Right to grow your own – vegetables and ideas

Published: 26th March, 2010

• What a waste
It is said that no matter how great communications become, working form home will never replace the benefits of the work place or office, because it is human integration that brings about creativity for new ideas and solutions.
So imagine the eclectic community of Fitzrovia, coming together to work an allotment.
A collection of artists, writers mixed in with regular workers and eccentric characters, all amateur gardeners, complaining about various problems of our modern age.
What ideas and solutions might they come up with?
Well, we may never know because Iceland have pulled out of the deal negotiated by Camden Bloomsbury  councillor Rebecca Hossack, to allow the Middlesex grounds to be used as a temporary allotment while the they lie empty.  
Iceland say that “because the property market in London has increased in the last three months, they have decided to put the property back on the market”.
However they’re asking so much money that no one wants to buy it.  
Cllr Hossack hasn’t given up. She is trying again to fight for Fitzrovians to have a chance to experience growing their own vegetables; to cultivate green skills, to teach children about food production, rediscovering old skills while getting exercise, and engage in the real world as opposed to the virtual world of the online culture.
And, even if the grounds were sold tomorrow, it would still lie empty for a long time while architects and lawyers sieve through the bureaucracy.
So why not allow this project to go ahead? I can understand Iceland reluctance to allow something new due to the economic climate. But they really don’t have anything to lose. Surely getting the community on side is in the interest of whoever buys the ground. A little courage to venture outside “the box” could reap great rewards.
DENISE JULIEN
Address supplied