This
well-loved but threatened 'pick-your-own' field lies in
Cumbria UK near Oxenholme railway station & the Lake District.
Please read
more about it:
Description
The
management of this field for pick-your-own fruit & veg
makes it an attractive part of the beautiful landscape here, and allows
it to
support its many other assets such as breeding lapwings and
oystercatchers, as
well as many species of plants, beneficial insects and other bird
species.
The aims of this page are:
1. to increase awareness of these wonderful assets, which are being
ignored or
politically 'down-played' by
pro-development
interests, and:
2. to give those who value its present
features a place
to show how much they do so.
By simply 'liking' the page you can
quickly add
strength in numbers and 'solidarity'. Also do 'like' any features
portrayed
that you hope won't be lost. If you don't want page updates from here
to your
Facebook feed then just do the latter.
The page is likely to evolve if
opportunities to
help the site come up and certainly news affecting the site's future
will be
posted here - e.g. the outcome of the June Inquiry.
It is hoped that those with power to
influence the
future of this site will have regard to the site's existing qualities
and the
strength of support for these, so that their thinking can redirect
towards
maintaining these not replacing them with development of higher
monetary value
though lower overall 'well-being' value.
Certainly the field's manager Christine
Bell has
been very aware and very supportive of the natural assets of the
Strawberry
field for many years, and these assets have been very dependent on her
sensitive methods of management for PYO fruit and veg. However the
owner,
planners, councillors, developers, consultants also have an influential
involvement on the site's future.
By better planning it is possible to
cater for the
most important aspects of the other land-use needs (e.g. housing) by
re-siting
where there will be much less loss of existing features. It is not an
"either-or" "zero-sum game" as development-proponents try
to politicize it (e.g. when Councillors tried to smear lovers of
green-spaces
as falsely being inconsiderate of housing needs for locals). With good
planning
we can have BOTH our best green-space features AND have truly
affordable/rentable housing for locals in need.