If you’re at a loose end tomorrow you might like to pop down the Watershed where for a hundred fifty quid you can attend ‘This green and pleasant land: a one day conference’.
It’s nothing less than “a candid look at sustainable land management, building design and construction” and “will explore the way we have historically used land in the UK and, if we are to live sustainably in the 21st century and beyond, how we need to radically change the way we manage our land as a valuable resource.”
Or then again you might want to save your money. As the keynote speaker is none other than George Ferguson of Acanthus Ferguson Mann presenting case studies of “successful, sustainable and imaginative regeneration projects such as the former Elizabeth Shaw Chocolate Factory in Bristol”!
Yes, he’s doing a “green” case study of a speculative development that’s not even been built. A development that will radically sprawl over on to the city’s iconic, world class greenway to make room for 25 car parking spaces and will sustainably create loads of one-bedroomed investment flats in an area which already has a documented oversupply of such properties.
Is that a brass neck I see on the man with the red trousers?
Who cares about brass neck, the chap has deep pockets in those red trousers of his, and after Chris Hutt turned him down, I reckon that he’d be well up for wining and dining you at that conference…
Just remember, you can let him touch your knee, but DON’T LET HIM LOOK INTO YOUR EYES!
Good advice BristleKRS! I’ve heard how our local Svengali can charm people from very different backgrounds, adapting himself chameleon like to the appropriate social mannerisms. That’s what comes of being an old Wellingtonian I suppose.
in contrast, also on the same platform, tomorrow, is Simon Fairlie. He writes outstandingly well researched and original essays on land ownership and use with a strong historical base – see ‘the land is ours’ periodical, http://www.tlio.org.uk/ and his contributions to ‘the ecologist’ magazine.
I have never heard him speak but he knows sustainable land management in its true sense and is hard core not greenwash. Will he be charmed and neutralised by Ferguson? I don’t know but I can’t see him being impressed by the Chocolate factory plan. He is the true keynote speaker and if I was free I would try to blag my way in just to hear him.
I agree with Steve here. Simon Fairlie should be worth listening to.
For me its a joke that Ferguson is regarded as any sort of green. I sent him a pretty decent email early on in this saga asking for what think is a very reasonable smallish change to the cycle house plans. He did not even have the decency to acknowledge my message, which I think speaks volumes.
Can anyone hazard a guess as too why George Ferguson gets SO much publicity? the recent no news story about the US flag flying above the Tobacco Factory (which I like to add is the most pretentious place known to man) after the Obama victory, appearances on TV shows like “demolition” & now his so called Green Credentials and invite to the watershed. He must have some very good friends in the media who think we are pig shit or something.
More crucially Archie the local media won’t touch the story about his dodgy dealings over the Chocolate Factory land grab. It’s as if he’s untouchable.
Of course it’s all about being part of the clique that that really call the shots in Bristol. It goes beyond the usual suspects like the Merchant Venturers but the principle is the same – you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.
To be fair: he does mean well for the city, he isn’t trying to create a faceless suburban sprawl. The houses do have an interesting CHP scheme, the factory buildings could be used for industry. And while he was rude to me too, it was a fairly mild kind of insult.
It doesn’t mean that going behind the parks and green spaces group is acceptable, but that wasn’t his idea, was it?
Steve Meek: unless you wear a suit to work you’d have stood out.
SteveL, you didn’t look into his eyes, did you?
You see his power, just the briefest of glances and SteveL’s turned into a Ferguson apologist!
I have those cycling glasses with the mirror stuck on them, and only looked at George through the mirror or the camera display. I should be OK. Though oddly enough, I have this urge to wear red clothes this morning…
Yes, he looked quite striking in his red trousers and long black coat. Did you notice even his shoe laces were red?
I’ve been getting a bit of feedback from the leafleting on my blog. Nothing very interesting so far although there’s some indication of the kind of spiel George delivered. The development on the Railway Path “celebrates cycling” apparently!
…bollocks! We celebrate cycling in our daily behaviour through our transport and leisure choices…”celebrates cycling”…LOL, LOL, LOL!