Friends of National Fruit Collections at Brogdale have launched a Petition to keep the Collections at Brogdale and sent their first batch of signatures to Defra last week. We collected over 400 signatures during the Brogdale Cherry and Strawberry Festival and these have been fowarded to Hilary Benn and Lord Rooker.
The Petition is ongoing and posted at Brogdale; please come along and sign or contact us directly via this web-site or at http://www.nfcfriends@hotmail.co.uk/PO Box 264, Whitstable, Kent CT5 3UY. Support is all the more necessary with the reissue of the tender for management of the Collections and the continuing possibility that the Collections will be moved away from Brogdale
Simon Brice
I support your petition to keep the National Fruit Collections in their entirety at Brogdale.
At this time of unprecedented climate change surely we need to be able to compare present and future growth with past records on a standard basis?
No one seems to have explained why a move is needed. If it is to somewhere nearby, why go to all the trouble and expense? What would the costs be?
It seems clear the Apple collection will be conserved, but what about the other fruits? While the Apple collection must be the jewel in the crown, the range of the entire collections is unique. Surely it is important to measure how various fruits at or near their geographical boundaries respond to a changing climate.
I was dismayed about a suggestion that, apart from a small selection grown normally, the fruit trees might be represented by scraps of tissue in laboratories. How could anyone seriously think this incredible Collection could be rationalised in this way?
To see the huge Collection is the only way to comprehend the diversity of fruit varieties.
The National Fruit Collections at Brogdale must represent one of this country’s finest resources, not only for scientists but for the community at large.
The tendency of Governments to make shortsighted economies by sacrificing really valuable assets whilst wasting millions in obviously futile pursuits elsewhere is a cause of despair.
Perhaps the Duchy of Cornwall could take over the collection.
As A Methodist Minister I served in Kent from 1993 to 1998, I had the privilege of visiting Brogdale and fully support the petition to keep everything as it is.