The Scandal of Sid

It has taken me several days to write this blog on Sid, such has been my sadness and anger at our Council for doing such a thing.

Sid’s History
Sid the Sycamore was planted 72 years ago to celebrate Eastleigh becoming a borough. Sycamores are not particularly special trees but because of it’s historical significance and location this one is!

Sadly Sid was cut down by Eastleigh Borough Council on Easter Monday 24th March 2008.

The Point
The Point is Eastleigh’s dance centre. Last year Eastleigh Borough Council put in over £300,000 into the Centre. This year, on February 6th Eastleigh Borough Council Cabinet agreed to pump in a further £2,674,700 over the period of 2008 to 2010 to develop phase 3 of the Point. This development comes at the expense of the taxpayer and the Recreation Ground.

Council connivance
At the Council Cabinet meeting on March 6th Councillor House announced to the Cabinet that there had been a request for a judicial review on the proposed felling of Sid by a member of the public.
According to Wikipedia a Judicial review is the power of a court to review the actions of public sector bodies in terms of their legality or constitutionality. In some jurisdictions it is also possible to review the constitutionality of the law itself. A person who feels that an exercise of such power by, say,… the local council …., is unlawful, perhaps because it has violated his or her rights, may apply to the Administrative Court (a division of the High Court) for judicial review of the decision. If the application for judicial review is successful, the Court may set aside (quash) the unlawful act. In certain limited circumstances, the Claimant may be able to obtain damages. A court may also make a mandatory or prohibitory order or an injunction to compel the authority to act lawfully or to stop it from acting unlawfully .It is thus amazing that the Local Councillors of Eastleigh have allowed the felling of this tree given that they could be in contempt of court and referred to the standards committee.
Lib Dems look on
Lib. Dem. Councillor Chris Thomas, chair of the Local Area Committee, claimed that he had no specific knowledge that the tree was going to be cut down on Easter Monday, but strangely, members of the public saw fellow Lib.Dem Councillors Davies-Dear and Wayne Irish sitting in a car in a side street watching the whole process. In the photograph Lib.Dem councillor Andy Moore(left) looks down with shame and embarrasment when challenged by Conservative Robert Quane on the night before Sid's death..

A great loss
What most disappoints me is that part of the pretty Recreational ground is to be lost for a phase 3 extension for a dance centre. Time after time these councilors are chipping away at our green spaces, be they allotments, parks or greens and selling off the land or just building on it. And all the time it costs the Council tax payers more money - £3000 in this case, just for the destruction of one precious and historic tree.

Just as a man betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver and so condemned him to his death I feel betrayed by our Councillors who have unjustly and unlawfully condemned this tree to its death.

Lib Dem Councillors vote to destroy part of Recreation ground

At last week's meeting of the Local area committee (Monday 18th February) six Lib Dem councillors voted to extend the Point, Eastleigh's Community dance centre further into the Recreation Ground, Eastleigh’s Protected urban green space.
The proposals will allow for the creation of new dance studios, a link building and alterations to existing buildings. 150 square metres of land is to be lost including Sid the Sycamore tree which has been the subject of a major conservation effort by people from Eastleigh.(see http://www.everyoneweb.com/savesid/).

Sid is now a famous tree having featured on Meridian tonight and being available to view on Youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ra-XYQY_Cag

Although Planning regulation 58 BE Urban Greenspace states "The Council will not permit development on a greenspace which is identified on the proposals map, unless as part of a comprehensive redevelopment it is replaced by a greenspace of equal and improved amount, quality and accessibility," the Councillors plan to completely disregard this regulation. The planning proposals also admit that this proposal is "technically not according with the requirements of PPG 17 to retain all public open space." Elsewhere the planning application states "Strictly speaking in accordance with PPG 17 this policy should be applied to all sports and recreational uses such as The Point," but the report goes on to state, "it is not considered that the open space being lost is significant." Currently there are no proposals to give back any land to the people of Eastleigh to replace these 150 square metres because they say that they are improving the area.

So not only have they broken their own planning rules under 58BE, they have twisted national planning policy PPG 17 to their own ends and, if this was not enough, they have broken major planning rules under PPS 9. This states that trees should not be removed if they “enhance biodiversity in green spaces and among developments so that they are used by wildlife and valued by people, recognising that healthy functional ecosystems can contribute to a better quality of life and add to people’s sense of well being.”
PPS 9 also states that “developments must take account of the role and value of biodiversity in supporting economic diversification and contributing to a high quality environment” and that “if significant harm cannot be prevented to such tree’s, then planning permission should be REFUSED.”

So our Liberal Democrat Councillors are continuing to break the planning laws of this town They did it on a much bigger scale when they allowed the Pavilion in the park to be built on the green fields of the Fleming Park Golf course and they got away with it then. This allowed the Council to sell off the site of the Nightingale Centre for another 30 odd flats and 10 houses. You would think that the miillions of pounds that the council make from selling land (it is reputed to be around £10m for the sale of South Street allotments) would allow them to reduce Council tax and local charges, not put them up further. These Lib. Dem councillors are slowly destroying our town and they must be stopped.

If you are concerned about these issues please contact me asap. See more about Sid on : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWaOXpRIDOIW.

Pictures of Matthew Myatt and his son in front of Sid and

the six Lib Dem councillors who voted for this plan. Their names are (from top to bottom)

Councillor Peter Wall (Lib Dem)

Councillor Glynn Davies-Dear (Lib Dem)

Councillor Andy Moore (Lib Dem)

Councillor Wayne Irish (Lib Dem)

Councillor Chris Thomas (Lib Dem)

Councillor Jenny Head (Lib Dem)