Sidney Yankson supporting Sholing Valleys Spring Fayre. Serving Southampton. Serving you.
Today I visited Sholing Valley Study Centre to support Colin, Linda and the amazing volunteers at the Spring Fayre, to listen to local businesses and find out how we can support the local nature reserves and protect our green spaces. Thank you to everyone that shared your experiences with me today.
TRANSCRIPT
“Hi. I’m Sidney Yankson the Parliamentary Candidate for Southampton Itchen. I’m here in Sholing Valleys with Colin and hundreds and thousands of people who have come to support the centre. How did this all start, what’s it all about, and why are we here today?
This organisation, as such, goes back to 1978, when I moved into the area, what’s known as Botany Bay Road.The idea being in this wonderful green area to bring my children up in. I went to a local councillor and said, hey, we have no street lights in our road. It was a real country lane. “Don’t worry about that”, he said. “All this area is going to be developed, with new roads, houses and schools. There is going to be a shopping mall.” I looked in horror. In 1978, the wife and I said, our children were babies. We can’t let this happen. My father was born over the road. I was born just down the way. We said no. We are not going to do this. We all formed an organisation called the Miller’s Pond Area Conservation Society and we took on the council. I was by a certain councillor, I won’t call his name, called me a pathetic tree hugger, at one stage.
We are all tree huggers. Now.
We became a bit of a political hot potato, and to fight our corner, we actually got one of our members, Mrs. Smith, to become a councillor for the Conservatives, which she did. She went straight into office, and she became my right arm or wing lady, if you want to call it that way. The organisation went from strength to strength. In 1973 we formed a charity. We called ourselves the Sholing Valleys Study Centre, and here we are today. In that time, we have this 28 acre site turned into a local nature reserve. Excellent.
Her majesty the Queen, bless her, gave us the Queen’s award for volunteering services. Everyone within the organisation has technically got an MBE.
Here we are. This is one of our fundraising events, and we probably today will take about in the region of £3,000-£4,000. It might not seem a lot, but to us it’s our lifeblood, because all of us down here are volunteers. No-one gets paid.
Thank you so much for sharing that with us, and thank you so much for all the hard work you’ve done. Anybody that we share this with, we want you to come and support the centre, support the fantastic work you’re doing here. One of my key areas is local nature. I went to Forest School, in a Forest, so keeping it green, keeping people healthy is very very important. Thank you very much for coming. Thank you for your support, and I look forward to speaking to you on the campaign trail. Many thanks.”
If you want to hear more about my objectives to keep the city green and protect the environment, I would like to hear from you.
Please get in touch with my office.
Sidney Yankson
