Page 20 - Allotment Gardener Issue 1 2024

GrowingCommunityConnections
Lower Road Allotments, a site bordering North
Kent & South East London, have been in existence since 1895. They are a great example of an allotment association working successfully with the community.
continue to provide labour, free of charge each Saturday on site as part of their community service for HM Prison and Probation.
When the local Salvation Army approached David with a forward-thinking proposal late last year, he was well placed to support the initiative and was able to draw on past community focused experience. The charity was already running a local food bank, but now they are preparing to open a soup kitchen, offering hot meals to those in need. With news from The Trussell Trust, a UK food poverty charity, that between April 2022 and March 2023, the use of food banks had soared by 37%, it made perfect sense to offer a charity plot, where the produce grown will be feeding the wider community.
So, in an interesting picture of hope this
year, the efforts on Lower Road Allotments
are a demonstration of what can be achieved when people pull together in difficult times; the Salvation Army volunteers grow fresh fruit & veg for the soup kitchen, helped of course by the new water piping bought by National Lottery funding and installed through the labour of the
The site has much to celebrate for the coming year – they have won National Lottery funding for a third time now, so the site can continue to have impact within their community, including engaging with local charities and a local preschool.
David Bennett has been site secretary since 2020, and a dedicated grower & plotholder for over twenty years. Holding various committee
roles during this time, he’s paved the way for future generations of members
by winning funding to make much-needed improvements. For example, after years of suffering repeated break-ins and damage to plots, security fencing installed last year means that the allotments have become a much safer space for its members and the community groups that have plots there.
David says “Getting new fencing was fantastic, but installing 329 metres behind plots was a challenge, as the majority of my
members are, including myself, shall we say, of advanced age”. To help, David thought to
enrol the services of a community payback team who now
Community Payback team.
“Getting new fencing was fantastic, but installing 329 metres behind plots was a challenge”