LET THEM EAT KALE!

Here's a serious but simple idea to help the economy, North Lincolnshire Council's funds (in these times of cutbacks), boost the efficiency of the penal system and ensure bits of Brigg land remain forever green and pleasant - and don't get built on.
IT WOULD FORM PART OF A NATIONAL GOVERNMENT-LED INITIATIVE ACROSS THE COUNTRY.
During the Second World War, Britain undertook to Dig For Victory - a vital campaign to feed the nation when imports of food from abroad were very difficult due to cargo ships being sunk by German U-boats in the Atlantic.
Brigg Blog suggests we should now turn over unused parcels of council-owned land to growing vegetables. In Brigg we have York Road field (pictured above) - part of which could be kept for dog-walkers, if you like, and the rest used for cultivation. There's also the former railway station yard, behind Tennyson Close/Albert Street. Useless "scrub" land for many years and serving no purpose (see picture below). But they could leave a little spare to ensure Stennett's Market continued on the same site.
Both these areas seem to have survived being allocated for further housing development in the latest North Lincolnshire Council blueprint, but eventually they will be earmarked for covering over with bricks and mortar. Surely it would be better to keep them green.
Council market gardens like this could be tended by the ever-growing numbers sentenced by the courts to undertake commmunity service, there being real reluctance to commit to prison for all but the most serious crimes. Given the throughput of our courts, there would be no shortage of labour and some of the "scally" types would learn a useful skill, boosting their prospect of getting regular employment.
The produce of their efforts - potatoes, carrots, cabbages, etc - would then be used in council-run school kitchens. This would save a mint (pardon the pun!) buying in produce. As part of the national curriculum, the pupils could be taken down to the market gardens and shown how the veg is grown and harvested. Fully supervised, of course, and not when the community service types are on-site, avoiding the need for CRB checks and other sundry red tape.
Think of the carbon footprint of spuds from Egypt and Jersey we currently ship into Britain in huge quantities. Grow them on our own doorstep and we can cut this down to virtually nothing, therefore earning Prime Minister Cameron and his ex-Etonian colleagues further kudos within the influential world climate change community.
A French Queen may once have said of the poor: "Let them eat cake!"
Mr C. and the Coalition could coin the catchphrase Let Them Eat Kale!...
Grown in British schools' market gardens - by "crims" putting something worthwhile back into the community!

Across in "Sunny Scunny" there's even more scope for our idea. North Lincolnshire Council's Pittwood House HQ is close to acre-upon-acre of flowerbeds and grass, all in public ownership. It has real potential to become even more of an industrial garden town - make that industrial MARKET garden town.

MARK KIRK (LEADER OF NORTH LINCOLNSHIRE COUNCIL), ANDREW PERCY (BRIGG AND GOOLE MP) AND PRIME MINISTER CAMERON, YOU CAN POST YOUR COMMENTS BELOW. IF YOU TAKE UP BRIGG BLOG'S IDEA WE WILL EXPECT A FREE BAG OF CARROTS FROM THE FIRST CROP GROWN ON YORK ROAD FIELD.

The PM's lovely wife, Victoria, comes from the Sheffield family, which, for many years, enjoyed the produce of Normanby Hall's Victorian Walled Garden, now operated by North Lincolnshire Council, to its great credit.
IT'S ALL IN THE GREENS!