Selfsufficientish.com

There are still not enough allotments in the UK and it's about time we all did something about it!

Please, please can you all sign the e-petition below and forward it to as many like minded people you can think of? It would be great if everyone who had an allotment AND everyone on the waiting list could sign up.
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/more-allotments/

Done! I've also contacted my local council to nag them about the bit of abandoned land by my house - that they own! I've suggested that they turn that into allotments!

Well, well signed up for this one as it's dear to my heart and found another one that closes today which is dear to my heart as well.

Have signed up and sent the link on.

My mum and her sisters share an allotment, their U3A group also have a shared allotment as many older people find the task of managing a whole allotment daunting. Do councils have schemes to allocate specifically to sharer groups? This might be a way of giving out a bit more, to greater numbers.

Hi

Have you visited http://homegrownuk.org yet?

We are working to become the national organisation respoinsible for garden sharers and community gardening schemes. One of the areas we intend to work in will be to lobby local and central government to make funding and land available for people to grow their own food. These areas may take the form of allotments or might be community soft spaces that are cared for by committed local gardeners.

If you're looking for a plot or have land spare or just want to support the growin social enterprise visit the site and sign up for the newsletter.

Cheers

Stevehttp://homegrownuk.org

It would help if the ones we had were managed properly...

I've signed up anyway, if the council are to be believed there is a massive waiting list!

I keep trying to sign but never get the auto email. I have this problem a lot with these PM petitions. It's not a problem with junk mail settings either.

TBH honest though, these PM petitions are a waste of time. Good old Gordon will send some BS reply about how much he cares and then do begger all anyway.

Writing to the local MP, pressuring the council and getting the local press engaged will probably do more good.

Done!
Just behind our allotments there are the grounds of a school which was closed and pulled down recently. All the rubble has been taken away and the ground looks lovely. I suggested to the lady at our council that they extend our allotment site. It wouldn't take much, it would simply be a case of moving the back fence and extending the side fences and the water pipes. This is the answer I received:

I would love to be able to secure more land for allotment use, unfortunately it just doesn't work like that. Land is still very valuable and "developers" tend to get in first. We are always on the look out for new allotment sites though.

I like the way she put "developers" in inverted commas.

I'm not giving up hope though. About a year ago I asked about some of the disused plots at one end and was told they were untenable as they flooded with the slightest bit of rain. I suggested they dig a ditch along the end for the water to run into, and throw the earth they dig up onto the allotments to raise the level. I felt I was fobbed off at the time, but a year later those plots have been cleared ready to let out. No ditch, but they have dug a big drain 'basin' thing at one end. Unfortunately, rather than throwing the soil onto the plots, they have piled it around the edge of the basin, creating a large lip around it.

goo wrote:Have signed up and sent the link on.

My mum and her sisters share an allotment, their U3A group also have a shared allotment as many older people find the task of managing a whole allotment daunting. Do councils have schemes to allocate specifically to sharer groups? This might be a way of giving out a bit more, to greater numbers.

I'm currently involved in a community garden project for our village - we got funding from the Climate Challenge Fund, and we've successfully got a few more grants as well. We are setting up 58 raised beds, including a number which are lower for children's groups, and disabled users (with wider paths for wheelchairs) - much easier to create and maintain than allotments as there is no hard digging involved, so would ideal for older residents and those who live alone or as a couple and may not have the need for a full allotment. We're planting an orchard and soft-fruit area as well, and having a couple of polytunnels. Yes, we are doing the work ourselves, but the council are backing us 100%. It would certainly make sense for councils to offer raised bed schemes alongside allotments - they are more suitable for many people, they are easier to maintain and you can fit far more raised beds into a space than you can allotments.

i have signed it and will send link on

How about some lateral thinking here instead of whingeing about your local council who are always an easy target?
There are many elderly folk living perhaps alone or as a couple who have large gardens. In return for tidying up their garden they may well be willing to let you turn over part of the plot to vegetables and fruit growing for your own use.
My father did this when he got too old to garden himself; and when I was living in Dorset I had a small vegetable plot in an old mans garden. Apart from anything else the old folks get to meet and chat with you and can enjoy the fruits of your labour.

Good suggestion Roger - much like Hugh's landshare.

Does anybody know of any reason why someone who owns land can't privately rent plots as allotments? I guess it would involve change of use planning permission with the council - but I know someone in our village who would love to do this.

Or if communities could get a fund together to buy a patch of land and rent it for allotments?

Bonnie,
I think if money changes hands it creates problems. In my experience a barter system sometimes works,
viz 'Let me cultivate your land and I will give you produce from it, or if a garden I will mow the lawn and keep the borders tidy'.

To buy land can be horrendously expensive

Roger Ramjet

Looked for the petition, but it seems to have expired. Anyway, I couldn't find it. Shall we start another one, on the basis that the relentless drip, drip, drip of water torture is bound to have an effect sooner or later?

I also think bigger questions need to be asked about why the general populace is reduced to scavenging the privilege to rent a tiny plot of land, when the majority of our green and pleasant acreage is in the hands of so few land-owners. According to my calcs, there are 3500 sqm to every individual in the country, more than enough on which to build decent accommodation and live a far from frugal -ish type life-style.

Cheers, 2RM.

PS. Just bought your book, Dave, and greatly looking forward to devouring it's wisdom when it gets delivered.

2ndRateMind wrote: PS. Just bought your book, Dave, and greatly looking forward to devouring it's wisdom when it gets delivered.

Book arrived. Flicked through. Looked like a smashing read. Will start on chapter 1 tonight.

Best wishes, 2RM.