Temperance Green - victory?

We're pleased to report that the villagers of Broadbottom appear to have won their fight to keep Temperance Green from being tarmacked. At least for now.

Their blog reports that the Longdendale District Assembly has rejected the suggestions from their own planning officers, with that well known Eco-warrior Sean Parker-Perry taking it upon himself to write to residents.

This is something to celebrate. RAGE kicked off a swift campaign, utilising similar techniques to ours to get this issue out into the open. It's now nipped in the bud.

Our suggestion to them would be to go for formal Village Green status - if possible - to ensure TMBC can't change their mind again too soon.

Save Temperance Green!

We've become aware of a new environmental campaign in Longdendale over the weekend: Residents Against Green Erosion (RAGE) have set up a weblog in their campaign to protect Temperance Green, a small patch of green land in Broadbottom.

TMBC seem to have plans to turn it into a car park. Our posts about the progress of Trevor Mooney's car park in Dinting should alert those who believe local authority planning departments have scruples about where to build, even a tiny bit of land in the middle of a small village like Broadbottom.

What makes this one interesting are several factors. One is that many of arguments espoused by RAGE are the same as we use in the fight against the bypass. Another is that it is really a microcosm of the bypass issue: if you allow roads to grow, you end up having arguments about the tiniest bits of green land left - nothing satiates the appetite of the road monster.

But best of all is that this is taking place in Broadbottom, and that RAGE have been talking to the bypass supporting councillors Jonathan Reynolds and Sean Parker-Perry. How likely is it that politicians such as these will be against a car park? I suppose we'll find out.

We'd like to add our support to this campaign and will be reserving a space in the sidebar for a link. In the meantime, RAGE have a video about their campaign on YouTube: