Walking to school in the rain

It's raining outside, a steady stream of droplets hitting the ground. No wind though, and it's still warm. Will you take the car? she asks. No, we'll walk, like we usually do. We have an umbrella. My daughter pulls on her little red wellington boots while we put her school shoes in her bag.

Taking the car. As summer approaches, the line of R-plates parked outside the grammar school gets a little longer each day. A multicoloured tin snake, growing to maturity at the end of term, dying in the summer and being reborn in the autumn. A car is a sign that adulthood has arrived. It is freedom to go where you want and independence from parents. It is a rite of passage. Like lighting your first ever cigarette in an alley on a Saturday night. (That's a ritual that used to be performed behind the bike sheds, but there aren't any of those any more). Teenagers with their first car are lost in the exhilaration of owning such a desirable object. No-one should ask them to think about traffic congestion or global warming. Cancer.

Tara splashes out the front door and skips down the road. Every puddle on the way has to be jumped in. It's a rule. We laugh and tell each other stories. Little Red Riding Hood, except Tara likes to be the wolf, so I have to be the girl making her way through the dark forest. We pass the Spooky Old Tree. The Drain Monster reaches out a tentacle to get us but we rush past as the rain washes it back into it's murky lair. Funny, Tara never complains about walking on rainy days.

We arrive at the school. Parents bustle children from the warmth and safety of their cars into the welcoming school gates. Deprived children, missing the joy of splashing in puddles. We enter too, wet and laughing.

Fish and Chips from First Principles

I'm trying to reduce our family's dependence on packaged and processed foods. Yesterday I had a go at Fish and Chips from First Principles.

Right, first we need some fish. I set off on my bicycle on Friday morning for St. Georges Market in Belfast (about a 25 minute ride from Holywood). The main food market is on a Saturday, but the Friday market has a good selection of local fish and other produce.

My heart was won over by the hideous visage of a Portavogie cod, freshly caught that morning. It was a monstrous creature, and I was afraid that it might not fit into my rucksack. The friendly fishmonger promised me that if I bought it, he would fit it in. I couldn't resist the expression in the lifeless eyes of the fish, so he threw it on the scales (a shade over 5 Kg and that will be £20 sir), then we stuffed the hapless beast into a sturdy bin bag and manhandled it into my backpack.

Back home, Mr. Portavogie Cod waited in the fridge while I freshened up and watched an instructional video on YouTube. I have never tried to fillet a whole fish before, so this was going to be an exciting learning experience.

A sharp knife in hand, and doing my best to remember the advice given by the fishmonger in the video, I attacked the leviathan fish. It took me the best part of two hours to reduce it to 14 filleted cod steaks and two bags of cod chunks (that will do for a fish pie or a chowder later). Perhaps a little hacked in places, but overall I was quite pleased with how it had turned out. I threw the head and bones into a stock pot and boiled it for a while so we have some fish stock for the freezer. The boiled head will end up as a special treat for my mum's dog. (I couldn't get that stupid jingle out of my head that Annie Nightingale used to play all the time in the 1980s: "Fish heads, fish heads, Roly-poly fish heads, Fish heads, fish heads, Eat them up, yum!")

OK, hard part over. Most of the fish was bagged and packed neatly in the freezer, with just a couple of fresh cod steaks left out for tonight's dinner.

Chips were made from potatoes from our weekly vegetable delivery from Helens Bay Organic Gardens. Part-cooked then removed from the fryer.

Batter is easy: 1 bottle of beer, mixed with self-raising flour. Dip in the fish and drop into the deep fat fryer. I used the left-over batter to make onion rings (onion borrowed from a neighbour as we had run out). After removing the onion rings, drop the chips back in the fryer for a couple of minutes to finish off.

Served with mushy peas and bread and butter. Organic bread was baked at home in our bread machine.

Result: fantastic fish and chips. The batter was crispy and the cod was melt-in-your-mouth perfect. Definitely rates as one of my best fish and chip eating experiences.

Local ingredients: Portavogie cod (St. Georges Market); organic potatoes (delivered by local organic farm); onion (from a neighbour); bread (baked at home)

Non-local ingredients: Bread ingredients (organic flour, yeast, salt, sugar, olive oil); organic butter (UK); tinned mushy peas; salt; vinegar; ketchup. These were all bought in a supermarket. Packaged food was all packed in the UK but current EU regulations do not require producers to state the source for their ingredients, so place of origin of ingredients and therefore food miles is unknown.

Packaging: Fish came in a bin bag which I later used to dispose of the discarded skin and bones. Potatoes came in a reuseable mesh bag which goes back to the farmer. No packaging for onion or bread. Mushy peas came in a recycleable tin. Condiments come in recycleable containers.

Waste to landfill: one plastic bin bag containing waste skin/bones.

Watchmen: Laurie's Secret

I have Watched the Watchmen.

There was one aspect of the book that was too horrific to translate from the printed page to the silver screen. The über-violence? No, that made it in: Larry the Henchman has his arms taken off with an angle grinder (in the book he merely has his throat slit). Rorschach's cold and casual attitude to killing? No, everything from biting the ear off a childhood tormentor to throwing a pan of hot chip fat into someone's face is reproduced in vivid detail. Did the filmmakers shrink from full frontal views of Dr. Manhattan's manhood? No. Perhaps, then, it was the Comedian's attemped rape of Sally Jupiter? Horrific as that was, that makes it to the big screen too.

So, what event in the book is so terrible that it had to be censored from a Certificate 18 film?

Well, you remember the part where Laurie goes into the Owlship, presses a few random buttons and accidentally sets off the flamethrower? The film doesn't really explain why she does that. In the book it makes more sense:



Yes, the thing too terrible to reveal to an adult cinema audience is that the Silk Spectre smokes cigarettes!

Holywood Allotments: Write to Holywood Councillors

Please join our campaign to save the Holywood Allotments. Write to the Holywood Councillors to ask them to reopen the Holywood Allotments for residents to use. Be polite and to the point in your letter.

You can write to the Holywood Councillors using WriteToThem.com by clicking on the links below:

• D K Alderdice, Alliance Party


• Ian Parsley, Alliance Party


• Diana Peacocke, UUP


• Alderman Ellie McKay, UUP


• Alderman Gordon Dunne, DUP

If you prefer to phone or send a letter through the post, full contact details for all councillors can be found on the North Down Borough Council website.

In your letter, be polite and to the point. The key point is to request that North Down Borough Council reverse their decision to sell off the Holywood Allotments, and to request that the allotments be reopened and made available to the people of Holywood. Here are some additional points you may wish to make:

• North Down has one of the lowest levels of allotment provision in the UK. There is only one council allotment site (in Bangor) with only 14 plots available to ratepayers.


• The waiting list on the Bangor site has 112 names on it. The UK average length of waiting list is 59. Clearly the council needs to increase allotment provision.


• The benefits of allotments include: food security, health and financial benefits of growing your own food, strong social networks and a real sense of community.


• The Holywood Transition Town project is planning to help local people (especially those on lower incomes) to learn to grow their own food, and need allotment space in order to do this.


• Other councils in Northern Ireland, e.g. Newtownabbey Borough Council and Carrickfergus Council, have an allotment strategy and are planning to create more allotments.


• There is a groundswell of demand for allotments in Holywood and we (the ratepayers) do not want the council to dispose of this asset. If the council sell this land, the amenity will be lost to the people of Holywood forever.


• Finally, appeal to the councillor to reopen the allotments for the people of Holywood as soon as possible.

Holywood Allotments: Write to Planning Services

Please join our campaign to save the Holywood Allotments. Write to Planning Services to object to North Down Borough Council's plans to dispose of the Holywood Allotments. The more objections they receive, the more likely they are to refuse planning permission. Be polite and to the point in your letter.

Write to the following address:

Mark Keane
Divisional Planning Office
Rathkeltair House
Market Street
Downpatrick
Co. Down
BT30 6EA

Quote the reference for the Holywood Allotments planning application: W/2007/0561

In the body of your letter, write in your own words to say that you are objecting to North Down Borough Council's planning application. The council plans to gain outline planning permission to build apartments on the allotments and then sell the land to a developer.

You may want to include some of the following points in your letter:

• North Down has one of the lowest levels of allotment provision in the UK. There is only one council allotment site (in Bangor) with only 14 plots available to ratepayers.


• The waiting list on the Bangor site has 112 names on it. The UK average length of waiting list is 59. Clearly the council needs to increase allotment provision.


• Say if you are lobbying local councillors for the allotments to be reinstated.


• The benefits of allotments include: food security, health and financial benefits of growing your own food, strong social networks and a real sense of community.


• The Holywood Transition Town project is planning to help local people (especially those on lower incomes) to learn to grow their own food, and need allotment space in order to do this.


• You may want to refer to PPS 8 (Open Space, Sport and Outdoor Recreation), which makes reference to allotments. The official policy is "to safeguard existing open space" (p.11) and to sustain and enhance biodiversity. See also p.16-18, "Policy OS 1: Protection of Open Space".

Save the Holywood Allotments

Demand for allotments is at an all-time high, due to growing awareness of the health and nutrition benefits of organic food, and propelled further by credit-crunched families who want to save money by growing some of their own food. Allotments bring many benefits, including strong social networks, the health and financial advantages of growing fresh produce and a real sense of community.

In Holywood, the council-owned allotments face onto the Belfast Road, opposite Sullivan Upper School (see map). The site was closed by the council in 2004 and the land is currently standing unused. The council have submitted an outline planning application for building apartments on the allotments. If permission is granted, the council plan to sell the land and use it to fund the construction of a floodlit playing field at the back of Sullivan Upper, which will be used to raise revenue for North Down Borough Council from Belfast sports clubs.

The Case for Allotments

Allotments have been in the national news throughout 2008. As a society, we have faced challenges in the last year including soaring fuel prices and commodity costs (which have led to more expensive food); and our current economic situation with a recession and growing unemployment.

It is important that we give our community the opportunity to respond to these challenges by enabling them to grow their own food. Interest in allotments has soared in recent years and it is incumbent upon North Down Borough Council to provide an adequate amount of land for allotments.

Allotments provide many benefits to a community, including:

• help managing household costs by growing our own food


• food security: protection from fluctuating commodity and food transport prices


• the health benefits of growing food free from pesticides and artificial additives, and the exercise of digging land.


• a sense of place and a sense of community: allotment gardeners tend to share seeds and exchange both crops and knowledge.


• social cohesion and inclusion: allotments are very inclusive, offering something for young and old, bringing people together and including people who are otherwise marginalised. See for example the MenAware project run by Newry and Mourne District Council.

The allotment provision by North Down Borough Council is woefully inadequate. There is only one acre of allotments (12 plots, located in Bangor) for the whole Borough. There is a waiting list of 114 people (the average waiting list in the UK is 59).

Allotment Provision in Northern Ireland

Other councils in Northern Ireland are much more progressive in their policy towards allotments.

• Newtownabbey Borough Council are actively supporting allotments and are planning to create more allotments in their area.


• Carrickfergus Borough Council have a clear policy on allotments, see the Allotment Strategy Document.

North Down Borough Council have decided to sell the Holywood Allotments for housing development, and have not provided any alternative. I believe that if North Down Borough Council is allowed to dispose of the allotment land for the purpose of housing development, that this amenity will be lost to the people of Holywood forever.

Recent History of the Holywood Allotments Site

This information has been obtained by visiting Planning Services in Downpatrick and Freedom of Information requests to North Down Borough Council.

In 1998, the council were in discussion with a developer (Next Generation Clubs Ltd.) for a proposed Health and Fitness Club in Holywood. At this stage, the plan was not to sell the allotments. The proposal was to build the new fitness club on the land occupied by the allotments and Kerr Park Rugby Club.

On 10 November 1998, it was decided to reduce the lease on allotment plots from 12 months to 6 months. At this time, there were 9 plots being worked and 2 people were on the waiting list.

As the length of lease for allotment plots had been reduced to 6 months, and further applications for allotment plots were not accepted, the number of plots in use declined over the next few years. The Holywood Allotments were closed in April 2004.

The Plan to Sell Kerr Park and the Allotments and develop Sullivan Upper Playing Fields

From 1998 until early 2002, the discussion was still around building a fitness club on the allotments site. The first mention of selling the allotments site for residential development was on 8 April 2002, at the recommendation of WDR & RT Taggart. At that meeting, “Alderman Mrs Kinghan expressed great concern that discussions seemed to be leading to a Council initiative rather than privately funded development.”

Through 2003, the council changed their thinking and warmed to the idea of selling the allotments site:

23 May 2003: “Mr McElroy informed Members that Kerr Park and the Allotments was a prime site and had the potential to sell, with appropriate Planning Permission, for a significant sum.” This sum was estimated at £1m at that time, but by March 2006, estimates had increased to £5m.

11 November 2003: the council minutes record that the sale of the land at Kerr Park would not generate enough income to complete the scheme, unless planning permission was in place before the sale. “The argument would be put forward that although Kerr Park was zoned for recreation use, the Allotment area was redundant land”

In February 2004, a proposal was put to Sullivan Upper School to convert their grass pitch into a synthetic pitch. Several alternative sites were discussed but on 10 February 2006 it was decided to proceed with the Sullivan option. This option was preferred because “the costs would be much higher if the School were not contributing the land and this had to be purchased by the Council.”

This plan was a significant departure from the original plan to build a sports facility at Kerr Park.

No Consultation with Holywood Ratepayers

The decision to put the new proposal forward for planning was made on 12 March 2007. Three councillors were present at that meeting: Alderman Dunne, Alderman Mrs McKay and Councillor Hill. There was no consultation with Holywood residents about the proposals prior to this decision being made.

A week later, on 19 March, a letter was sent out by Sullivan Upper School's Board of Governors (not by the Council) to the 60 homes adjacent to Sullivan's rear boundary, inviting them to an “information evening” at the school. The scope and nature of the scheme was not at all clear from this letter. 19 people attended the meeting, 7 of whom subsequently wrote to the Council to complain.

At the end of April, the Council put a display and questionnaire/comment box in Queens Hall in Holywood. The comment box was in place until 9 May 2007, after which it was removed and no further comments were possible. The Council advertised the display in the Spectator at the beginning of May, but the advert did not mention that comments had to be returned within a week. Many people who wished to express their opinion were not able to do so (myself included).

I requested a copy of the report from this exercise through FOI. It consists of 4 short paragraphs. There were 33 responses. 2 of these objected to the sale of the Allotments and 15 objected to the proposal to develop Sullivan's back pitch. The report concludes, “The responses show a very high degree of support for the enhancement of sports facilities in Holywood and little objection to the disposal of Kerr Park and the former Allotments to fund this Scheme.” The tiny statistical sample and the fact that half of the respondents were objecting to the scheme does not seem to be considered relevant.

On 31 May 2007, the minutes record, “The Director of Leisure, Tourism and Community Services explained that the purpose of the public display and the questionnaire was to support Council's planning applications, which had been achieved. The responses would enable the Scheme Consultants, Scott Wilson, to highlight positive comments and show pre-planning consultation.”

The planning applications were submitted to Planning Services at the end of June 2007. I subsequently wrote to our Holywood councillors and had a letter published in the Spectator (6 Sept. 2007), calling on the Council to put a halt to the plans so that a properly informed period of consultation could take place. The Council chose not to respond to this.

Conclusion

Along with many other Holywood ratepayers, I am deeply concerned by the Council's proposals to dispose of an important local amenity to fund its project. Once the land has been sold, it is gone forever.

Allotments are an important asset in any community, and particularly in a small town like Holywood. Allotments provide social, economic and health benefits. When facing today's economic challenges, allotments are more important than ever. They give us a way to make ourselves secure against fluctuations in food and fuel prices, and provide some economic independence when the wider economy is collapsing.

The Council should conduct a proper public consultation before proceeding any further with its plans.

Take Action!

• Write to the County Down Spectator expressing your support for the Holywood allotments.


• Write to Planning Services and ask them to reject the council's application to build houses on the allotments.


• Write to the Holywood Councillors and ask them to reopen the allotments.

Banoffaly

I am playing "Banoffally" as my four-year-old likes to call her game of Monopoly Junior. Monopoly is a great educational game. Tara is learning how to add and handle imaginary money. The adult version is also excellent for teaching the basics of capitalism: take high risks to acquire as much property as possible; make a huge pot of money by exploiting all your fellow players; and go bankrupt at the end.