“I cannot agree with this scheme. Parks are not for having barbeques and it should be stopped.”
Councillor Blackburn and his colleagues have an excellent track record on environmental issues. In 2007, they left the ruling Lib Dem/Conservative coalition over their opposition to the council’s proposal to build an incinerator to dispose of the city’s rubbish. Their courageous stance on the incinerator proposal helped to persuade the council to abandon its plans and to choose a waste recycling system instead. It’s to be hoped that their clearly expressed opposition to the barbeque scheme will also be heeded.
This statement of support by The Green Party against barbeques in our parks (made to the full council on 16.09), together with Councillor Murray’s advocation at the Scrutiny Board Meeting on the same day – that we should endorse the slogan “We have Parks for Picnics, not Barbeques” really does give a strong “feel good” factor don’t you think?
I think there might be some mileage in ‘Parks for Picnics’. Though dismissed as a sound-bite by Cllr Procter, it has the virtue of being positive, whereas it is easy for the ill-intentioned to dismiss opposition to barbecues as unrealistic at best,reactionary & killjoy at worst. Further, as we know, the barbecue phenomenon IS spreading, and is likely to get worse; appeasement, I fear, is not the answer (I’ll be honest, I’d love to be proved wrong, but I doubt that I will be.) Finally, a well co-ordinated campaign under this heading might have a wide appeal: Parks are for Picnics; Parks are for Everybody – small children with their parents, kids playing out, school-students,university-students, the middle-aged, the elderly; Let’s Work Together & Make it Work. Might be worth a try.
P.S. I’m still awaiting comment (other than Kate Mason – thanks Kate) on my idea for a big open symposium on J.S.Mill’s On Liberty (Pubd 1859), to be held in Spring 2010, in a marquee on Woodhouse Moor. Come on you Lib.Dems: sponsor it: it’s an election year both locally and nationally: Think of all the publicity. Come on Chris Lovell: where’s your contacts? Surely you know a brilliant idea when you see one? You could pay a consultant loads of dosh and get less: I’m giving it to you for nowt. (You’re a year late, but who cares?)
Hello Tony,
My ordered copy is in the post – I may well need you and a marquee full of others any day now to help me understand it!
From the brief synopsis, I’m looking forward to it, and thanks for the cue.
Kathleen Mason