Forum for residents of St Georges Park and Long Leys Road Lincoln

[Jeff]

The City of Lincoln Council has issues a press release for the next meeting of the Executive Committee.
This will take place on Monday, 16th August 2010, beginning at 6.00pm.
The venue is New Life Church which is sited on Newland, Lincoln.
The agenda item is SHOULD THE WEST COMMON BE USED FOR HORSE RACING.
Members of the Executive will be expressing their views and making comments before voting on the matter.
It is open to the public and same conditions apply as with the LIncoln Commons Advisory Panel meeting which took place recently at New Life Church.
The media will be there to report on the decision to be made.

[Neville]

a solicitor living on st georges park has given me some advice regarding the lease which the lrrc is seeking. if granted by city council this may lead to complications later. the lrrc will want to spend some money using their investment to secure a foothold on the west common. once spent and wishing to withdraw later, they will want reimbursement from city council. but then city council has no money in the kitty to give any monies to the lrrc. what could happen regarding this is that the lrrc may seek to sell their investment to another company having relinquished their dealings with horse racing for the west common. the scenario does not sound or look good if the reality is that the west common is used as a land grab. for if the common is used to build certain buildings, horse racing fails for reasons of another, the first option will be given to city council to buy those buildings back. city council has no money to do so, then other options taken by the lrrc will be to sell off the buildings to interested bidders. legal implications will have to be resolved with the costs borne by the taxpayer.

[Lilian H]

Hello. Although I no longer live in Lincoln, I did so for 40years. I think the council are being very sly. When the Act concerning the Commons was altered many years ago they tried to take the "Rights" of the people away & replace them with "Priviledges" which could be taken away. Fortunately they were unsuccessful in this & the "Rights" remain. I do wonder if they have the right to do what they propose. It may be worth checking that Act of Parliament, as I think they probably do not have the right to build anything on Common Land. & I would doubt the legallity in leasing it too. Also it is my understanding that it is illegal to enclose Common Land, unless people are kept off it for 1year & 1day. So the fencing of a racecourse would be illegal. As for that matter are the tree & other enclosures. (But too late for them I think.) It seems the council have wanted to get their hands on the West Common for many years. I would imagine that from their point of view it is a complete waste of money, & could be much better utilised. What a wonderful piece of real estate just sitting there doing nothing. What a waste of valuable space. Much better a race course, or maybe large housing estate??? Think how much they could get from the land alone for housing & then all those lovely rates. There are very few places with proper commons left. Previous racing on the common was held on a grass track, the majority of which was not fenced. (But this would not be good enough today, I think.) If this goes ahead I think you will loose the common, & you will never regain it. This must be fought for now. Get the law about this out in the open & stop this council once & for all.

[richardcrabbe]

Dear Lillian

thank you for that posting, its really interesting to hear a different point of view. I've lived here for almost ten years - so still a few years to go before I stop being a newcomer. My knowledge about the previous goings on are sketchy at best, yet I believe that saying that "those who don't learn from the past are forced to relive it".

I agree with your comments about land grab. It is the only logical explanation.

Fortunatly the law is out in the open, http://www.handsoffourcommon.co.uk/15.html.

We are fighting. But, as you suggest, this is only one more in a series of attacks on the common. Our long term task is to bury the idea for good. It strike me that memories such as your are a critical part of this. If we can show that there is a series of plans which take no account of the law & are motivated by greed, then perhaps we can get some legal ruling that the council can & should reject them out of hand as being a waste of their recources. Perhaps Nevilles neighbour on St Georges might give us some advice on this? Please will you try & clarify them, with as much detail as you can remember; names, dates etc.

Best wishes

Richard

[Lilian H]

Thank you for the information. It was the 1985 Act that I was referring to. There were some significant changes made in that act to the former one. The ones I can remember were - it used to cost one shilling to register an animal on the Commons, plus one guinea per animal after that. (So you could keep as many animals as you liked on the Commons.) This was changed to an unspecified figure & only one Horse per household. Also there was a clause put in to stop anyone making a living from these animals. (But if you think about it, in times gone by, the animals kept on the Commons would on the whole have been kept for commerical reasons - i.e. Tradesman had to have horses to pull their vehicles. & I can just remember Cows on the West Common.(definately commercial.))Other animals were then excluded. Before my time Animals were grazed on not only the north side of Saxilby Rd. but also on the South side. Now the Golf course. All of this being the West Common. The animals were I am told & quite believe removed from the Golf course by stealth by the council, by allowing the fences to fall into disrepair. Thus making it unsafe to graze animals there.
I did not know about the 2006 Act. But this seems to be a general Act concerning all commons in this country. I can't see anything specifically referring to Lincoln.
The only part of the racecourse fenced was the straight mile at the bottom. This has already been torn up to make the Lincoln byepass.

There are people who know a great deal more about this than me. Mainly the older horsey comunity, & your local Riding School. These people have come up against the council many times in the past & have a wealth of knowledge about this subject.

[Lilian H]

A couple of points I have just thought of -
1/ Every time there is a problem with the Commons, the council says they are "council owned common lands." Stating that the Freemen or Aldermen of the City sold their rights to the council for the common lands a long time ago. (Somewhere around 1910 I believe.) I am not sure what difference this makes, but the council try using this every time. So might be worth looking into. And there are Lincoln people around today who know this history. (I can think of a least one.)

2/ If the council are so concerned about recreational facilities for people. Then why did they decide to take the land off the only riding school left in the City, & turn it into a Cemetary. Surely a riding school is a welcome asset to any City. Teaching our young the values of Animals. Animal Welfare. Looking after the countryside & not littering. Keeping things tidy & correct, etc. Keeping them off the streets & teaching them good moral values. Better than allowing them to roam with nothing to do & then become hooligans.

3/ It is my belief that the council have tried & are still trying very hard to get the horses off the commons. Note: trying to remove a "Right" & replace it with a "Privilidge". Doing what they propose would give them some leverage in this. Beware. If the grazing rights are ever lost, it won't be long before the commons are lost entirely. Traditionally the horsey people are those that on the whole have fought the hardest for the commons. Others although using the commons seem somewhat complaceant, & often take a lot of motivating. Maybe this time I am wrong about this. I hope so.

I do know people who have a lot of knowledge about the commons. Lincoln common law. & the history of the commons, but don't know if I should name them here???

[deb]

Lilian you could use PM to contact Neville, it would then not be in the public domain but the information could be useful to him.

[Lilian H]

I don't know what PM is. ???

[deb]

Sorry!
Log in
Click 'Members' near the top of the page
Find Neville (he's on page 4)
Click on his name
You now have the option to PM (private message him)

Only Neville will then see what you have written and he can reply to your message privately too. i.e. using PM is a bit like email.