Pip A’Ness

[Pip A’Ness @PippyTiPi]

@JimSmar98556729 @GreenJennyJones @NSomersetGreen @RootsAllotments It’s on private land so not a council issue. I’m surprised it’s still there TBH. Roots contractors certainly had no issue dragging a car out of the farmer’s gateway after dark when trying to exit across his field without permission.

[Pip A’Ness @PippyTiPi]

@sellanbysw @GreenJennyJones @NSomersetGreen @RootsAllotments Roots model is to create industrial-scale (700 plots), drive-to allotment parks on greenbelt agricultural fields. Many are grazing pastures: threatened ecosystems that support protected grassland species (skylarks, linnets, bats). No local consultation, no planning permission.

[Pip A’Ness @PippyTiPi]

@AlastairBruce_ @UniofOxford One of the TP cousins has just graduated from St. Hugh’s - will family trump college allegiance I wonder. Good luck from the Bristol TPs X

[Pip A’Ness @PippyTiPi]

@bbsmallholding @drrozhall @RootsAllotments @DeborahMeaden @Catherinewith11 @soloparentuk @friendofthefox @ChrisGPackham @ClimateRadio @youngclimatewrs @TheBristolCable @PrivateEyeNews Do you know where Roots Chelmsford site is @bbsmallholding - a greenbelt meadow/arable field within driving distance of town?

[Pip A’Ness @PippyTiPi]

@katy_noakes @drrozhall @RootsAllotments @DeborahMeaden @Catherinewith11 @TheBristolCable @brizzlegreenie @Ben_garrod @ChrisGPackham @ClimateRadio @soloparentuk @friendofthefox @youngclimatewrs Yes, North Somerset Council said Roots must apply for planning permission to install plastic matting (or any permanent surface) for car parking. Roots ignored that: created a vehicular access, laid rubber mat track & plastic mesh so wheels don’t get stuck in the mud. It’s a mess!

[Pip A’Ness @PippyTiPi]

@Sova1207 @drrozhall @RootsAllotments @DeborahMeaden @ChrisGPackham @RSPBEngland @bcnpartnership @ClimateRadio @youngclimatewrs @soloparentuk @Ben_garrod @TheBristolCable @Catherinewith11 Are you local @Sova1207? If you’d spent the hours I had in the meadow observing skylarks breeding pairs, you’d know this is NOT the case. Roots plan to have 400 allotments on the upper meadow, 18 taps & troughs installed, and there are indeed nesting skylarks in this top section

[Pip A’Ness @PippyTiPi]

@philsturgeon @RootsAllotments https://t.co/HBVMw7jsVk

[Pip A’Ness @PippyTiPi]

@rickygervais these meadow skylarks need a voice too. Nesting sites being buried under cardboard & low-grade compost by @RootsAllotments pushing on to create 700 over-priced allotments on precious greenbelt grazing meadows in Abbots Leigh. Looks like a graveyard - is a graveyard.

[Pip A’Ness @PippyTiPi]

@rickygervais these meadow skylarks need a voice too. Nesting sites being buried under cardboard & low-grade compost by @RootsAllotments pushing on to create 700 over-priced allotments on precious greenbelt grazing meadows in Abbots Leigh. Looks like a graveyard - is a graveyard.

[Pip A’Ness @PippyTiPi]

@drrozhall @RootsAllotments @DeborahMeaden @ChrisGPackham @RSPBEngland @bcnpartnership @ClimateRadio @youngclimatewrs @soloparentuk @Ben_garrod @TheBristolCable @Catherinewith11 The saddest of all the skylark videos I’ve recorded on the meadow these past 2.5 months. Filmed 2h after @RootsAllotments dumped another 120 tonnes of compost. Behaviour I’ve not seen before: a skylark seemingly not sure where to land, a nest perhaps crushed/buried. @ASPolice

[Pip A’Ness @PippyTiPi]

@DeborahMeaden Another 8 loads of compost dumped 06:00 this morning in the as yet undisturbed section of upper meadow directly below the houses. That joins the 6 taps & troughs installed a week ago. Police are aware of skylarks in that section too, but their ecologist’s report missed this area.

[Pip A’Ness @PippyTiPi]

@PlushieTumRs @dr_senior1 @drrozhall @RootsAllotments @DeborahMeaden @ChrisGPackham @RSPBEngland @bcnpartnership @ClimateRadio @youngclimatewrs @soloparentuk @Ben_garrod @TheBristolCable @Catherinewith11 Very hard to evidence. Roots ecologist, on site for less than 2 hours, concluded ‘foraging only’ 4 weeks ago.

[Pip A’Ness @PippyTiPi]

@PlushieTumRs @dr_senior1 @drrozhall @RootsAllotments @DeborahMeaden @ChrisGPackham @RSPBEngland @bcnpartnership @ClimateRadio @youngclimatewrs @soloparentuk @Ben_garrod @TheBristolCable @Catherinewith11 An independent police ecologist found evidence of nesting skylarks in the sections of meadow not yet flattened & buried by the wheels of 36 tractors & trailers dumping 540 tonnes of low-grade compost & telehander driving back & forth. Too late for the skylarks on the upper meadow

[Pip A’Ness @PippyTiPi]

@JulesA4thJuly @ChrisGPackham @RootsAllotments Interesting when you search for Roots holding company name this comes up!
https://t.co/x77vKEPQGe

[Pip A’Ness @PippyTiPi]

@JulesA4thJuly @ChrisGPackham @RootsAllotments This is wrong too - and sadly I know you are not alone. Where are/were your allotments? So much for Section 23 of the Allotments Act 1908. Cash-strapped councils should leave established allotments in the safe hands of the green-fingered.

[Pip A’Ness @PippyTiPi]

@DeborahMeaden @drrozhall @RootsAllotments @GreenJennyJones @ChrisGPackham @Feargal_Sharkey @Catherinewith11 @TheBristolCable @ClimateRadio @bcnpartnership @RSPBEngland @avonwt Thank you @DeborahMeaden - Roots knew 21mths ago about the importance of this precious skylark meadow, but sold it to customers & investors as ‘a grass monoculture devoid of life’ & invalidated local concerns as the voices of ‘wealthy NIMBYs’. Full EIA is needed now.

[Pip A’Ness @PippyTiPi]

@magicbeanz1986 @drrozhall @NorthSomersetC @avonwt @RSPBEngland @Natures_Voice @WWTworldwide @davidattenburro @wwf_uk @RSPBNews @TheBristolCable @morss_alex PAS100 council greenwaste compost, inevitably contains plastic contaminants in spite of screening, used by gardeners for mulch/as a soil improver. Now being used by @RootsAllotments across the UK on acres of grazing meadows to create out of town mega allotments. No EIA done.

[Pip A’Ness @PippyTiPi]

@ChatfieldPaula @LucyDilloway @drrozhall @RootsAllotments @GreenJennyJones @DeborahMeaden @ThangamMP @ClimateRadio @Ben_garrod @NorthSomersetC @ChrisGPackham @soloparentuk @DanicaPriest @Catherinewith11 Tonnes of council PAS100 greenwaste compost, recommended as mulch/soil improver, now spread across acres of grazing meadow. No EIA done. Where are the protections for the skylarks, linnets, badgers, deer?
@IoloWilliams2 @LiamFox @DeborahMeaden @GreenJennyJones @RSPBNews

[Pip A’Ness @PippyTiPi]

@greenbeltsal @drrozhall @RootsAllotments @GreenJennyJones @DeborahMeaden @ThangamMP @ClimateRadio @Ben_garrod @NorthSomersetC @ChrisGPackham @soloparentuk @DanicaPriest @Catherinewith11 @LyeCrossFarm And there’s more to come - 120 allotment plots created so far - @RootsAllotments want hundreds more. No local need. People will drive. A precious meadow destroyed. No planning permission applied for. No EIA or traffic impact assessment. BNG claims unfounded. Obscene.

[Pip A’Ness @PippyTiPi]

@greenbeltsal @drrozhall @RootsAllotments @GreenJennyJones @DeborahMeaden @ThangamMP @ClimateRadio @Ben_garrod @NorthSomersetC @ChrisGPackham @soloparentuk @DanicaPriest @Catherinewith11 Local farmers paid to do a job. Tractors & 15-tonne trailers hired from Alvis @LyeCrossFarm and DB Gibbons. Now 2x deliveries at dawn by convoy of 14 tractors. 420+ tonnes of low-grade municipal compost dumped & spread by machine on this precious meadow whilst skylarks sing

[Pip A’Ness @PippyTiPi]

@morss_alex Here’s the evidence - the joy of experiencing these meadow birds first hands is equal to the trauma of seeing their nesting site obliterated 🥺