Mandy Stevens reports from the April meeting of the Save Our Green Spaces Campaign. The group now has a contact e-mail address which is saveourgreenspaces11@gmail.com
* News Shopper had given some coverage to the campaign and signposted the Old Farm Park Facebook page. Mandy will keep journalists posted on developments.
* John Arnold has posted photos of all 27 sites at risk on the Bexley Wildlife website
* Even though some of the sites are small, many have mature trees on them and together they represent a loss of valuable green space and habitat. BNEF would look into leafleting certain ‘unadopted’ sites to try to get campaigns going around them.
* Old Farm Park campaign. Ros Platton said there were now 1,500 names on their online petition on the 38 degrees website. She had asked the Council if they would be prepared to treat the petition in the same way as one on their website (i.e. 2,000 names generates a Council debate) and was awaiting a reply from Councillor Leach.
Mandy said that BNEF would also write to Kevin Fox at the Council asking if they would be accepting the petition. We should also look into whether we could combine the various petitions.
James Brokenshire, MP had given his support to the Old Farm Park campaign and had written to the Council asking them to reconsider.
Ways of raising the profile of the Old Farm campaign were discussed, including holding a public event of some kind, including walks highlighting the wildlife value of the park.
* See https://www.facebook.com/saveoldfarmpark
* Update on Manor Way Playground Campaign. Lauran and Jean had sent a written update of their campaign. They had run a really successful public event in the playground on 21st March with the MP attending, a good turnout from residents and support from local businesses and there had been a public meeting at the Council offices attended by ward councillors and the MP. They were keeping the pressure on with letters to the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson and the London Assembly Member for Bexley and Bromley.
* See https://www.facebook.com/saveoldmanorwayplayground
* Update on the Protect Our Local Parks and Green Spaces petition (Derek Moran) . Derek had collected over 700 signatures on this paper petition to date and planned to knock on more doors in the coming weeks.
* Online petition to save all threatened open spaces:
* Next Steps. Various ways to put pressure on the Council and protect the green spaces at risk were discussed. Since this is a public website that can be read by Councillors and Council Officers precise details will be kept private to the campaign group for now.
Recent open spaces campaign coverage in the News Shopper
