[Rampant_Weasel]

well done to all involved.

thats one for the good guys    

[BigPaddy]

Fantastic news. The people beat their representatives, hurrah.

[dugless]

I cannot begin to say how pleased I am at the outcome WELL DONE

[Yorkie]

That's such good news, CQ.  Well done to all of you for your hard work, pers.istence and ongoing faith in the future (how's the new shed?!).

Now, while you're on a roll, I'd make sure the council fill the Statutory form in correctly and pdq

[richyrich7]

We're all battle hardened so ready for the next phase and we hope now that the council will finish the job and declare us to be statutory. The council did declare them Statutory in a national return in 1994 but since then they changed their mind, saying that they'd filled the form in wrong  :evil:

I'm a little confused how can they withdraw when they have declared  :?

[compostqueen]

that's what we thought but the Council for Local Government accepted what they said  

[corynsboy]

Excellent Work CQ.  
With regards to your next step of being made statutory.

I've had a few dealings with my local council in Essex with regard to my fishing club and rugby club.  I've found that if you have a project that is high up on the councils list of things they should be doing in the community then you will have success in dealing with them.  Especially if they can claim it as a social improvement and the council don't actually have to do anything.

A few years ago my local rugby club bought some land from the council and made it into our new ground.  The council then prevented us from building a club house on it! Huh!  We put in a new proposal prominently featuring sport in the community, supporting youth sports and enhanced community relations  and Bob's your Mum's brother they bought it.  The same committee seeing  the same people presenting essentially the same the proposal 10 months later.  This time the proposal fitted and we sail through planning.

You have a good cause which is trendy.  Get in touch with the council.  Find out what their policy is for as an example schools teaching children how to grow food in your area and find out what the council are doing about it.  Perhaps  your could, as part of the agreement of gaining statutory status, agree to amend the rules of your society and provide one or two plots devoted to the local schools for teaching the growing of fruit and veg and for field trip purposes.  It might fit what they are currently looking for and it might get you the security you are after.

Hope this helps.

[compostqueen]

Thanks for the advice  

[richyrich7]

that's what we thought but the Council for Local Government accepted what they said  

M'mm   :evil:

[FCG]

CQ get some correspondance off, yes and i do mean this, hugh fernsley-whateverhisnameis's place and Gardeners world et el. The letterhead'd stuff really helps in these situations. Even if it's a standard response. Got a local paper with a points of view? Put it in there. Do some stuff about sustainiblity (the buzzword of the month (TM) at my council place) and helping yourselves through the credit crunch.

Basically from the sounds of things the council tried to make some quick bucks and the developer pulled out probably because the scheme couldn't get a bond from the council to go ahead. You'll be able to get it signed off by the council quite easily... but don't put any more plots out yet! It may sound nuts but get rotovating now and stick some greens on it and take a photo of how much you've managed to do so far. If you have any elderly people on your plot front and centre in a photo and put in how it's their release etc etc.

You've done the hard part, home run it!

Congratulations again.

[compostqueen]

We've done all sorts of rallying round and got help and support from Campaign for the Preservation of Rural England, National Trust, our local Wildlife Trust have been a mine of information, we roped in UK BAP, etc

The annoying thing though is that despite all the rhetoric the council doesn't really want to preserve lotties, their heritage or their wildlife. Plus  the CLG simply rubber stamping things didn't help. All these organisations and the stuff they've written doesn't matter a jot once they have pound signs in their eyes  :evil:

We stuck with them though and kept bouncing back, never letting up and generally being in their face the whole time  :twisted:

[Scribbler]

GREAT news!!!

[sawnee]

Brilliant result, keep up the hard work and get it signed in stone
Its good to hear some good news for a change

[SalJ1980]

Big congrats CQ, that's fantastic!

that's what we thought but the Council for Local Government accepted what they said  

M'mm   :evil:

Sounds thoroughly dodgy to me...well that's what local governments do best I suppose!  :roll: