Page 47 - ALG Issue 3 2016

Why do we need to promote the allotment movement?
Although there is now a healthy interest in renting an allotment plot, this has not always been the case. From the 1960s up until the later years of the 20th Century, allotments were neglected by local authorities and used by relatively few people. The allotment movement needs to ensure that this does not happen again and safeguard sites against new pressures from the need to nd land on which to expand our housing stock. The NAS, allotment authorities, associations and plot holders need to work together to gain acknowledgement from planners, developers and the government that allotments are an important part of our national heritage and make an enormous contribution to the health and well-being of communities.
Public interest in allotments is strong and by opening up your
Monitor your Council’s Health and Well-Being Strategy; does
it acknowledge the potential for the allotment service to support delivery of many of their Public Health targets? If not, lobby the elected representatives who sit on the health and well-being board and ask them why. Allotments can contribute to aspirations to improve community nutrition, emotional resilience and healthy activity, especially for our ageing population.
Ensure allotments are mentioned in the Local or Neighbourhood Plan. Local Plans are an opportunity for communities to in uence what happens in their neighbourhood. This could bene t allotments if aspirations to protect or increase supply are built into the document, or it could be the point at which allotment land is identi ed as potential housing land or other development. Detailed information
site for open days and events, you can help
to keep the allotment movement in the public
eye and bring together plot holders and the
community to celebrate. Promoting your site will
also enable your association to keep a healthy
waiting list and sustain the general interest in
allotments and growing your own food, thus
increasing the number of people who appreciate
the bene ts allotments bring and encouraging
them to support us in our efforts to protect existing sites. There are a variety of methods that you can use, including open days, courses, children’s clubs, a website, word of mouth, social media and posters; you will also nd that opportunities to talk directly to people at local shows and markets are very effective.
Local campaigning
As allotments are, in the main, owned by local authorities, measures to protect and promote allotment sites need to be taken at a local level. If you are part of a local federation or allotment association or just an interested individual, we would encourage you to take the following steps:
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about neighbourhood planning can be found at - www.mycommunity.org.uk/programme/
neighbourhood-planning/.
Register for consultations on your council
website and make sure your voice is heard. As part of the process of preparing a Local Plan, your local authority is obliged to carry out a ‘housing and economic land availability assessment’. Allotment land will come under
scrutiny as part of this process and it is important that local views about the value of the site as allotment land are taken into account.
Register your site as an asset of community value; if a site is registered, the listing lasts for ve years. If, during that time, the owner wishes to sell the land, they must inform the council and the group that requested the listing of the planned sale. The group then has six weeks to con rm that it wishes to be treated as a potential bidder. If it does so, the group has six months to raise the nance.
The Society has also produced a new lea et about ‘promotion and publicity for allotment associations’. This is available in the downloads and resources section of the website.
Allotments can contribute to aspirations to improve community nutrition...
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