Allotment news

The good … gardeners are celebrating after council chiefs abandoned plans to sell their allotment sites. At the Redbridge Council cabinet meeting on Monday, chief executive Roger Hampson backed the launch of the "big conversation" which will be the largest public consultation Redbridge has ever seen. The public will be asked what services and improvements they want and how they can be funded. The results will then be discussed by the newly-elected corporate panel. The announcement follows an outcry at plans to raise £25 million from selling four allotment sites.

The bad … intimidation is forcing allotment holders off their plot in the Wirral. At the Thornton allotments site in Bidston, the problem has become so severe almost half the gardeners have abandoned their allotments because of vandalism. In a recent incident a teenager ran up to the site fence and hurled abuse at the four women working on their plots. It is said that the worst possible language was used by the offender who was clearly trying to intimidate the allotmenteers. Since June last year, seven plot-holders – almost half the total – have given up their plots because property and crops have been destroyed by mindless vandalism. Wirral has 41 allotment sites containing nearly 1,700 plots, with 92% of them let, and many suffer from vandalism. There are fears the Thornton site may close because vandalism stops people taking up plots there, despite an allotment waiting list in Wirral of more than 500 families.

Labels: allotment-building, allotment-news, allotment-vandalism