GreenBelt Action Group - updated 5th January 2009
Update: 5-01-09 - Meeting with Gordon Banks MP confirmed, January 6th 7pm:
Alloa Constituency Office
Gordon Banks MP
49-51 High Street
Alloa
Clacks
FK10 1JF
Knowing that this issue is one that affects all of us in the estate, here are a few snippets of info from around the web that may be of interest. If you know of any others, please add a comment to this article to share it.
I've been around the estate with my camera recently, taking some pictures of the areas that I believe GreenBelt manage for us. You can look at the images in this gallery (if asked for a log-in the details are; name: green, password: belt. I'll leave the images to speak for themselves as an indication of how well we're being served by our Land Maintainers. If you have any similar images you'd like to share, you can email them as attachments direct to the photo album at the following address - delphwynd-3snr@post.me.com
I'd sent off an email to the Greenbelt Group Actionpeople and have received a very prompt, interesting and supportive reply back from their contact there. It looks like there's been a bit of activity on the sending out of demand letters recently so we're not alone on that issue. It also looks like there's a bit of a groundswell of resistance building against the tactics Greenbelt and their management are employing with all the sites they 'manage'.
The GreenBelt accounts have also been published and I've had sight of those too. Not being an accountant I'm not sure what can be gleaned from them, but I'm reliably informed they don't paint a very rosey picture for the companies involved.
- Greenbelt Group Action
This website has been set up by Greenbelt Group Action - a group of homeowners from estates across the UK who are working actively to tackle the poor level of service we are receiving from the Greenbelt Group Ltd. and to push for changes in legislation and public policy.
- Jim Devine
MP who has been campaigning on behalf of residents affected by Greenbelt's policies. Click on the 'Search Site' facility and type in 'Greenbelt' for all related pages.
There's a record of a debate held in the House of Commons, on this link (scroll down the page around halfway and look for the heading 'Land Maintenance Companies'
- West Myretoun
This site highlights similar issues our close neighbours are having with Greenbelt - they're the estate at the West end of Menstrie, below Dumyat (some of us can see them from up here; give them a supportive wave!)
- Wee County News
Article from last year as published in one of the local papers.
- The Herald
A more recent article published, with user comments, in the Herald online.
Comments
Van on site today
You may have noticed a bit of activity on the estate today . A small army , mostly made up of shy foriegn nationals were doing a bit of a tidy up this morning . I went to ask them who they worked for & i eventually found one who,s english was quite good & he claimed to be in charge. ( Maybe the rest thought i was an immigration officer) . He told me they worked for MG CONTRACTING (owned by Greenbelt as far as i know) and were there to remove all the debris that was lying around , plastic bottles etc. I asked if he knew anthing about any plans to plant the large area behind the houses but he just shook his head. Isuspect they were possibly just trying to make the place more presentable before a meeting is finally arranged with ourselves & the Head Honcho Mr MIDDLETON. The sooner the better. Watch this space.
Re: Van on site today
Shows you how many times they've been spotted and how much it's noticed when they do appear as I even got a call from my wife to say she'd spotted an anonymous looking blue van around the site entrance when she left this morning.
And you're right about MG Contracting - here's a quote from a parliamentary debate from a year and a half.
"...One might think that that is perfectly fair and reasonable—until one looks at the directorships held by Greenbelt directors. Alex Middleton holds 15, in Greenbelt Group Ltd, Greenbelt Energy Ltd and other companies. Greenbelt’s main subcontractor is MG Contracting Ltd. Guess who the director of MG Contracting Ltd is? [Hon. Members: “Alex Middleton.”] Quite correct."
And as for clearing up the rubbish, I've just walked past the same bushes I photographed a couple of weeks a go full of rubbish, and the same bottles, cans and other pieces of litter are all still there...
Meeting Reminder.
Meeting tonight 7pm . All welcome
Date of meeting confirmed
Hi Guys! I received a call this afternoon from our local MP's office. This was to confirm a meeting with Gordon Banks which will take place on Tuesday 6th January 2009 at 7pm at the Alloa office [top of High Street]. Could anyone who would like to attend this meeting who has not yet contacted me, please e-mail me at e-hughes4@sky.com
Can I also ask you to spread the word around the street as this affects us all! Thank you
Finally, can I wish you all a Happy Christmas, Cheers Eddie Hughes
greenbelt company
We would be very interested to either attend the meeting or know the outcome of such a meeting. Please keep us informed.
greenbelt meeting
Count us in too......... just let us know when and where. =D>
Meeting to Discuss GreenBelt
Hi Eddie,
That's good stuff - count us in when the meeting's arranged. I'll send out an email to all those registered on site here that haven't visited for a while and see if we can drum up some more support.
Cheers,
Brian
MP Gordon Banks.
Fellow residents , i had a meeting this morning with a MR John Spence , who works for our local MP in the Alloa office. I gave him a brief rundown on our dealings with the land management company Greenbelt, and the recent developments concerning the latest threatening letters. He told me that they have had many dealings with this company on other sites in clackmannanshire. He is going to contact our MP Gordon Banks at Westminster to arrange a meeting with Mr Banks , myself & as many of you fellow residents as possible at the Alloa office , hopefully in the first week of January. I urge you all to become involved as this is the only way we can be rid of these chancers, once & for all.
Please either post your support here , contact Brian (admin) or contact myself e-hughes4@sky.com as i need to provide Mr Spence with a rough number of people who would like to attend. Cheers Eddie Hughes.
Greenbelt demand
Hi folks,
Add us to the list; just got home to find the same final demand for the outstanding amount. Will look it it later when I've had a bit more time but it all seems a bit desperate and smacks of a final throw of the dice for Greenbelt.
I had to laugh at the statement at the bottom of the page - something about we all have a legal requirement to pay for this 'service' or something. As others have mentioned I'm at a loss to see what this service actually is, was and should be...
Also, what is a 'Trading Standards Approved Debt Recovery Agency' anyway ?
Some recent stories appearing on this -
http://news.google.co.uk/news?hl=en&cr=countryUK%7CcountryGB&um=1&tab=wn...
Todays post.
your are not alone. We also received this letter from the Greenbelt Mafia. A more serious atempt to EXTORT our hard earned money from these legalised GANGSTERS. Let us see how many more victims there are , before we proceed. There should be no worries about a court case , as the evidence of no work is right outside our doors. mind you there was a van in the estate at the start of the week, no doubt trying to cram in four years work into one afternoon. Can,t say that i see any differance. IT is surely time for us all to get JIM DEVINE involved in this nonsense. Do not bow to these people.
Greenbelt. our Menstrie comrades.
Fellow residents , may i draw your attention to an article in today,s ( 14 aug ) ALLOA ADVERTISER . On page 15 there is story you may find very interesting which refers to our very own FACTOR. ENJOY ! ! !
greenbelt
just received a letter from greenbelt demanding that we pay their mandate within 7 days or without further warning they will pass this account on to a debt firm that will take me to court.
are they attempting to divide and conquor the street or has all non payers received similar letters???
Greenbelt
Beat me to it Eddie... :doh:
I'd just read that earlier too and was having a look on the Advertiser site to see if it was there too, but it isn't yet. It seems to be a follow up to an earlier article though -
http://www.alloaadvertiser.com/articles/1/26759
I also saw a feature on the local evening news whilst I was up in the North East of Scotland last week, about another estate that are getting together to chase them out too.
Has there been any sighting of any of Greenbelts operatives around lately?
GREENBELT BANDITS
I was informed that the George Wimpey building group originally purchased this whole hillside, including the land which was then sold on to persimmon and became Delph Wynd. Greenbelt were then awarded the contract to maintain both the Wimpey estate and the persimmon estate. Interestingly though the Wimpey residents do not pay any factor charge to greenbelt. That responsibility was left to us, the Delph Wynd residents to pay the upkeep of both sites and our council tax. For this reason and also because we do not believe in paying for work that does not take place, we have never paid these bandits a single penny and do not intend to.
We would welcome everyone's opinion.
Greenbelt
Up until this year we've always paid it as we get nervous when the red threatening letter arrives, but this year we haven't paid it and have no intention of paying it. We live in one of the houses backing onto the "mound" and I can honestly say the only things growing at the back of our house are a very thin scattering of srubs and mostly things other people have put over thier fences! There is a clear line where the small amount of planting greenbelt did a couple of years ago stops. At no time this year have we seen them on site and we can't justify paying for services that haven't happened.
Re: Greenbelt bandits
Hi Eddie,
Its good to hear that someone else if outraged about the greenbelt and the charges we incur. We also have no paid these charges and refuse to do so until something is done.
Re: GREENBELT BANDITS
Hi Eddie,
Thanks for the post. We've been holding off on our payment too until things are sorted.
Greenbelt
:/ :/ What I don't understand ,is why we are paying for the upkeep of the woods and green areas around the estate when we are also paying exorbitant amounts of council tax too.
In older private estates, do the residents abutting green areas also pay for their upkeep separately, or is it included in the council's responsibility?
Do the residents on the other side of the woods around Delph Wynd pay for the maintenance of the woods separately too, or is it just those in the newer houses who can supposedly afford it?
Technically, who owns the woods - is it Clacks. Council or Persimmon? Or, if we are paying for the upkeep of the aforesaid areas, do we have some rights to ownership as a direct result of our maintenance payments?
If the council own these areas, surely the exorbitant council tax should pay for their upkeep. If Persimmon own them, surely this multi-million pound company should pay for their upkeep.
If we don't own them, surely we should not be paying twice for their upkeep!
Anyone have further views on this or are we all sheep? Confused!!!!!
Re: Greenbelt
From personal experience (we lived in the group of 19 houses - http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=56.133485&lon=-3.833425&z=18.2&r=0&src=msa, of which only one or two were still part of the council stock, that back on to the woods down in Delph Road) it was certainly the council who maintained the woods and the grassed communal areas back then, covered by the Council Tax, and I'm assuming that it's still the same for residents there currently.
To me it seems there must be duplication going on there as we're apparently paying Greenbelt to do it, but others aren't and I'm assuming the council still are. I'm not sure either, as you sayf the residents on the other side of the woods around Delph Wynd pay for the maintenance of the woods separately.
Not sure how much work Greenbelt are doing in those woods anyhowp; I've only seen a lone white van parked at the entrance to the estate on hte odd occasion, never seen them venture into the estate to do any work.
Maybe we should start a Greenbelt Watch, see if anybody actually catches them doing what they'd promised... ~X(