Growing trend cuts the size of allotments
Posted: 21 Aug 2007, 07:18
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jh ... lot114.xml
The Telegraph - 14/08/07
Gardeners who want to grow their own vegetables are being forced to accept allotments a quarter of the normal size because of a surge in popularity.
Rising interest has led councils to divide land set aside for plots into patches measuring 75 sq yards in an attempt to reduce spiralling waiting lists.
Local authorities are under growing pressure to ensure they meet statutory obligations to provide 15 allotments per 1,000 households. Strict rules also mean that no more than six people are allowed to be waiting for a plot at any one time.
There are fears that smaller allotments could create tension because growers will have such little space to use.
The news comes during National Allotments week, which started yesterday.
Neil Dixon, of the National Allotment Gardens Trust, has just returned from a tour of allotments around the country.
He said many councils were resorting to halving the traditional 300 sq yard plots to move families off waiting lists.
"If someone is happy to work just a few square metres of land to be part of a community and grow some of their own potatoes then I am all for it, but if that's all councils are offering then it's a dangerous development," Mr Dixon said.
He believes councils need to find extra land for allotments so more people can benefit from the outdoor lifestyle they provide.
"What concerns me is that we get to a situation where people have half a plot and want to secure the other half but cannot, so have to go on a five- to seven-year waiting list," he said. "That's not supplying people with the land they need to grow their own food."
But Medwyn Williams, the chairman of the National Vegetable Society, believes the end justifies the means. "What I want to see is more people growing their own vegetables," he said. "The Government has a dilemma because they have to find more green field sites for housing and more allotment sites for people that want to grow their own.
"There's so many people interested in vegetable growing at the moment that perhaps the only way to do it is to share out the allotments and get more people growing."
David Custerson, of the Spragglesea Mead and Dean's Ham allotments in Oxford, said offering half or quarter plots had helped turn his community from being "old boys like me" to one full of young women and children. But he warned that it would add to, not reduce, waiting lists.
He said: "We used to have empty plots because no one wanted to take the whole thing on. When we divided them up it generated a lot more interest and now we have a waiting list of 15 people."
Tony Ives, of the Spellowgate allotments, East Yorks, said his committee had started dividing up plots. "A whole allotment is quite a big commitment unless you are avid vegetable gardeners or retired," he said. "There is a trend towards smaller allotments for modern families who don't have as much time."
Sally Berry, a spokesman for allotments-uk.com, said: "Lots of space is needed for the classic allotment tradition of rotating cabbages, onions, potatoes and beans, but it is a very difficult process to manage, and many allotment owners give up on the process, but hang on doggedly to their long neglected plots.
In the meantime, the waiting lists grow and grow. On the other hand, quarter plots can be easier to manage, less time-consuming, free up more plots and produce a host of wholesome organic food."
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