Allotments

Overview

In recent years the growing public demand for space to grow food has put pressure on local authorities provide more allotments, at a time when financial resources are being increasingly tightened.

Many allotment sites are under strain, with some estimates suggesting that there are now 100,000 people on waiting lists for the current 300,000 plots. In London the wait for a plot could be at least 10 years, in Bristol the wait can be 2–3 years. Even with the growing trend to offer half plots and more rigorous re-allocation of uncultivated plots, demand will continue to outstrip supply.

Local authorities are becoming more robust in their management of allotments and more creative in finding solutions to public demand. Meanwhile the Allotments Regeneration Initiative (ARI), and the National Society of Allotment and Leisure Gardeners (NSALG) are playing key roles in supporting local authorities to achieve this.

Emerging Trends

1. ARI Mentor Network
The ARI Mentor Network, launched in 2004, has expanded over the last year. The team now consists of 14 regionally-based volunteer experts who have direct experience of managing and regenerating allotments at a local level. They provide help, free of charge, to allotment associations on a huge range of issues. This includes where to go for funding, setting up an allotment project, managing waiting lists, disability access, alternative energy on allotments, and campaigning for new sites.

2. Allotment Officers Forums
Allotments Officers’ Forums (AOFs) now operate in nine regions in England, and in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. The aim of forums is to share good practice in allotments regeneration and management and build supportive networks for council staff responsible for managing allotments. They are attended by officers from large unitary authorities to the smallest of parish councils.

The forums meet twice a year and are run by the ARI Mentor Network. They help enable allotment officers to develop practical solutions to the pressure on sites. The dominant discussions are around plots being subdivided into two or even smaller plots, initiating the use of starter plots, managing waiting lists so that there is no duplication, what to do about non-cultivation of plots and developing practical ways of dealing with this.

Jeremy Iles, Chief Executive of FCFCG, explains how the need for these forums has emerged: “ARI's work showed there was a clear need for more support for allotment officers. They can spend an awful lot of their time explaining to people on waiting lists why they are waiting so long and can't have an allotment. They are often at the receiving end of a lot of local criticism and can be isolated. The forums are a way of getting allotment officers together in a positive setting to share good practice and deal with emerging issues.”

3. Private Sector Initiatives
A number of private sector initiatives are evolving, to fill the gap in allotment provision. Farmers are leasing land direct to individuals or groups as food growing spaces as a way of diversifying their own business. Some companies are developing businesses by buying or renting land in order to turn them into allotments.

Many of these companies advertise on the web and local authorities will often hold details of privately managed allotment sites. While the move to make more land available for allotments is welcome, local authorities must not use private provision as an excuse to cut back on their own obligations to provide allotments. The rent on a private allotment site can be anything from £150-£250 a year, much more than a subsidised local authority rent.

One of the more ambitious enterprises is The New Allotment Company Ltd, which opened its first site of 300 allotments on the outskirts of Tonbridge, Kent, earlier this year (2010). It expects to open more sites during 2010, and plans to make 10,000 plots of land available to the public by 2012.

4. Local Authority Guidance
The Local Government Association has recently produced a document aimed at helping local authorities respond to demand.
A Place To Grow, written by Dr Richard Wiltshire is a supplementary document to Growing In The Community, the existing good practice guidance for allotment officers. It covers issues such as dealing with waiting lists, plot size, new allotments provision, support for alternative solutions, meanwhile gardening and green space strategies.
Copies of A Place to Grow are available to download from the LGA website: www.lga.gov.uk/lga/aio/9027597

More Information

Allotments Regeneration Initiative
www.farmgarden.org.uk/ari
ARI aims to support and develop allotments regeneration and the creation of brand new allotment sites in the UK; gather and disseminate information about good practice in allotments management;  maintain and develop the profile of allotments with public and government and encourage sustained devolved management by allotment associations as the primary volunteer and community-based actor in allotment regeneration.

National Society of Allotment and Leisure Gardeners
www.nsalg.org.uk/
NSALG is the recognised national representative body for the allotment movement in the UK. The Society is owned, managed and funded by its members to protect, promote and preserve allotments for future generations to enjoy.
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Allotments UK
www.allotments-uk.com/
Claims to be the biggest UK allotments community, this website has tips and advice as well as a busy forum for allotmenteers to swap ideas and information.

Case Studies

A selection of case studies about allotments and the issues that affect them are available to download from the Allotment Regeneration Initiative's website, as part of an archive of ARI newsletters. Go to the ARI website Resource Centre page and type the word newsletter into the search box.