This story from the Eastwood Advertiser on Thursday 29 March 2012 ...
A pensioner in Eastwood, Nottinghamshire has had his allotment taken off him for having a bad hip.
Arthur Martin is angry and upset after being told by Eastwood Town Council that he can no longer have his allotment because of his health, saying councillors are ‘denying him one of his life’s pleasures’. Mr Martin says it is up to him, not the council, to look after his health.
“How can they say what the state of my health is? Surely that’s up to myself and my doctor? Health and safety is your own responsibility. Not anybody else's. I’m very very upset about it,” he said.
The 73-year-old – who has rented the allotment for six years – said the council dealt with the matter ‘atrociously’, just writing him a letter with three weeks' notice to pack up and leave. “I would think they would be a bit more diplomatic and talk to the people involved,” he said, “they have not even given me any information on the health and safety rules that I have supposedly broken.”
Mr Martin, who is also the chairman of the Dovecote Road Allotment Society, said the council had been after him for years. “One of the councillors asked me two years ago to give up my allotment because of my health,” he said. “They’ve been on at me for quite a while. I think they’ve got someone else in line for it. It seems strange that I get a letter at this time of year with just three weeks notice.”
Eastwood Town Council, which owns the allotment site, said in a meeting on Monday night that they had asked Mr Martin to give up his allotment on grounds of health and safety and had a ‘duty of care’.
Leader of the council David Bagshaw said: “We have a duty of care and if this guy’s hip pops out again as it has in the past and he ends up in a wheelchair what would people say? People will ask us why we didn’t stop him. I don’t want that to happen due to neglect from this council.”
Cllr Bagshaw said there was a list of 24 people waiting for an allotment.
Well, it's good to hear that a local council is taking seriously its duty of care towards a vulnerable member of the public. If only they were being just as careful of their duty under the law, but then elf'n'safety and avoiding getting sued does tend to trump all other considerations these days.
So ... we shouldn't have to point this out to a local council that presumably has access to proper legal advice, but apparently we must: under the provisions of the 2010 Disability and Equality Act, it is illegal to discriminate against anyone on the grounds of their disability, in the provision of services (and providing people with an allotment is a service) or in buying/renting property (and as Arthur Martin is presumably paying rent for his allotment, that applies as well).
We look forward to hearing that Eastwood Town Council has either (a) recanted and given Mr.Martin back his allotment, or (b) been charged with breaking a law that they, of all people, surely ought to protect and promulgate more than most.
Councillor David Bagshaw. Not self-important, at all
While we're waiting, Councillor David Bagshaw, we're awarding you and your half-baked, self-serving, arrogant, bullying, criminal council colleagues the title Wankers of the Week. Now get a spade, double dig, fork in some well rotted manure, and bury your heads in it. You should feel right at home.
STOP PRESS: Reported in the Nottingham Post on 11th April that Eastwood Council HAS reversed its decision and Mr.Martin can keep his allotment. Bagshaw and his wife abstained from the vote because of "personal differences" with Mr.Martin, which probably explains how the whole thing kicked off in the first place. You're such a Wanker, Bagshaw, but why drag your wife into it?
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