Guns and lettuces - the eco-hippies are coming!

“They hang the man and flog the woman, Who steals the goose from off the common, Yet let the greater villain loose, That steals the common from the goose.”

It would be exaggeration to say that panic spread in our community on hearing the news that a local peasant group were being evicted from a nearby farm. It was nevertheless seen as a threat to local open spaces.

As it turned out the "eviction" was unsuccessful. having been instigated by a local property developer on a farm which has no owner. 

The report of a man brandishing an axe, justified an armed response unit, we're informed. Iit would be interesting to know who filed that report.

Yorkley Court peasants, as they call themselves won an injunction to keep developer Brian Bennett and solicitor Sreve Tolson at bay for 12  months. . 

What they're planning as a Community Land Trust is to establish a Community Benefit Society based on local food production and the relatives of the late landowner are collaborating in thie endeavour.

Community benefit societies go a step further than cooperatives in that they serve the interests of the wider community rather than a group of members.  I manage a discussion group on Linkedin and Facebook on this subject.

My own focus on local renewables in the village of Parkend where several attempts have been made to secure a derelict building. In the first instance for BBC Village SOS and more recently in an EU funder Forest of Dean Local Action Group initiative.

I admit to some self interest. Since arriving in the Forest 10 years ago, I've had difficulty in finding employment and one of the primary motivations has been to create work for myself and other people. This has been further hampered by illness and after 4 years I'm still under treatment but in the thrid stage of remission for leukaemia.

As I've told others who have since faced illiness and recovered, it's a matter of dignity as much as anything else. In this condition I see solidarity with Yorkley peasants who have taken the path of self determination to dignify their existence.and in doing so , benefit others including the children and grandchildren of local people. 

If I can't communicate that to friends and neighbours, what chance is there in understanding the social value of a community benefit farm.

I don't hear anyone in our village complain that we have free use of a playing field which belongs to the Forestry Commision or a forest around us where many walk their dogs, cycle or gather wild produce.    

Yet there seems to be far greater local concern that they are  in effect,  living on farmland for nothing at a cost to none of us..

The only cost to the community it seems is the police presence required to defend them from agressive bailiffs, which weren't required in all the time they've been resident, since the initial invitation of neighbours and relatives of the late owner/farmer.