The Hive Effect
the stolen allotment
A SCANDAL OF LIES, DECEIT, NEGLECT, ABUSE & ONGOING MENTAL TORTURE THAT STARTED & CHANGED EVERYTHING
In a region scarred by entrenched socioeconomic disparities, including the marginalized neighbourhoods of Brandhall, Causeway Green, Titford, Whiteheath Gate, Lion Farm and Rowley Regis, the saga of administrative neglect surrounding the Penncricket Lane Allotment serves as a poignant microcosm of broader systemic injustices.
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Here, within the confines of these communities, where poverty and deprivation are palpable, the deprivation of vital resources takes on a heightened significance, amplifying the consequences of bureaucratic indifference.
Click images to ENLARGE for more information
As corrupt Sandwell Council's oversight concerning the allotment unravelled, it laid bare the stark reality faced by residents of Brandhall and Causeway Green - a reality characterized by limited access to nutritious food, inadequate healthcare, and diminished social opportunities.
In a landscape marred by decades of neglect and disinvestment, the allotment represented more than just a patch of land; it stood as a beacon of hope - a source of sustenance, education and solidarity for communities grappling with generational poverty and systemic marginalization.
Yet, as the council's indifference persisted, so too did the exacerbation of existing disparities. The covert and underhanded sale of the Penncricket Lane Allotment, orchestrated without regard for the well-being of the most vulnerable, deepened the divide between the haves and the have-nots, perpetuating a cycle of inequity that has long plagued these neighbourhoods.
In our communities, where the effects of poverty are acutely felt, every lost opportunity, every stolen resource, further entrenches the cycle of deprivation, leaving residents to bear the brunt of political malfeasance and administrative negligence.
In Brandhall and Causeway Green, where the battle against socioeconomic disparities rages on several fronts, the fight for the restoration of community resources is not just a political issue—it is a matter of survival, dignity, and the pursuit of a more just society for all.
the PENNCRICKET LANE ALLOTMENT
Land on the North side of Penncricket Lane, Rowley Regis
The land is triangle in shape with borders to the railway embankment in the NW, a tree-lined border and the River Tame to the NE, and Penncricket Lane is to the South. The railway embankment boundary is protected entirely by an 8ft steel palisade fence. The Penncricket Lane boundary is a 5ft green mesh wire fence with godfather posts and a hawthorn hedge. The boundary to the river tame, has no defined border or fence, however, there is a row of trees/ bushes and shrubs that give an idea of the boundary line.
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Site Title – Allotments (former) Penncricket Lane site
Town – Oldbury
Reference – PB5
UPRN – 010008536437
Actual Use – Allotments
Directorate – Neighbourhoods
Service – Parks and Countryside
CIPFA Use - Land Only
IFRS Category - Surplus
Title Number - WM884060
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Title Number - WM995374
THIS ALLOTMENT LAND HAS BEEN STOOD EMPTY AT THE END OF THE ROAD WHERE I WAS BORN FOR NEARLY 40 YEARS. IN 2016 AFTER OBTAINING LEGAL DOCUMENTS REGARDING THE OWNERSHIP OF THIS LAND I APPLIED TO UTILISE IT TO LAUNCH THE HIVE EFFECT COMMUNITY PROJECT FOR THE BETTERMENT OF THE LOCAL COMMUNITIES.
In a stark display of administrative negligence and moral bankruptcy, Sandwell Council's dodgy mishandling of a crucial parcel of public land slowly unveiled a harrowing narrative of systemic disregard for the public interest spanning decades.
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This is the story of the Penncricket Lane Allotment and it transcends the realm of mere bureaucratic oversight; it serves as a rallying cry for justice, accountability, and equity in the face of systemic oppression - Graham Walker.
2018
2nd enquiry made - 17th April
3rd enquiry made
However, in 2018, determined to unearth the truth, I uncovered documents confirming the land's prior status as a cherished allotment, and land registry documents underscoring its rightful ownership by the public, under the auspices of Sandwell Council, and I contacted them once again.
Amy Robinson
Over 10 YEARS to site a single beehive!
We ain't got a hope in hell!
2014
The Hive Effect was born.
It was meant to be a simple thing. Helping my communities was meant to be simple. We had the resources and then these conmen literally lied to me for nearly 10 years and robbed it all from under my feet. This is a summary of their lies, deceit, manipulation and personal injustices. A complete transcript of all correspondence regarding The Hive Effect will be available online soon along with the details of those who thought they'd play god - Graham Walker.
2016
1st enquiry made
In 2016, I endeavoured to reclaim the Penncricket Lane allotment and stumbled upon a startling truth: the very entity entrusted with safeguarding public resources - Sandwell Council - was shockingly unaware of their ownership of this vital piece of land.
This revelation, emblematic of bureaucratic dysfunction at its worst, stemmed from a series of systemic failures: the absence of digital cataloguing, coupled with the retirement of key personnel responsible for land management, conspired to shroud the land's ownership in obscurity.
Yet rather than heeding the clarion call of accountability, Sandwell Council opted for wilful ignorance, disregarding my concerns, the community's concerns and dismissing their rightful claims.
2019
4th enquiry made - 6th February
5th enquiry made - 1st March
6th enquiry made - 27th March
7th enquiry made - 4th April
8th enquiry made - 30th April
"will let you know whether or not, in principle the council is prepared to sell the land to you."
Sarabjit Kaur
9th enquiry made -1st May
"things will be a little hectic in the immediate aftermath sorting out party roles etc."
Yvonne Davies
10th enquiry made - 7th May
11th enquiry made - 20th May
12th enquiry made - 20th May
13th enquiry made - 1st June
14th enquiry made - 19th June
15th enquiry made - 3rd July
16th enquiry made - 10th July
17th enquiry made - 31st July
18th enquiry made - 14th August
19th enquiry made - 27th August
20th enquiry made - 20th September
21st enquiry made - 27th September
22nd enquiry made - 28th September
23rd enquiry made - 4th November
24th enquiry made - 7th November
25th enquiry made - 11th November
26th enquiry made - 12th November
“Please accept my sincere apologies for the delay in contacting you”.
“Unfortunately I am out of the office”.
“Great news! I managed to get a meeting room.”
“I am currently out of the office”.
“I understand that your superiors are busy people and they have enough to contend with but surely they must be able to provide a yes or no by now, especially since the land has remained unused for over 3 decades and more so the fact that the council forgot that they even had it until I mentioned it!”
“I am so sorry, I am still waiting for a response from my manager and he is now on 2 weeks leave.”
“I am now out of the office, I will be back in on Thursday 11th July.”
“My manager has agreed in principal that this is something that we can do and would be willing to accommodate.”
“I am really sorry I am frantically catching up on emails, I’m out of the office next week”.
“Sorry I was off work yesterday”.
“I have just booked a meeting room at Roway Lane”.
That’s great, I’ll see you on Monday, thank you.
Amy Robinson
COVID 19
2022
33rd enquiry made - 4th April
34th enquiry made - 4th May
35th enquiry made - 8th June
36th enquiry made - 21st June
37th enquiry made - 22nd June
38th enquiry made - 23rd June
39th enquiry made - 12th August
40th enquiry made - 1st September
41st enquiry made - 12th September
Amy Robinson
“It’s been a while (nearly 2 years), but I hope that you are well”.
"I’m writing to you regarding the abandoned land".
“I’m writing yet again about the land and I can only assume something underhand is happening”.
“My apologies for the delayed response, I have not been working within the allotment section since late last year and have been relocated to another department”.
THANK YOU FOR REPLYING. I WOULD APPRECIATE MEETING WITH YOU OR THE PARKS MANAGER IF THAT WERE AT ALL POSSIBLE. REGARDING THE LAND, IT HAS COME TO MY ATTENTION THAT ALL OF IT/ PART OF IT HAS BEEN SOLD.
“I am not aware of the sale of land, I have discussed this with my manager this morning and he was also unaware”.
“I was just wondering if there has been any news or progress yet, regarding the allotments and the land sales”?
Do you remember all those years ago when we first met? Well here we are, years later, amid sea of crises – a food crisis, a cost of living crisis, an energy crisis, a soon-to-be heating crisis, and a poverty crisis, which, when you come from where I come from, and you’re trying to do what I have been, is beneficial, especially when there is an opposition as shady as Sandwell ‘Council’, whom have not only denied us of valuable food resources, energy resources and water resources to name but a few, but they still continue to rape and pillage us, taking and selling all of our assets to the private sector, almost ensuring that we could never prosper during extreme times like these!
Why the deceit, lies, and avoidance? It’s been 5YEARS! Can I get a meeting with the council leader Kerry Carmichael?
“Please bear with us, I have been assigned to project at West Smethwick Park and with annual leave I have not had a chance to catch up with John about progress with this”.
2023
42nd enquiry made - 10th March
43rd enquiry made - 15th March
Amy Robinson
44th enquiry made - 25th March
Matthew Huggins
reply to MATHHEW HUGGINS - Ignore me? As your employers & colleagues do? That's typical! It comes as no surprise that you are totally unaware of any of the issues that I raise at all, and your disappointment with the “tone” of my email is the only reason why you’re contacting me, and to be honest, I don’t like your hostile tone or your attitude either.”
Seriously, you don’t lie to someone for 7 years and then completely ignore them unless you’re a liar, ignorant, both, or, unless there’s something in it for you, or something/ someone else is involved. Nobody normal, without motive, behaves like that, so are you the reason Amy lied to me? Are you the reason that Amy ignored me, after all, you are the reason she is ignoring me now. Are you the reason local children are deprived and hungry? Are you the reason our communities are suffering and struggling, or is it someone else?
In a calculated act of betrayal spanning the last several years, Sandwell Council covertly manoeuvred to wrest control of the allotment, paving the way for its clandestine sale to vested interests, thereby depriving local communities - especially vulnerable children - of invaluable food resources, health benefits, and social cohesion.
This egregious display of malfeasance lays bare the corrosive effects of unchecked power and the moral bankruptcy of those entrusted with the public trust.
2020
27th enquiry made - 13th January
28th enquiry made - 12th February
29th enquiry made - 24th February
Amy Robinson
30th enquiry made - 20th March
31st enquiry made - 6th April
32nd enquiry made - 13th August
Amy Robinson
24/01 “Sorry for the delayed response,”
24/02 “I am out of the office, I will be back in on Tuesday 25th February”
26/02 “I am off for a couple of days after today”.
20/03 “I was just seeing if we had made any progress with our application regarding the old allotment on Penncricket Lane”?
20/03 “I have sent the request through for you, they have changed the process slightly so I now have to send it through to another team before it goes to legal so I am waiting to hear back from them so I can pass it over to the property solicitors”.
24/04 “I sent your request through but as yet I haven't heard anything”.
13/08 “Of course you know why I am writing. I intended to leave it a while longer before I contacted you as we have already missed another season, but something keeps bothering me and with plenty of time on my hands, I have to address it. As you are aware, I have been enquiring about the old abandoned, disused, forgotten, allotment site on Penncricket Lane for some years now.” That was FIVE years ago!
2024
10 YEARS - STILL NO BEEHIVES!
THEN THEY STOLE OUR ALLOTMENT
THEN THEY SOLD OUR ALLOTMENT
IT'S NOW FEB 2026!
Sandwell Council's actions stand as a damning indictment of political leadership devoid of integrity, where the pursuit of profit supersedes the welfare of the very constituents they were elected to serve.
As the community grapples with the fallout of this betrayal, it serves as a stark reminder of the imperative for accountability, transparency, and ethical governance in safeguarding the common good.
Abandoned
Under Threat from Development after 40 years
Wasted valuable community assets like these are becoming few and far between here in Sandunwell, where housing developments are seemingly permitted faster than community environmental projects, but this practice only benefits the greedy and the corrupt.
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The Hive Effect will challenge these imbalances until change happens.​
Neglected
The River Tame! Yes, the brook at the Billies is a River!
In the 1980's there were toads, frogs, bullfrogs and newts in and around these waters. The grass banks were full of crickets, grasshoppers, butterflies and moths. There were local children playing games and riding bikes around the tracks, but now they're all gone!
The Hive Effect will restore balance. We can do better.
Not Forgotten
To understand local, you have to be a local.
I have lived here all of my life and I have always wondered why more hasn't been done to maintain and utilise the spaces and resources we have locally, here in this part of Sandwell.
Many people that now live in the area do not fully understand just how industrialised these lands once were, where we now live, and that the small pockets of open land that remain have evolved over decades to survive with the harsh chemical, heavy industrial, toxic and hazardous waste they were left with. They provided sanctuary to the sparse wildlife that was left, whilst also being able to provide some sort of sanctuary, space, and freedom for those of us who lived here and still do.
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The toad pools, bullfrogs, frogs, newts, hedgehogs, hares, rabbits, dragonflies, and bats somehow survived the industrial revolution, an era of abysmal living and working conditions, where even humans struggled to survive, however, in just over 25 years these animals have all but gone and so have many of the habitats that supported them during their dying years.
These creatures, animals, amphibians, and insects that evolved over millennia, survived the industrial revolution, yet they didn’t make it past the end of the 1990’s! What did we do that was actually worse than our legacy, worse than the industrial revolution? What did Sandwell Council do, and more worryingly still... what are they doing today?
I haven't forgotten, and in some ways I feel partly responsible, which is why I created The Hive Effect in the first place.
We need to replace what we have lost, before we can't.
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Graham Walker - Founder of The Hive Effect
Bee sixty-eight
The Hive Effect
Our Vision of Our Community Garden
- A Space Like No Other.
Bee Sixty-Eight is a foundation stone of The Hive Effect project, not just because of its geological location and the resources it contains, but because it was where the imagining of The Hive Effect project was conceived. ​
Find out more about Bee Sixty Eight here.
AND ALL WE WANTED WAS A BEEHIVE!
CORRUPTED WATER
FOLLOW THE WATER & YOU WILL SEA, NO FUTURE HERE FOR HUMAN NOR BEE!
Healthy rivers are vital for biodiversity and to human health and well-being. Rivers provide habitats for a range of wildlife, protect against flooding and provide beautiful places for recreation and reflection.
Freshwater ecosystems are in crisis globally and in England there are concerns about the multiple stresses being placed on riverine biodiversity from bacteria from sewage pollution.​
UK PARLIAMENT PUBLICATION
The Hive Effect
TIME HAS RUN OUT - IT IS TIME TO STAND OUR GROUND
We know that we, as a civilisation, must make projects like The Hive Effect work. At The Hive Effect we know how to make this work, without it costing the earth, but all that Sandwell Council can see are pound signs, at our expense.
Sandwell Council should never be allowed to walk these lands with their heads held high, ever again.
Free Water
Situated on the side of the River Tame, Brandhall Golf Course & Bee Sixty-Eight have access to all of the water they will ever need to sustain not only the plots, but to the wider surrounding areas. What's more is that the water that re-enters the water table will be cleaner than when it left the source! Managed, maintained, monitored water.
Food For All
Food. We don't need to go into detail about the global food chain but mentioning the cost, the shortage, and the demand is something that affects us at a local level. The Hive Effect can alleviate some of those problems by making fresh produce available to local people who may never have had access to such produce before.
This IS Food For All - so Join In and dig in!
Hands On Education
Every possible way to educate is explored at The Hive Effect, and at Bee Sixty-Eight that education really is evolutionary.
Come into the open apiaries or don a beekeeping suit. Plant a seed or take a cutting. Pick food or make a jam. Get involved here or take our ideas home.
Next Level Education
For the engineers out there, for the inventors and the problem solvers, we have some projects to whet your appetite too. They are all very hush right now but all will be revealed at our launch. It may turn out that you have an idea that is the best idea ever and you want to shout about it. Contact us by pressing the button below.
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IT IS LOUDER IF WE SHOUT TOGETHER.
This Is Permaculture
THE HIVE EFFECT
The Ethics on which permaculture are built:
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"Care of Earth: Provision for all life systems to continue to multiply"
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"Care of People: Provision for people to access those resources necessary for their existence"
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"Set limits to consumption and reproduction, and redistribute surplus"