Page 10 - ALG Issue 1 2020

focus on mentors
Could you be an allotment mentor?
When Colin Bedford first started as the West Midlands Mentor,
he didn’t know what he was
really getting involved in! It has developed into a varied role which involves visits, email and telephone
communications. A large part of the work has involved supporting local authorities to move from central management to devolved management, whereby the allotment plotholders manage
the site and pay the local authority an annual
rent. Other aspects have included parish clerk training which develops their awareness of the responsibilities they have on managing allotments together with sharing good practice. He has
also delivered training to newly formed devolved management committees. Colin works closely with the Regional team and has been involved
in many shows including Gardeners’ World Live and the Malvern Show. Colin finds the role is both enjoyable and rewarding.
From time to time readers of this magazine will have seen appeals for regional allotment mentors; these are volunteers who for almost 20 years have been helping to regenerate and develop allotments across the UK. The team was first put together under the auspices of the Allotments Regeneration Initiative; this was a joint project between ourselves and the Federation of City Farms. External funding was obtained that enabled the scheme to offer advice, support and finance for infrastructure that brought many derelict sites back online and other sites under the management of the plotholders themselves.
Environ Leicester received a grant of £36,797 which contributed to the salary of Environ’s Allotments For All Project Officer; that officer, Paul Howgill, is now the East Midlands Regional Rep. The aim of their project was to safeguard allotments in Leicester by providing support to allotment societies and novice gardeners, advertising vacant plots – in novel ways such as adverts on the back of buses – and encouraging wildlife friendly allotment management. By 2012 Leicester had 45 thriving
sites, 32 of them run by 22 allotment societies, who run a whole month of National Allotment Week activities.
Some of that committed team are
still with us. Phil Gomersall is now
our President; Grant Smith is our London Mentor and Paul Neary is still supporting allotments in the Southern Region. Mike Brannigan was on the Steering Committee of the project and joined us several years ago as Northern Mentor. Allan Cavill was a NAS Regional Rep in the South West for ten years but transferred to the Mentor role in 2015. We would like to say thank you again to all those mentors who gave many years to the project and have now retired. These volunteers all bring different skills and experiences to the role and fit
the work in with family commitments and the demands of their own allotment plots.
Mentors are given support and training to enable them to:
• Provideone-to-oneadvice/support
to allotments associations, local councils, and community groups/ agencies (e.g. schools, community groups) and anyone involved in managing, regenerating or creating allotments.
• PromotemembershipoftheNASand to promote our work.
• Assistwiththedeliveryofallotments officers’ forums.
• SupporttheRegionalRepresentative to gather information to help protect sites.
• Dogeneralallotmentspromotional work, e.g. stalls at events and gardening shows.
• Signpostplotholderstoappropriate sources of gardening advice or give advice if competent.
Email diane@nsalg.org.uk if you would like further details about opportunities in the Sussex, North West, South/ East Yorkshire, South West & Eastern regions.
Allan Cavill
has enjoyed working with dozens of communities, helping them
to create allotments for themselves, meeting so many people who just want to grow their own food. Over the years many of the new allotmenteers have become very good friends.
For Mike Brannigan, allotments have been a life-long preoccupation
and part life
occupation. They have been a constant in his
life from feeding chickens and fighting cockerels as a child, growing and showing leeks as
a teenager, to working a plot with his father, then eventually becoming an allotment manager. He is determined to give something back to allotments by playing a role in their retention, enhancement and the provision of new plots in his much-enjoyed role as a regional mentor.
For Grant Smith, as for many people, allotments provide a break from daily routines and they contribute to creating diverse and unusual urban environments. They also open up possibilities for improvisation and
self-organisation that are different from most other social settings. These processes aren't smooth, and, as a mentor, you are most often presented with some kind of problem. It can be
a challenge but basically, in the end, Grant feels that it's a privilege to be part of working through these problems together. Sometimes this is about sharing ideas and approaches; mainly it's about acknowledging the difficulties and knowing from experience that collective solutions can be found.
Tony Urwin has found that his relatively brief association with the NAS was nothing short of inspiring. From Allan Cavill’s enthusiasm for no-dig, so relevant to climate change, to Jeff Barber’s articles helping to understand the issues in allotment management. Couple this with the typical enthusiasm of our newest recruit, Paula Owen, and
the direction and support of Diane and the staff at Corby, I am confident that we are a team that can achieve our mission to preserve and promote allotment gardening.
10 Allotment and Leisure Gardener