Informing the public in the Market Square

Having been part of the 38Degrees team who went into the Wokingham town centre building awareness of TTIP I was interested when Stan Hetherington told one of us, who has put out a table and poster, that he was no allowed to do so in market place. He seemed also to think that even talking to people there was forbidden as the publicly owned area was managed in a private manner.

I personally felt that it may well be the case for the stand and likely not the case for talking, but agreed that it was only fair not to talk to potential customers while they browsed in shops.

The other chap did a bit of research with the council and the present logic is this.
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Hi xxxxxxxxx
I followed up on your being "moved on" by the Councillor and what we can and can't do in future.
WDC told me the market square in Wokingham is private land owned by the Town Council, so I spoke with Rob Vincent of Wokingham TC. His advice is as follows. There is no requirement for any licence as long as we do not collect money. A small table with a small poster is fine. The most important thing is not to harrass members of the public in any way. His suggestion is that we give him a phone call on xxxxxx a few days in advance and discuss our plans with him. That way, if any stall holders complain, we can say we have permission.
So, if you're not taking money and wish to protest / inform in the market square. Have at it.
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Be considerate though.

 

Solar farms on green belt? No thanks.

I'm an environmentalist. That's why I'm not a fan of Solar installations on farm land.

 

I'll review my view of this once most of us have solar on well insulated home and office roofs, heat reclaim, heat stores and and wood chip burners or gasifiers.

 

The ROI on farm land is doing the wrong thing. Subsidising old money with council connections making money out of a policy designed to incentivise the public and businesses to make use of wasted roof space.

 

Wait fro the next phase when the same land owning families to use their solar farms as a launch pad for land owners to argue they should get planning permission for housing developments.

 

I don't have a problem with that, but the profit should be only in a mark up on construction. Not land value changes for planning permission, that should be completely realised as infrastructure contributions with a % for overpriced areas to invest in making low value areas more valuable.