Allotment - the Where, When, Why and How - What is the ARI?

Well, to give it the full name it's the Allotments Regeneration Initiative and it's an initiative launched by the Federation of City Farms and Community Gardens on behalf of the Esmée Fairbairn Environment programme about five years ago. A reasonably substantial sum of money was provided to be given out as grants to allotments to support regenerating under-used allotment sites, or find new ways of maintaining allotments as publicly accessible open spaces. Interestingly, at the beginning of the project, allotments were not high on the public policy agenda, nor were they popular with the general public. Food and health issues have changed the latter position, leading to waiting lists for plots and the ARI has changed the former position by raising the profile of allotments.

One of their major concerns is what has happened to the many allotments that have disappeared since World War Two - local legal systems to provide and protect allotments have been different across the UK which has altered distribution and uptake, as an example, local authorities in England and Wales have a statutory provision to provide allotments, whereas in Scotland and Northern Ireland there is no legal obligation to provide allotments on demand. In addition, across the country while many allotment sites have been lost to development, some others have survived and even thrived to become valued and essential green spaces in urban locations - the ARI aims to find out why the success stories have worked and what can be learned from the failures.

In the past couple of years national government has recognised the potential of allotments - partly because of their health benefits and partly because the environmental agenda has driven many people to consider how local food production might help save the planet - and many local authorities are now producing formal allotment strategies which try to address many different agendas including healthy eating, healthy activity, community links and green spaces, the ARI helps draft such strategies and also forges new partnerships with the non-statutory sector, like housing associations, with a view to supporting this new interest in allotments.

More information can be found at - http://www.farmgarden.org.uk/ari/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1

Allotment regeneration photograph writer's own