What's happening?! The City Council in its infinite wisdom has decided to sell "The Lawn". Lincoln's Lawn. Our Lawn. Such an important decision would surely have seen and needed wide consulation. Forget it. None of the stakeholdes was approached directly. Only two small adds were published in the Lincolnshire Echo on 25-08-2011 and 01-09-2011. According to Ric Metcalfe, leader of the City of Lincoln Council, this is was a "wide consultation". Why should we care? A youtube video sums it up pretty well: the Lawn was an important innovative mental hospital, it houses the Joseph Banks Conservatory, it is and was used for many local events, it has potential for attracting tourism, and is part of the Lincoln Heritage trail. In other words, The Lawn is part of our heritage, and has the potential to generate an income for the city. Why would the City Council want ot get rid of it? It costs the city less than 50K per year to maintain it, and after many years of disinvestment in The Lawn has seen visitor numbers dwindling. What do we want? Proper consultation. Or, to quote someone who seems to have an interest, a "wide consultation". A proper consideration of how The Lawn can be developed by the Council in partnership with interested parties before any part is sold off.

Please do not be intimidated by a request to donate money; this does not have anything to do with the handsoffourlawn campaign. It is possible to simply click the message for donation away. It is an unfortunate side effect of using freely available sources to spread the information.