Frustrated beetroot, bean and berry growers can now enter their dream contest: to win two new allotment sites, which will be purchased in neighbourhoods starved of good places to grow fruit and vegetables.
The charity Green Allotments is pledging to buy and set up new not-for-profit allotment sites with peppercorn rents for two lucky communities.
Individuals and community groups in England and Wales have until the end of November to make their case to the new charity, which is dedicated to meeting the much-needed demand for more and new allotments.
The charity will announce the two winners early next year, and plans to complete the purchase of land and set up the allotments with the required facilities for local people as quickly as possible.
“Allotments bring multiple benefits for people and planet: health benefits, grow-your-own food, nature, community and culture,” said Deborah Burn, the chief executive of Green Allotments. “Currently, allotments in the public mind are a combination of a long wait, expensive, and under threat. We want to change that picture.
“We are making this offer to start changing the allotment story from one of despair to one of hope if you are on an allotment waiting list. We want to hear from local communities across England and Wales: tell us about land in your area which is suitable for allotments and why your community deserves a new allotment site.”
Waiting lists for allotments have almost doubled in the last 12 years. Although the selling off of existing council allotment sites for housing has slowed since the importance of allotments for people has been formally recognised in the national planning policy framework, privately-owned allotments continue to be sold off for housing.
There are currently passionate local campaigns to save allotments at Combe Down near Bath and Great Ayton in North Yorkshire which are set to be sold off.
Meanwhile, the provision of new allotments has totally failed to keep pace with rising demand, according to the charity, despite councils having a legal duty to provide allotment sites.
“Central government can’t and won’t help because allotment provision is devolved to local councils. Approach councils and they have insufficient funds because of cuts, go to Westminster and the response is ‘not our problem’ – it’s a merry-go-round of blame switching” said Burn.
Cash-strapped councils, keen to make their allotment portfolio “cost neutral”, are increasing rents, with rents of £300 a year for some council plots and upwards of £500 for commercial sites.
Entrants to the competition are simply asked to demonstrate a demand for allotments in an area short of them, and to identify suitable or desired land. It does not necessarily have to be already for sale because the charity is willing to approach landowners to see if they are prepared to sell.
Angus Hanton, a charity trustee and financial backer, hopes that Green Allotments will fill a gap, with no organisations seemingly equipped or motivated to create new allotments.
“There’s no obvious person to do anything about creating new allotments,” he said. “Central government thinks it’s local government’s job. Local government has its own existing allotments to manage and its many other costly social services. Business doesn’t do it because there’s no money in it, and there shouldn’t be. And the National Allotment Society is very much focused on supporting existing ones.”
Perhaps the biggest barrier to establishing new allotment sites is that land suitable for local growers that is close to towns is often prohibitively expensive if it has the potential to be developed for new homes.
But Hanton, who has spent 30 years identifying and buying land for his woodlands.co.uk business, is confident that the charity can find suitable new allotment sites.
These might include metropolitan land zoned for no development or land with covenants that prevent housebuilding. Landowners such as utility companies or railways or companies with certain community or environmental goals may be prepared to sell land for allotments that underscore their green credentials.
The new allotments will be strictly not-for-profit, affordable and run with an emphasis on improving biodiversity in the area, as well as providing healthy, locally grown food. The charity plans to work with grant-giving organisations and private donors to establish many other new allotment sites, particularly in urban food-growing deserts.
