Page 32 - Allotment Gardener Issue 1 2024

READERS ARTICLES
New Allotment
Achievements
Ashdownvale allotment site was allocated
as part of a new housing development site
in West Sussex. Here they share how – with the help of NAS – they set up their association and transformed an unmanaged piece of land into an allotment site for all to enjoy.
suitable for cultivation. As a community project, money
was not readily available. Fortunately, support from local
businesses and volunteers enabled the project to move forward. Tivoli Services very kindly donated their time and equipment and took on the mammoth task of clearing the 6ft weeds and rotavating the clay baked soil, giving us a blank canvas to work with. Volunteers from the community came together to measure the site and mark out the paths and plots.
The allotments opened in mid-September 2023 to great fanfare, and the allotment community began. The site is in its infancy and still has a long way to go; from installing a water supply, through to creating a communal area for all to enjoy. But already the creativity, passion and joy shown by our plotholders has made the whole journey worthwhile.
For more information, please email allotments.ashdownvale@gmail.com and follow Ashdown Vale Allotments on Facebook and Instagram.
Georgia Harmsworth
Chair of Ashdownvale Allotment Association
Once tomato greenhouses, the Ashdown Vale estate is an attractive housing development. Included in the design was an allotment site, but as the homes were moved into from 2017, the site descended into a jungle of overgrown weeds. Neither the developer nor the parish council were willing to engage and take responsibility for setting up the allotment site.
In 2022, residents took matters into their own hands and the allotment community project began. Through extensive research on the governance of new build developments and land ownership, along with the allotment association set up process, the team came up
with a plan of action.
With the support of the National Allotment
Society, the Ashdown Vale Allotments Association came into being. A major hurdle was the need to gain a lease from the management company who owned the land. Five years after the first homeowners moved in, finally the directorship of the management company was handed over to residents. The allotment committee launched into action and a lease was successfully secured within 3 months.
The next challenge was to wage war on the heavily overgrown weeds to make the site
32 | Issue 1 2024 | Allotment Gardener