Page 54 - ALG Issue 3 2023

Southern
Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Wiltshire, Berkshire, Hampshire and Isle of Wight
REPRESENTATIVE
Mike Cantillon
07742 391364 mike.cantillon.nas@btinternet.com
DEPUTY REPRESENTATIVE
Paul Neary
0845 313 8422 pneary.nas@gmail.com
Welcome to our new members...
Blackbridge/New Dawn View Allotment Association
Ryde Allotments
Swinbrook Road Allotments 2 Individuals
Alderbury Parish Council Cainscross Town Council Chadlington Parish Council
Calls to 0845 numbers cost 3p (ex VAT) per minute plus your telephone company’s access charge
Southern
Region report
Gardening magazines are full of tips and information on what we should now be doing in our garden, and at the allotment. There will also be plenty
of tips from fellow allotmenteers
on the best way to grow various vegetables. Everyone will have their own opinion, but what works for one person may not satisfactorily work for another. For new allotment tenants,
it is often a daunting task as to where to start with ‘helpful’ advice coming from all directions. Some allotment authorities provide a handbook for new tenants that has been compiled by a horticulturist experienced in allotmenteering, giving new tenants the essential basics of how to start and progress their new venture.
Recently there has been the belated effort to get newly developed
allotment sites handed over to the local authorities for letting to new tenants. Ideally tenants on new sites should have taken occupation in the autumn or early winter so they can plan and prepare their plot for the ensuing growing season. Alas, there are new sites just becoming available that have been in the pipeline for some years; developers leave the provision of the site to the very last item in the area. There also remain other sites still in the pipeline.
I have recently visited a new allotment site, that had been ‘talked about’ for numerous years and was supposedly
ready for hand-over from the developer; whilst there were a number of
positive aspects, overall, it was most disappointing that a developer should have even considered it to be ready
for handing over. Unfortunately, the developer did not have the benefit now afforded by the recently published NAS booklet: 21st Century Allotments in New Developments. It is a practical, design led and policy-based guidance for planners and developers who
are including allotments in new
Everyone will have their own opinion
developments. The booklet may nevertheless provide valuable guidance to developers and local authorities where there are new sites in various stages
of development and where the local authority may wish to become involved with, and work with, the developer to mutually achieve a result that would be welcomed by a new plotholder, resulting in satisfaction all round!
Mike Cantillon
Regional Representative
West Midlands
Shropshire, Staffordshire, Worcestershire, Herefordshire and Warwickshire
REPRESENTATIVE
Tom Terrence
17 Stonefield Close, Walsgrave Keep, Walsgrave, Warks CV2 2PZ
02476 621350 tterrence@btinternet.com
DEPUTY REP/MENTOR
Colin Bedford
07592 822195 cbedford.nas@gmail.com
Welcome to our new members...
Goscote Lane Allotments Waterhouses Allotments Association 3 Individuals
Stafford Borough Council
Allotment Trustees Warstones Primary School
54 Allotment and Leisure Gardener