Church should pay to restore it
SO, at long last, the Occupy Bristol camp has been removed. We are now told that it will cost us between £10 and £20K to restore it to its former green state.
But hey, wait a minute. The reason the protesters weren't moved on earlier was because College Green was owned by the cathedral. So why are we, the taxpayers, picking up the bill for restoration? If the Church own it, then they should surely be paying to restore it?
After all, the council kept bleating that their hands were tied because the green was owned by the cathedral and it was up to the Church authorities to act. The cathedral authorities did nothing, but then, why should they? They could take the moral high ground safe in the knowledge that it wouldn't cost them a penny.
Incidentally, I bet if that had been a group of travellers with caravans and dogs and a scrap business camped on the green they would have been moved on months ago.
Is there something I'm missing here?
Chris Gaymer
I WAS shocked to see your exclusive pictures on the front page, Evening Post January 30, showing the horrendous state of Bristol's once lovely College Green. Then reading on the side of your front page how Bristol City Council is working on plans to make Bristol 'one of the most attractive places to live and work in the world'.
I ask: Has our council lost the plot?
If Bristol City Council wants to put this city on the map it has to start by making sure places like College Green are not turned into bomb sites.
D F Courtney
Weston-super-Mare
3 Comments
by rocketbob
Monday, February 06 2012, 11:26AM
“Will the BEP ask the church why they are not paying for the repairs?.”
by alan_key
Saturday, February 04 2012, 12:04AM
“Oh dear.
Firstly, one of the protestors recently walked over the site with a professional landscape gardener, who gave a quote of £1500 for the work. Another landscape gardener has quoted an even lower sum on their facebook page. £10K+ is the council trying to rip you off and make the protestors look even worse. You could re-seed or re-turf an area twice the size of College Green for a fraction of the price Bristol Council are proposing.
Secondly, the protestors have offered to do the work themselves. They have experienced people among them, including experienced gardeners (one of the protestors owns their own gardening business) and the team that restored the grass at the former Occupy Bath camp (for which the taxpayer did not have to pay a single penny), and, as I understand, some money left over from donations to pay for materials. The council have refused their offer and will not even tell them the type of grass seed that they use on College Green.
Yes, the church is the landowner and is responsible for the land. But the protestors have offered to do it at no cost to the taxpayer and are being refused.”
by LanceFinney
Friday, February 03 2012, 11:58PM
“I was very happy to see protestors on college green despite not being one of them. I feel they are a clear sign of our democracy which seems to be making a bit of a welcome come back.
Also 10-20K is a lot of money but compared to the pay of bankers and CEO's its a drop in the ocean surely this is a price worth paying for a more equal and fair society?”