[Discuss] Jesus Green Association press release

[Joanna Gordon Clark]

Have some difficulty getting the original documetn on this, the attachment in 
fact, but can perhaps comment on what is givenbelow.
Yes i have seen very large crowds of young people on the Green, on the grass, by 
and large, and noticed the fires and wondered about them. I don't think it 
happened very often, tho i cannot be sure of that.

I did not know that the hut - does that mean the loos? - was to be pulled down. 
Or does it mean the refreshments place.  In eitehr case that would be a very bad 
idea.

as for the youth and fires, once in a while won't hurt but if it is really 
leaving permanent marks on the grass, then it needs to be stopped or 
restrained.  the flower bed near the bridge has an open stone centre adn that 
would be a decent place to light fires, unless the stones are fragile

I think the opporutnity to have a fire in the evening, in the open, when young, 
is a good thing, but there needs to be restraint over its consequences.  iwas a 
bti put off at first when I saw so many peopel on there, but I only saw it 
once.As a regular thing, then probably not. Joanna Gordon Clark
       Joanna 




________________________________
From: GARVEY ANNE <annemgarvey at ntlworld.com>
To: SOS Cambridge discussion list <discuss at soscambridge.org.uk>
Sent: Thu, 5 May, 2011 15:41:22
Subject: Re: [Discuss] Jesus Green Association press release

The Green Spaces are appallingly mismanaged and criminally neglected. Jesus 
Green in particular suffers from a dire laissez faire policy with no supervision 
of under age drinkers, drug taking, and the burning of the turf and despoilation 
of the area by literally tonnes of litter. 


There is no enforcement of any of of the laws pertaining to behaviour on the 
Greens, and I think the Council stand accused of utterly failing in their duty 
to act as custodians of these places. What is happening is nothing less than 
authorized vandalism.

There are fines for littering available to the Council. the Police absolutely 
refuse to act when asked to attend young people burning the grass and scawling 
graffitti. It is a Liberty Hall for which the people of Cambridge pay dearly.

The Council should NOT pull down the building on Jesus Green but use it for a 
Custodian with proper powers  to fine those who wreck our spaces, Council tax 
payers will eventually be sick of picking up and paying for young people be they 
students or our own citizens' children or visitors. It does not happen elsewhere 
why here? The Police MUST be involved, we cannot allow these young people to 
despoil our city with impunity or appeal to them in the silly over polite way 
the Council now employ.

The Jesus Green hut, built at some cost to the rate payer in 1970s would be an 
idea centre for some vigilance. Using the Big SOciety Idea we could have 
volunteers policing the Green but they must have back up. A crackdown on the 
kind of anti social activity prevalent is way overdue, this situation will not 
improve on its own.

The way the Greens are handled is a daily digrace to the Council, to the 
Enforcement officers who do not enforce and to the Police. 

I also think that the JGA has been far too liberal all along. The ludicrously 
TINY notices which eventuated from HOURS of discussion last year cannot even be 
seen, they are six inches high. The problem of barbecues has not been resolved 
where everywhere else in the country they have been banned in urban spaces, 
Hampstead Heath, Runnymede, every civic park in the land. This isn't a huge 
space, it is being wrecked by a minority of young people and they are not just 
students..


On 4 May 2011 20:15, John Lawton <chair at soscambridge.org.uk> wrote:

From the JGA:
>
>The Committee of the Jesus Green Association heard this Tuesday evening from its 
>Chairman, Peter Constable, of a gathering on Sunday of some thousand young 
>people, ex-students and students of two Cambridge Colleges in particular, which 
>drove local
>people and visitors off the Green in fear and disgust and which took Council 
>staff three hours and forty sacks to clean up early on Monday morning, requiring 
>a special vehicle to deal with broken glass. It is clear that the police 
>presence was inadequate to prevent this outrage.
>
>Committee calls on the City Council and its officers to convene an urgent 
>meeting to be attended by the Police, the Master and Mistress of the two 
>Colleges principally concerned (believed to be Jesus College and Girton College) 
>and itself to review what happened and to ensure that nothing similar is 
>permitted to occur on what is called suicide Sunday in mid June or on any other 
>occasion in the future.
>
>Jesus Green Association is committed to ensuring that, as one of Cambridge's 
>finest open spaces, Jesus Green is respected by all and available to be enjoyed 
>by a wide range of users in an informal way at any one time. Any such 
>unregulated and anti- social gathering, which drives families and other users 
>away, violates this spirit and is to be roundly condemned.
>
>Jesus Green Association
>4th May 2011
>
>
>What is your experience of green spaces in the city?
>
>John Lawton
>SOS Chair
>
>---------------------------------------------------------
>Save Our green Spaces
>http://www.soscambridge.org.uk
>--------------------------------------------------------- 
>
>_______________________________________________
>discuss mailing list
>discuss at soscambridge.org.uk
>http://soscambridge.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/discuss_soscambridge.org.uk
>
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