workforce, and which generates millions annually for the local economy.

Brighton has about 20 organisations of various sizes offering space to artists (the largest being the 55 studio Phoenix Arts Association, of which I'm one of the Trustees), but there is nowhere near enough cheap studio space to satisfy the growing demand.

Earlier this year, the Guardian ran a story on a growing movement of artists transforming empty high street shops into galleries and studios. At the same time, Brighton & Hove council officers were working on trying to come up with practical solutions to meet the city's need for more affordable creative workspace, including looking at models used by artist-led projects in London.

But is the political will there to actually do anything to bring empty property back into use in Brighton & Hove? Green councillors called on the Tory Administration in February to produce an audit of empty property across the city: the Tories rejected it out of hand.

We'll keep calling for action on disused buildings in Brighton & Hove, but it the meantime it seems that direct action may be the most effective solution to the problem of buildings being left to rot while so many people are crying out for space in which to produce work. Go first year students and Slack Space Brighton!