Allotment News

Pensioners and allotment holders took part in a defiant demonstration at a Grade II-listed pigeon loft on Tuesday, as they prepared for bailiffs to turn up. The loft, called a cree, is on an allotment site in Ryhope, near Sunderland, and it’s under threat from developers despite being given grade II listed status by English Heritage in 1998. The problem has arisen because the cree is on land whose lease ran out at Midnight on New Year’s Eve. The landowner, Worktalent Ltd, wants to evict the allotment holders, tear down the pigeon loft and redevelop the site but the cree’s owner, 75-year-old Maurice Surtees, and 21 other allotment holders have vowed to save the loft and the surrounding land. Their efforts are supported by local campaign groups and MPs. The allotment holders were offered a £250,000 compensation package to move out, but turned it down unanimously.

Banwell resident demanding their legal right to allotments from Banwell Parish Council are still waiting for a decision. At a meeting before Christmas, villagers said they wanted the parish council to identify a site and while the council is looking at three proposals, the council's chairman Cllr David Elsey, said it needs further legal advice from North Somerset Council and needs to identify land and costs before any decision can be taken.

Picture of a mobile pigeon loft by Jon's pics!

Labels: allotment-creation, allotment-eviction, allotment-news

Allotment holders march and protest

Upset former allotment owners were threatened with removal from a Test Valley Borough Council planning meeting after their protests and sign-waving interrupted proceedings. The protesters were making a stand against the council's actions in persuading them to give up their plots near King George Road claiming they were given no choice in the matter. Councillors at the meeting approved the decision to build 14 houses on the site which was described as no longer suitable to provide allotment plots' in a report, a claim which was strongly denied by former allotment owners. Marie Dyke, speaking before the meeting, said that she and her husband Brian were ‘gobsmacked' at the council's actions towards them and other plot owners. She said: "It's absolute rubbish that the ground's not good enough. We were told by the local authority that we had to move, there was no choice. The only choice we were given was that we could move last year and get £500 compensation or this year and there would be nothing."

Council leader, Cllr Ian Carr told the meeting that although there was a waiting list of 119 for allotments in Andover there were also a lot of uncultivated plots dotted around the town which the council was looking to bring back into use. It was also pointed that some of the proceeds from the King George Road site would go towards funding other allotments in the town.

Elsewhere, allotment holders who are being evicted to make way for the Olympic Park in east London have staged a final protest against the development. Gardeners from the Manor Garden allotments marched from Hackney Town Hall to the Olympic Park gates after packing up their tools on Sunday. The workers said they were demonstrating their “disquiet and distrust of the promised benefits the Olympics are claimed to bring.” The plot holders are being moved to a temporary site, but have been told they can return to Hackney Wick when the Games are over.

Labels: allotment-eviction, allotment-Olympics

Negotiating with your neighbours

My own allotment site was in our local newspaper last week. An article that detailed how the waiting list for allotments has been closed, because there are too many people on it already, but many plots (nearby tenants say) that are supposedly in cultivation are actually abandoned and unkempt. The argument is twofold:

1 – people who want allotments can’t get them because others who aren’t using them have blocked their access

2 – untidy and weed covered allotments make work harder for neighbouring plot holders who have to remove seeded weeds that blow or creep over the boundaries.

There is another side to this though; it’s not always easy to find allotment time – for example I haven’t actually got down to my site for nearly a week, which is daft at this time of year, but work and other commitments have just got in the way! Extra work or losing your job, illness, pregnancy, the dog having puppies or whatever … almost anything can derail the plans of even the most determined allotmenteer – especially if that allotment holder is relying on public transport, because even a twisted ankle can really put a spanner in the ‘travelling to the allotment’ works. So, if an allotment holder continues to pay the rent, the local council will tend to give them the benefit of the doubt, and quite often, after a few months of difficulty, the allotment holder will be able to return to their plot, and to the healthy exercise, satisfaction and nutritional rewards of growing their own.

So when a plot looks like this, and the neighbours get annoyed, there’s a complicated negotiation to be gone through between the allotment holder, the allotment officer, and the local council, to try and get things on the optimum course … and sometimes it takes longer than anybody expected (a bit like gardening really!)

Labels: allotment-crops, allotment-eviction, allotment-news

Allotments under threat

Daemienne Sheehan from The Oldie Magazine is researching an article on the threat to allotments by new housing. While the current definition of what constitutes a brownfield site still appears to offer some protection to allotment holders, a looser proviso that all allotments be ‘kept up to standard’ could mean that some allotments face the danger of being designated as derelict and therefore remain open to being taken back by councils AND - property developers. She wants to know if this is the case and whether if it could become a likely scenario – she’s on a deadline, so if you have knowledge or ideas, bung them in asap and I’ll pass them on.

On the same theme, Ilford South MP Mike Gapes has tabled (well more like slammed on the table , to look at the wording) the following motion in the House of Commons:

This House notes that Conservative controlled Redbridge Council has drawn up secret plans to sell off a large number of local land sites, including popular allotments and car parks in a desperate effort to raise up to £150 million; further notes that many of these sites are in Ilford South the most overcrowded and poorest part of the Borough, including allotments in Goodmayes Park extension and Vicarage Lane South; congratulates all those involved in the campaign by local residents again the secret Tory plans and welcomes the letter to the Member for Ilford South on 23rd March 2007 from the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department of Communities and Local Government, Baroness Andrews, which confirms that “where a statutory allotment is disposed of; the 1908 Allotment Act requires that any proceeds must be used for the purposes of allotments, and only surplus may be used for other purposes”; that Planning Policy Guidance 17 “provides protection of urban green spaces” and draws the attention of Redbridge Conservative Councillors to the statement of the Minister that “open spaces which local communities need should not be built on”.

The council approved the proposals early in August, hoping to raise about £25m for capital projects not related to allotments, which is why Mr Gapes has tabled his motion. In all, nearly 500 individual plots will be affected by the decision but the council insisted many could be saved through relocation to alternative sites within the borough and the sale in any case requires the approval of the Secretary of State for the Environment. If you’re internet-savvy, you can use the online comment form -here - to share your opinions on this issue with Redbridge Council!

Labels: allotment-eviction, allotment-relocation, Redbridge-allotments

Is it a bird ... Is it a plane ...?

No, it’s our allotment officer – Crispin.

If you’ve ever wondered exactly what an allotment officer does, you’re not alone. And I was fascinated to discover how Crispin’s workload actually breaks down, because it’s not what I expected at all.

His job, put in the simplest terms, is to get as many people using as much land as possible through the allotments. That means encouraging the people who’ve already got allotments to use them, and getting people off allotments who aren’t using them. Obvious, isn’t it?

But there’s a complication. Each individual plot under debate has to be examined against three criteria in our district at least. Is it 75% under cultivation? Is it free from flowering weeds? Is it tidy? If those three are breached, the allotment holder may be asked to leave. However, one person’s ‘tidy’ may be another person’s ‘mess’ and 75% under cultivation is hard to judge – dug over ground may have no crop planted while apparent grassland may hide native herbs and flowers … so Crispin spends a lot of time looking, talking and discussing. Not as much time as he’d like though, because his work also involves answering thousands of letters, emails and phone calls every year, from allotment holders or the public. These calls and queries deal with many issues – bonfires on allotments, vandalism, vacant plots, disputes between allotment holders, disputes between allotment holders and nearby householders, rights of way, theft, dilapidation, insurance, waiting lists, giving up allotments, finding co-workers … it’s an endless process.

One of the major issues is crime – and he wishes that more people who suffer vandalism or petty theft on their allotments would get a Crime Report Number from the police and then call him with it, so that he can use that statistical evidence to bring about change: maybe better security, maybe more police patrols, maybe more education in schools … but it seems that allotment holders rather assume they will ‘get hit’ at some time in their allotment careers and that’s something that we all need to take on board. If our houses were raided we wouldn’t brush it off, so we shouldn’t ignore allotment theft and damage either. We’re not helping ourselves, or the community, if we do.

Interestingly, the demographics of allotment rental in this area are changing – many people in the 20 - 35 age group are seeking plots; and many of them wish to be organic gardeners, but our 2300 allotments are already oversubscribed. Is there any chance of more land being brought into use for allotments? Possibly so – it’s under discussion at the Council level, so finger’s crossed for an allotment friendly decision!

It was an eye-opener to spend time with Crispin and see how complicated his job is – I still think he’s a lucky man to have it, but I have a greater respect now for the balancing act all allotment officers must carry out, to keep the rest of us happy.

Labels: allotment-eviction, allotment-personality, allotment-secrets

Allotments in the News

Win some …

Allotment holders who are being forced to make way for the Olympic Park in East London have reached an agreement that allows them to harvest this year's crops before being evicted. Plot-holders at Manor Garden Allotments had asked the High Court for a judicial review to stop the London Development Agency (LDA) evicting them. But in a last minute move, the LDA has agreed access should continue to some plots until September when the plot-holders will move to a temporary site in Waltham Forest, although they can return to Hackney Wick when the Games are over. The LDA said it would be taking ownership of the Hackney Wick site on 2 July but it conceded that a limited number of allotment holders would be allowed supervised access for two days a week until September. A spokesman said, ‘We have also arranged compensation and support packages for allotment holders - and after the Games we will be providing a larger allotment site on a landscaped Olympic Park.’

Lose some …

Hampshire allotment gardeners are considering their next move after being dealt a major blow by the High Court in their fight to save their town centre plots. Mr Justice Calvert Smith blocked their route to judicial review although they have seven days to appeal. Eastleigh council can now press ahead with its plans to build 140 affordable homes on allotment land at South Street and Monks Way.

The council says it has a waiting list of more than 5,000 families queuing up to get a permanent roof over their heads and claims, ‘the disposal of the sites is necessary in order that an early start can be made on the construction of new housing which is urgently required to help reduce the enormous current demand for housing in the borough.’

Labels: allotment-building, allotment-eviction, allotment-relocation, olympics