Sunday 16 May 2010

Peter Gabriel fights to save valley that inspired lyrical creation

Please find below an example of highly effective PR taking place right here where I live in Woolley near Bath. A live example of mustering celebrities and social media to create a cause.



From
May 15, 2010
Villagers of Woolley on the edge of Bath are protesting against development of land

The view from Solsbury Hill is no longer what it was when it inspired a single by Peter Gabriel, former lead singer of Genesis, in 1977.

To the dismay of residents, it has been scarred by building and excavation, and next week Gabriel joins their fight to save what he calls “one of the most beautiful valleys in the West of England”. Just as appalled is the television presenter Jonathan Dimbleby, who sold the land on which the unapproved construction has taken place.


The Woolley Valley, where Gabriel once lived, is a mile from Bath, a patchwork of steeply sloping fields, winding lanes, farms and stone villages.


On paper the valley is heavily protected. It is green belt land in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and is covered by an Article 4 direction, which requires landowners to seek planning permission to do almost anything more than mow the grass.


Residents say that vast sheds for South American alpacas and free-range chickens now fill fields once occupied by sheep and cows. A new track wider than the lane it runs alongside has been built without planning permission and excavators are digging “stock ponds” and land drains in a boggy meadow once filled with wild flowers.


Dimbleby, a former chairman of the Campaign to Protect Rural England, sold 55 acres in 2005. In the past two years agents for the new owners, Golden Valley Paddocks, have made retrospective planning applications, all of which have been refused. They have put a mobile home on the site for two agricultural workers and converted a neighbouring barn into offices. The agents say that the intention is to build a farmhouse, and claim that planners will find it difficult to refuse.


Bath and North East Somerset Council (Banes) has not ordered reversal of the work, just a halt on part of the site while it considers its next move.


Gabriel said from Los Angeles yesterday: “The development is making a mockery of our planning and environmental policies. I can only think that Banes don’t have the resources to fight it.” On Wednesday he will be centre stage at a press conference on the legal fight against the construction.


Dimbleby, who had an organic farm in the valley, said: “It appears that the new owners have repeatedly ignored the planners and that Banes has been remarkably slow to take the tough action required.


“Enough damage has been done. It must be stopped before it is too late.”


The Cotswolds stone farmhouse of Deborah Jones, an illustrator, was damaged when the mobile home was taken along the narrow lane on the back of a lorry. She said: “We are not just worried about what their ultimate intentions are for this land, it is not suitable for the sort of intense agricultural use they claim to want to put it.”


Almost every window and car in the tiny village of Woolley displays a “Save Woolley Valley” poster. Residents have a petition with 650 names and have raised “tens of thousands” of pounds to fight a legal battle.


The local authority says that it is investigating the case and will decide what action to take when the temporary stop notice expires next week.


Mrs Jones said: “Our fear is that at one minute past midnight they will just move the diggers back and carry on wrecking the place.”



You can find out more at www.savewoolleyvalley.co.uk

16 comments:

Marjory D said...

Go for it

Toby Jones said...

If you feel as strongly as I do about the desecration of a beautiful valley, please sign the petition on the Woolley Valley website www.savewoolleyvalley.co.uk

Annie Hancock said...

I lived in Bath for 20 years, during which the Batheaston Bypass was built and years of protest from sham eco warriors (imposters), battles with police, etc. etc.,took place - rocking a quiet local area in its roots.

It seems as though Councils (especially B&NES) have absolutely no immediate power to stop landowners doing whatever they like regardless of the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty status of the land.

Retrospective planning should be banned and when neighbours identify wrongful building on designated land they should report it immediately so that quick action can be taken through the appropriate channel.

Councils should become far more empowered to break the stranglehold of bully boy developers who break the rules for their own benefit; especially in this particularly beautiful area of the country.

E Telf said...

Welcome to British democracy 2010.

Bully boys and ignorance rule.

I wish the protesters luck in protecting our green and pleasant land. They'll need it.

D Jones said...

We are a small community nestled on the side of this valley.

Peter Gabriel still retains many connections with this area and we are very grateful for his support. Five retrospective planning applications have been refused on this site.

This is not a case of diversification, this land was bought in the full knowledge that it was in a protected area and was for agricultural or equestrian use -there is now a light industrial unit with metal shutters, glazed window units, solid electronic gates, a steeply raked entrance, huge swathes of hard standing, a mobile home with sheds attached and panelled fencing, wide hard-core track wider than the lane, earthworks and 2m deep excavations, 10 green plastic covered mobile chicken barns...

all without planning approval.

John Francis said...

Why Wooley Valley?

Surely being surrounded by an area of natural beauty is not a requirement for the well being of Alpacas?

It is however a very great advantage for the well being of a shifty Alpaca 'agent's' bank balance; if he can capitalise by arranging for planning approval to be given for the building a farmhouse in an Area of Natural Beauty.

No doubt, the prospective Alpaca farmer, once planning permission for his new farmhouse goes through, will show his gratitude to the 'agent' in the normal financial way; knowing that the value of his farmhouse will be greatly increased by it's being sited in such a beautiful area?

Henry Nield said...

So, in the words of the agent for Golden Valley Paddocks, Mr Marc Willis, the intention really IS to build a farmhouse in the Green Belt, in an area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, supposedly protected by Article 4...and to make doubly sure a pack of alpacas can be driven through a loophole in the planning law, ten thousand chickens are being brought in to seal the deal, with no regard for planning permission, the environment and local residents.

It's all about intention - the intentions of those making the laws, and those wanting to skirt round or break them.

Bath & North East Somerset have all the proof they need as to the ultimate intentions of Mr Willis and his masters, and unless BANES rises to the challenge of its obligations as Council, we can all look forward to an era of massive breeches in the planning laws as intended, the end of the Green Belt, a mockery of the Secretary of State's Article 4, and the rule of greedy and disingenuous developers ruining our landscape to line their pockets behind a facade of farming.

Theo Parker said...

Just received this list of your PR 'hits':
BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/somerset/8693430.stm
ITV - online clip: http://www.itv.com/westcountry-east/save-woolley-valley58378/
Bath Chronicle: http://www.thisisbath.co.uk/news/Peter-Gabriel-backs-fight-stop-development-spot-inspired-song/article-2178681-detail/article.html
Mail: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1280275/Solsbury-Hill-Local-residents-fight-property-developers-save-rural-icon.html
Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/may/19/peter-gabriel-save-solsbury-hill
Southwest Business: http://www.southwestbusiness.co.uk/environmental/Gabriel-chorus-disapproval/article-2180506-detail/article.html
Telegraph: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/7741147/Peter-Gabriel-joins-campaign-to-save-valley-he-sang-about.html

Ollie said...

And the relevance?
Ollie

Karen said...

• BBC News - Peter Gabriel attacks Woolley Valley farm plans
19 May 2010 ... Singer and musician Peter Gabriel joins campaigners angry at what they call the illegal development of a beauty spot near Bath.
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/somerset/8693430.stm

• Peter Gabriel fights to save valley that inspired lyrical creation ...
The Woolley Valley, where Gabriel once lived, is a mile from Bath, a patchwork of steeply sloping fields, winding lanes, farms and stone villages. ...
www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article7127161.ece

• Peter Gabriel joins campaign to save valley he sang about - Telegraph
29 May 2010 ... Gabriel, 60, once lived in the beautiful Woolley Valley, near Bath, Somerset, on which his first solo single after leaving Genesis in 1977 ...
www.telegraph.co.uk/.../Peter-Gabriel-joins-campaign-to-save-valley-he-sang-about.html

• Peter Gabriel joins campaign to save Solsbury Hill landscape ...
19 May 2010 ... Gabriel joined the journalist Bel Mooney, Dimbleby's ex-wife, and members of the Save Woolley Valley group to discuss how to halt the ...
www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/.../peter-gabriel-save-solsbury-hill

• Save Woolley Valley - Westcountry Regional News (West Country East ...
26 May 2010 ... Save Woolley Valley. 4.37PM Wed May 19 2010. The musician Peter Gabriel has publicly backed a campaign to save the idyllic valley which ...
www.itv.com/westcountry-east/save-woolley-valley58378/

• Solsbury Hill: Local residents fight property developers to save ...
29 May 2010 ... Peter Gabriel is one of the people behind the fight against property developers planning to build houses in Woolley Valley ...
www.dailymail.co.uk/.../Solsbury-Hill-Local-residents-fight-property-developers-save-rural-icon.html

• Express.co.uk - Home of the Daily and Sunday Express | Showbiz ...
16 May 2010 ... Locals have already plastered the area with 'Save Woolley Valley' posters and put together a petition in a bid to halt the work. Gabriel ...
www.express.co.uk/posts/view/.../Gabriel-fights-to-save-Solsbury-Hill


Express.co.uk - Home of the Daily and Sunday Express | Showbiz ...
Locals have already plastered the area with 'Save Woolley Valley' posters and put together a petition in a bid to halt the work. Gabriel says ...
https://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/175502

Angela (LinkedIn) said...

Have been to Woolley and it needs all our support. Pretty church. Lovely valley. But being destroyed.

Unknown said...

*More anger ovr Woolley Valley*- Bath Cncil *consider* retrospective plan #6 - Woolley Valley nr Bath from GVP http://bit.ly/dsYduP

Henry Nield said...

So, in the words of the agent for Golden Valley Paddocks, Mr Marc Willis, the intention really IS to build a farmhouse in the Green Belt, in an area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, supposedly protected by Article 4...and to make doubly sure a pack of alpacas can be driven through a loophole in the planning law, ten thousand chickens are being brought in to seal the deal, with no regard for planning permission, the environment and local residents.

It's all about intention - the intentions of those making the laws, and those wanting to skirt round or break them.

Bath & North East Somerset have all the proof they need as to the ultimate intentions of Mr Willis and his masters, and unless BANES rises to the challenge of its obligations as Council, we can all look forward to an era of massive breeches in the planning laws as intended, the end of the Green Belt, a mockery of the Secretary of State's Article 4, and the rule of greedy and disingenuous developers ruining our landscape to line their pockets behind a facade of farming.

D Jones said...

We are a small community nestled on the side of this valley.

Peter Gabriel still retains many connections with this area and we are very grateful for his support. Five retrospective planning applications have been refused on this site.

This is not a case of diversification, this land was bought in the full knowledge that it was in a protected area and was for agricultural or equestrian use -there is now a light industrial unit with metal shutters, glazed window units, solid electronic gates, a steeply raked entrance, huge swathes of hard standing, a mobile home with sheds attached and panelled fencing, wide hard-core track wider than the lane, earthworks and 2m deep excavations, 10 green plastic covered mobile chicken barns...

all without planning approval.

Theo Parker said...

Just received this list of your PR 'hits':
BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/somerset/8693430.stm
ITV - online clip: http://www.itv.com/westcountry-east/save-woolley-valley58378/
Bath Chronicle: http://www.thisisbath.co.uk/news/Peter-Gabriel-backs-fight-stop-development-spot-inspired-song/article-2178681-detail/article.html
Mail: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1280275/Solsbury-Hill-Local-residents-fight-property-developers-save-rural-icon.html
Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/may/19/peter-gabriel-save-solsbury-hill
Southwest Business: http://www.southwestbusiness.co.uk/environmental/Gabriel-chorus-disapproval/article-2180506-detail/article.html
Telegraph: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/7741147/Peter-Gabriel-joins-campaign-to-save-valley-he-sang-about.html

Toby Jones said...

If you feel as strongly as I do about the desecration of a beautiful valley, please sign the petition on the Woolley Valley website www.savewoolleyvalley.co.uk