UK Decay

[werewolf]

TREE'S CUT DOWN IN ST. GEORGES SQUARE LUTON!


Or the Making of Crap Luton!!

This how St Georges Square in Luton used to look in the summer



Then on the late evening of Sunday February 27th 2006, the 'Hackit and
slash it' crew arrive to do their dirty deeds!



I guess these guys are only doing their jobs but does beg the question,
Why???

The current Council are always banging on about 'How green they are'
and they do this!!!
All in the supposed aim of regeneration, why couldnt they have kept
these trees and worked them into the new plans??
The trees brought a welcome 'lung of green' right into the middle of the
town centre, creating a habitat for bird life and also the roost for a
a fantastic urban wildlife spectacle in the summer months.
Like Brighton west pavillion, Luton has its clouds of seemingly shape-
shifting starlings,,tens of thousands strong, on pleasant June and July
evenings they would gather on the high buildings adjacent to the Town
Hall Clock tower even sometimes gathering on the top of the tower
itself giving the appearance of the clock tower wearing a hat!

One year I looked out of the Aldwyck Towers towards the clock tower
just before the 9 Oclock bells went of and was astonished to see the entire
upper part of the tower was absolutely smothered with countless
thousands of birds it reminded me of a suited bee keeper with a swarm
of bees crawling over. As the 9 Oclock bell went off, like a special effect
bomb blast from a movie, the entire swarm exploded in an expanding
bubble, with all the birds taking wing at once, it was a spectacular image
that one would be very lucky to capture on a camera!
Eventually at dusk, the swirling shape shifting forms would 'dive bomb'
into the St. Georges Square tree's, in their thousands!
The chatter of thousands of starlings would then continue well into the
evening as they in their own mysterious way would carry on with their
business!
Now sadly they have lost their roost!

There are lots of good reasons why we should not only maintain our
current tree's but plant more.
In this district with the expected
population rise of up to a 40% increase in the next 10 years, all
green areas are under direct threat of urbanisation.
Great strips, 100 metres or more wide on both sides of the M1
motorway for 15 miles, have been stripped in preparation for the
new widening project.
There is now a huge security fence around the south luton airport,
they have stripped back tens of metres of old established tree's and
hedgerow's for two kilometres or more, furthermore, if the new airport
expansion proposals get the go ahead there will be literally square miles
of current greenbelt laid under concrete.
There are massive plans for up to 40,000 new homes to be built to the
north of Luton and a new eastern corridor motorway that would cut
through some of Lutons prime green fingers.
Change? I am not against it but I can say this,,,'it is getting pretty
busy round here' to me it looks like humanity will not be happy until
he has cocreted over every last square inch of green!!
This planet has got no hope of surviving if we carry on like this!


'Wide-Screen' presentations of St. George's Square, Luton, 26 & 27th
February 2006
Top pic work in progress St. George's Square, Luton, 27th Feb.
looking north. from the Arndale entrance.
Bottom pic 'A memory to the fallen 16'
The stumps of the 16 tree's felled,, work in progress on the rest!

Information on how they intend St. George's Square to look when
project completed (PDF) Here

Luton Airport Expansion plans (multiple pdf's) Here

BBC on Luton Airport expansion Here

Government Sustainable Communities Plan for the Luton/Milton
Keynes area (Links to PDF's)Here

further notes;
There is no plan for any kind of artwork for the new square (ie sculpture
paintings etc etc). How insulting to the cultural desire's of lutonians!
It display's a lack of duty of care to make our lives better as portayed
in Luton Councils own adopted Community strategy - Community plan
2002-2012

A short excerpt penned by the councils own hands...
"Despite being a densely developed area, Luton has some fine open
spaces and parks. All open spaces in Luton are important so they need
to be sensitively managed to ensure that the best use can be made of
them."

The so called 'public consultation' proccess was a sham!

The 3 plans all almost identical had little or no room for manouvre at the
public exhibitions I actually asked what was to become of the trees as
none of the plans featured them, and was basically given the 'brush-off'!


It was like choosing a fitted kitchen with 3 options of colours ie red,
slightly more red or slightly less red, honest that was the choice!
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[D]

If you're into this anorak type behaviour - which I am BTW - then you
don't have far to go for more info. The Luton Library has a reference
section (above the books, below the theatre - at least in my day). There
are files on Luton Redevelopment, which a full of cuttings and reports
about the town. What I found the most interesting, and I can see some
people drifting off and getting bored already, was the whole debate and
discussion around the Arndale. There's too much to put into a single post,
though the thing that caught my eye was that, seen from the 19460's it
wasn't meant to be just a commercial centre but a community centre, with
leisure facilities, cinema, etc, (in the gap between the library and the
Strathmore (which is part of the Arndale BTW). IIRC a councillor asked a
question about the year 2000 and whether people would be able to travel
to the Arndale in their "girocopter" and the reply was that, yes, indeed,
there will be a car park on the roof that can easily be converted for the
purpose.

Of course the unstable, roller-coaster world economy swept that away
during the seventies and eighties - there was no girocopter, only a giro
from the dole office and an Arndale full of charity shops.

Although, I spent a lot of time despising the Arndale when I lived in Luton,
I actually quite miss it.

[smurf]

Well i do agree with D lol sometimes wish i could go to the Arndale miss
the shops lol, on serious matters tho well nothing the council or any govt'
do for that matter suprises me anymore the new poltricks these days is
not to cover up your lies its perfectly ok to tell them and get found out
because they dont give a fuck anyway they will do just what they want to
regardless, did anyone see Dispatches last nite if it worried you well it
should but thats what the fuckers have been upto for a long time only now
are people realising the true extent of the political picture and not the
vast majority either be to late by that point of time, not just here either
its everywhere things been coming in via the backdoor and as for St
Georges Sq well what remains may well be the last bit of greenry you
have left there in the center, to late to do ought about it now done via the
backdoor aand you cant protest either or you will come under the
watchfull eye of the tought police strip serch in public eh! still it's yet ano
well tought out plan by LBC cut the trees before nesting season remember
the 1's on the link cut before they recieved the injunction very early in
the morning and whats worse you pay tax for this privilage you pay them
to do it to you as we all do on a local and national level.

We the working masses are the majority about time we excorised the
majority right, be nice if that majority witheld its council taxes make them
listen they cant lock us all up,p.s. that little incident at the airport the
other w/e wait till a big 1 happens wont just be at the end of the runway
will it anyway soz to appear gloomy i am not by nature but i cant stand
the blaightent lies anymore and they wonder why people in less affluient
places do what they do when there driven to despair by lies false
promises.

I gotta pray that some day things will be better Martin Cambell

[werewolf]

St. George's Trees felled

St. George will be rolling in his grave now!

Well they have done it, there are now only 4 or 5 left in one corner,
Another 12 trees felled, including several magnificent Willows and the
Silver Birch captured the previous day in the panaramic view above.

i know a lot of folk would ask why are we making so much fuss about this
The council are only trying to improve the space etc etc and in part I
actually do think there will be an improvement eventually, with less traffic
fumes etc but my simple question is again...
'Why did they not build these thirty year old established trees into the
plans?'
I really think the powers that be, actually believe that trees grow on a
production line like motor cars (that used to be produced in this town!)
and like cars they go past their 'sell by date' and have to be replaced by
newer models! This policy, for this is what it seems is insane!

A friend pointed out that the new trees planned (see pic of plan below)
look like Laylandi or poplar trees, the one advantage they got for the new
Big Brother Society that is being heralded is that they unlike the previous
models, grow distinctly tall and upwards, rather than spreading out in a
canopy, therefore making it easier for the police hellicopter to keep an
eye on things, forgive me for being a trite para here...there is also the
question of EU money (there we go!)
Take a look at the board below to see whome the sponsors are,,the
'Office of the Deputy Prime Minister' John 'Bloody' Prescott!

Say no More!




GONE!!




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[D]

Of course the writing was on the wall for everything you are talking about, long ago.

I'm reminded of a conversation with "Lord Doom" (remember him?) in the eighties and he was telling me that he didn't want to get involved in the Miners Strike or Wapping (printworkers strike) because ""I'm only interested in having a good time." I rememeber asking how long he would last having his good time with his make-up and hair-do under a dictatorship, or whetehr he'd be able to afford his leather coat and pointy Camden Market boots if dole money was abolished.

It was just a hypothesis, slightly exagerated to make a point but within 10 years... One of the things the police did in the Miners Strike was set up road blocks around Notts to stop people going "secondary picketing" even though this was not a criminal offence but a civil/industrial one (i.e. the pigs were acting illegally). As a result of its successful implementation during that strike, it was then made into law so that 10 years later, the same tactics were used to stop people going to raves (and having a good time) and then legislation to stop raves themselves...

These sort of laws - and their implementation - could have been stopped in their tracks if the Miners had won and the police, government, bosses and media barons defeated.

BTW: F**k St. George, his day and those who celebrate it. The square should be renamed. "UK Decay Square", anyone?

[D]

Actually, thinking back, something else has occured to me. When I was little, wasn't St George's Square the Bus Station 30 years ago? There was even less grass and fewer trees that there were last summer IYSWIM?

I can remember, (plays Hovis music) when Crawley Green Road led into the countryside and it was all fields where now there are houses.

And my mam can remember (takes out onion) when she lived on the edge of town, which was Somerset Avenue and t'airport were just a field.

[smurf]

Yes if only the miners and the wapping massive had been sucessful it may well have been a different picture but Thacter exacted the full revenge on the working masses for the part in bringing down the Heath Govt' in the early 70's all to late by that point because the torys had also sucessfuly established the divide n rule policy, many people became empowered with self wealth and importance and ownership that split the masses the haves and the have nots, and since new tory soz labour (what the fuck there both the same and one) even more of these policies have come into being if you have digi tv check out bravo on Tue nights 10.00 prog called i predict a riot well worth a watch and nothing to do with the Kaizer Chiefs we have had more of our civil libertys taken away under Labour than the torys all under the guise of the terror factor.

[dahei]

delusional paranoid hippy horse shit .... is that one word?

[D]

If you have to ask, you might be a victim of it yourself.

Anyway, thanks for demolishing the arguments above so brilliantly - I'm sure you've convinced everyone with your well-thought out analysis.

You're wasted on this site; you need a larger platform, BBC, CNN, etc... I'm sure the world wants to listen to you and will follow you wherever you go

[dahei]

well thats me told then ....



so then d is that commodity or groves ????

by the way one of ' lord dooms' last outings that i witnessed was a kurdish workers party demo !!!!!! 3000 kurdish demonstrators and lord doom and 2 punky looking types on oxford st ..... funny place to run into old friends .....

regards