Turf wars escalate in the battle for Britain’s allotments
I thought we were entering a post modern world where allotments were now acknowledged as a virtuous and important local asset for people. It seems there is still a need for vigilance in protecting them. This article tells us:
Allotments are in demand, thanks to revived interest in fruit and vegetable growing, and the thrifty culture embedded in the long aftermath of the financial crash. But the selfsame economic conditions seem to be leading councils to look at their land holdings, and put up some for redevelopment.
In March this year, the National Society of Allotment and Leisure Gardeners claimed that whereas it once received enquiries about threats to allotments at the rate of around one a week, the frequency had since increased to a call a day. In 2012, one of their surveys revealed that the greatest worry for 74% of allotment holders was the selling off of their plots. There is, perhaps, something about traditional allotments that sits awkwardly with modern local government, the British model of capitalism, and the ties that bind the two – as proved by one particular story which peaked six years ago, when 83 people were evicted from the century-old Manor Farm allotments in East London as part of preparations for the 2012 Olympics, making way for what one campaigner called a “four-week concrete pathway”.
There are around 300,000 allotments in the UK, and more than 100,000 people whose names are on waiting lists. Two years ago, Eric Pickles’ department floated plans to relieve local authorities of their obligations to provide “sufficient” allotments, something enshrined in the Small Holdings and Allotments Act of 1908, a remarkably benevolent bit of legislation which belatedly responded to the huge population shift to towns and cities, and was coloured by the early-20th century’s concerns about ordinary folks pursuing wholesome interests rather than drinking their lives away.