What would you say if I told you that you could be arrested for picking a blackberry? You’d think I was crazy right?
Well Bristol City Council are attempting to introduce a byelaw that would criminilise the act of picking “the whole or any part of any plant, shrub or tree” from any of the proposed 212 parks and green spaces around the city.
The whole quote from the proposed byelaw states:
No person shall without reasonable excuse remove from or displace within the ground any stone, soil or turf or the whole or any part of any plant, shrub or tree.
It’s not clear, but that could also mean picking up leaves off the ground would be made illegal too. I’m not sure about you, but I’m looking forward to when my son is old enough to pickup a leaf and ask me about it. I don’t want to then have to shout “Put it down!” like it’s some unexploded mine.
Thankfully, there are no signs at present that this is something that could be introduced in Ramsbottom as I’m certain that Incredible Edible Ramsbottom would have a thing or two to say about it.
In general, Bury Council have been very good allowing Incredible Edible to grow food in numerous places around the town including this lovely herb patch I took a photo of late in 2015 around the Tilted Vase (Urn):
This isn’t the first time Bristol has proposed crazy byelaws, Bristol had previously came under fire when they essentially proposed to ban ball games in public parks back in 2014.
If you’re interested you can see the full list of byelaws and consultation forms online but trust me, if Bury Council tried to do this, Hell hath no fury like IERammy and the public not able to pick what they plant.
