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The Contribution of Allotment Gardening to the Q.E.D. Initiative
Introduction
Following the successful launch of Q.E.D. in June 1996 the Dartford Road Allotments Association volunteered to examine means of furthering the aims of Local Agenda 21 through allotment and leisure gardening. This report explains how allotment sites and allotment gardeners in Dartford already contribute to these aims, identifies areas in which further action could be taken, and suggests the means to encourage the sustainable development of allotment gardening in our borough.
To quote the Q.E.D. pamphlet, 'The most important aspect of Q.E.D. is that it is "Local"'. The introduction by Dartford Borough Council of delegated management and self-management for allotment sites has proved an outstanding success over the past five years in encouraging local and democratic control over an important environmental asset, the borough's allotment sites. The rules of allotment associations and the terms of leases and management agreements make locally elected committees accountable for all aspects of site management, while links to bodies such as the Kent Allotment and Gardens Council, the National Society of Allotment and Leisure Gardeners and the European International Office help to ensure that local action is sensitive to regional, national and global environmental concerns. There are two faces to allotment gardening: one looks inwards, to the needs and concerns of the individual plotholder, the other outwards, to the responsibility which plotholders and their associations have for the conservation of sites and the promotion of a healthy outdoor activity with a real contribution to make to the quality of life in the local community.
The Q.E.D. pamphlet identifies as examples ten areas which "scream out for attention", and these provide a convenient framework for the present report. It will be shown that there are actual or potential links between allotment gardening and all ten areas, and opportunities to strengthen those links further under the Q.E.D. umbrella.
Ten areas for action ...
1. Pollution in all its forms
Pollution is identified in the Q.E.D. Launch Report as one of the key issues in Dartford. The effects of air pollution in this area are particularly well known. Garden bonfires are a frequent source of complaint, and one to which allotment sites have made an unwelcome contribution in the past. On the Dartford Road site, self-management has brought the introduction of enforceable rules which severely restrict the burning of compostable and non-compostable wastes, in line with National Society for Clean Air and Environmental Protection guidelines, and promote recycling as an environmentally friendly and horticulturally advantageous alternative. These rules have been regularly updated to meet the concerns of local residents.
Action point:
- Promote best practices in the control of bonfires on allotment sites, and publicise these as an acceptable model for all gardeners in the borough.
2. Waste disposal and recycling
Another area identified as a key issue in Dartford. Allotment gardeners have always recycled wastes through the compost heap, and are forever finding new uses for waste products: the use of old carpets to reclaim derelict plots and conserve soil moisture is a case in point. Composting has been encouraged under self-management on the Dartford Road site through the distribution of educative leaflets and the provision (free of charge) of redundant pallets used for the construction of compost bins. While the borough has a good record in the recycling of bottles, cans and paper, more could be done to encourage the recycling of compostable wastes.
Action points:
- Promote best practices in composting on allotment sites, and publicise these as an acceptable model for all gardeners in the borough.
- Establish demonstration plots to show how composted wastes can be put to good use in the garden, to promote plant growth and, through mulching techniques, to conserve soil moisture, reducing the demand for water in drought periods.
3. Helping to meet local needs locally: for food, water, shelter and fuel
Allotment gardens exist for the local production of food. Production could be expanded if there were more allotment gardeners and higher standards of cultivation, even within the fixed area currently set aside for allotments within the Borough. But meeting food needs involves more than just production: it requires a proper definition of those needs and an efficient method of distribution. The study of best practice elsewhere in the country reveals that there are some groups in society who have clear needs for fresh foods which are not being met: low income families are a case in point, and schemes such as that run by Thamesdown Council and the local health promotion unit (1) show how allotments can be used to encourage wholesome eating patterns and to support disadvantaged groups, including single mothers. Allotment gardeners have always been generous with their surplus crops, but schemes such as the growers' cooperative in Rainham and the Medway Local Exchange Trading System suggest that these surpluses could be put to more imaginative uses for the benefit of plotholders and for the wider community.
Action points:
- Improve the advertising of vacancies to encourage wider participation in local food production on allotment sites.
- Provide advice on cultivation techniques and access to inputs.
- Seek support from voluntary and commercial sources for disadvantaged groups who would benefit from allotment gardening.
- Examine means to mobilise surplus production for the benefit of the local community, without undermining local commercial food distribution systems.
4. Peoples' health
The slogan of the National Healthier Life Styles Initiative is "more people, more active, more often". Allotment gardening is an outdoor, active and (largely) non-competitive form of recreation, and weeds are unforgiving of those who do not participate often. Agenda 21 demands that special attention be paid to the health needs of the elderly and disabled population, needs which include regular and comparatively stress-free exercise. Many of the Borough's allotment gardeners are elderly, and can testify to the pleasure and meaningful relaxation they derive from their gardening. But elderly gardeners do need practical support, and Dartford's allotment associations have already explored some novel means of providing it - through cooperation with the Probation Service, for example, in the rehabilitation of young offenders. Meeting the needs of the disabled is a much greater challenge, but best practice schemes such as Sutton Borough Council's Special Needs Allotment at Cheam Park show what can be done, and there is plenty of expertise and advice available within the allotments movement on how schemes for the disabled can be grafted on to existing sites, and how the funding needed for such schemes can be obtained (2). At present there is no specific provision for disabled gardeners on allotment sites within the Borough of Dartford.
Action points:
- Improve the advertising of vacancies to the elderly, through cooperation with medical and elderly support services.
- Explore new means of providing support for elderly gardeners.
- Examine the opportunities for developing facilities for the disabled.
5. Access to facilities, services, goods and other people
Dartford's allotment associations have been active in opening up allotment sites for use by a broader cross-section of the local community. At Dartford Road, for example, over an acre of derelict land has been reclaimed and put to use, while at Gore Road plotholders have expanded both the tenantable area and the on-site road network. Under self-management associations are free to adjust the sizes of plots to fit the needs and capabilities of individual tenants, and to take steps to improve access within each site. At Dartford Road greater participation by families has been encouraged by instituting competitions for children and by making paths safer for children to explore, while on-site shelter has been enhanced through the provision of shed-building materials free of charge. These measures have encouraged tenants to look beyond their individual plots, and to participate in a living community embracing the young, the elderly, men, women, and people from every kind of background. But the organised sites are fast reaching their capacity: Dartford Road achieved full tenancy within a year of self-management being introduced, and Wilmot Road will soon be unable to accept any more overspill. Expansion at Gore Road has also reached its physical limits. Looking to the future, the Thames Gateway scheme will bring many new homes to Dartford, most built at densities not seen since Victorian times and with gardens to match. As the population of the Borough ages, and residential densities increase, the pressures on today's organised sites will increase, but as no new land is likely to be made available for allotment gardens, this demand will have to be met from the only resource remaining: underutilised allotment land still under direct Borough Council management.
Action points:
- Facilitate the diffusion of delegated management and self-management to achieve locally organised and supported site improvements.
- Examine all possible steps to accelerate the process of reclamation of underutilised allotment land.
6. Security, education and information
Beyond physical security measures, "safety in numbers" is the best policy. Full and active use is one of the best deterrents to vandalism on allotment sites, and in mid-summer tenants can be found on plots at Dartford Road anywhere from five in the morning to eleven at night. Safety from harm is a genuine concern, yet there are few places in the contemporary world where parents can feel free to let their children roam at will and talk to strangers - other than on the local allotment site. The educational value of allotments has been demonstrated by best practice schemes elsewhere which have encouraged schools to use allotment cultivation as a means to teach various elements of the national curriculum. At Dartford Road we have gone further: our site is used to teach undergraduates from the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies the basic skills of physical and social surveying before they participate in practical development activities in the Third World. We also have experience of opening up our site to inform the public about what we do, through participation in the European Day of the Garden, and we have even supplied plant materials for use in A-Level Biology teaching in local schools
Action points:
- Examine means to improve the physical security of allotment facilities and plotholders.
- Encourage the use of allotment sites to enhance the quality of education at all levels.
- Improve the flow of information to the general public about the positive contribution which allotment gardening makes to community life.
7. Participation in decision-making
Self-management has given tenants of the Borough's allotment sites new powers to participate in decision-making, under democratic rules which make site management committees highly accountable: at Dartford Road, for example, only ten dissatisfied tenants are needed to set in train a process that could lead to the committee's dismissal. Without proper consultation and consensus building local management cannot work. But plotholders are not the only stakeholders in an allotment site: the interests of other groups which benefit from our presence - neighbours, casual visitors, the community at large - need to be solicited and taken into account.
Action points:
- Improve participation in the management of sites through improved dissemination of information about management issues.
- Encourage all groups which benefit from allotment sites to express their views.
- Improve cooperation between allotment sites, so that borough-wide concerns find a proper forum in which to be aired.
8. Culture, leisure and recreation
Allotment gardening forms an integral component of the Borough Leisure Strategy, which commits the Council to promote the advantages of allotment gardening as a leisure activity. The value of allotment land extends beyond the private recreational benefits to individual tenants however, for the Borough's nine sites (plus those managed by the parish councils) also represent an important contribution to the residual stock of green open space in the urban area. The Secretary General of the International Office, in commenting on the implications for allotment gardening of the European Urban Charter, has called for site managers to recognise their wider responsibilities to the community and "to open up sites for the walk and rest of all citizens, and to make them attractive for this purpose" (3). There are inevitable conflicts between the desire for public access and the plotholder's need from security from vandalism, and between aesthetic concepts of visual amenity and the freedom of individuals to cultivate their plots as they see fit. But experience at Dartford Road has shown that much can be done through simple measures, such as the landscaping of unused corners and confining visitors to the main path network, to reconcile these conflicting claims, and to enhance the quality of life for the many local people who include a stroll through our site as part of their daily exercise.
Action points:
- Examine the prospects for improving access to allotment sites for acceptable forms of casual recreation, including access for the disabled.
- Explore means of improving the visual amenity of allotment sites.
9. Valuing and protecting local features
The allotment garden is itself a traditional feature of the local urban environment. But sites also play a wider role in environmental conservation, through their inherent (if not always welcome) role as refuges for wildlife species and rare plants and animals. In Dartford the allotment associations have acted positively to enhance the environmental value of our sites; at Dartford Road rare grasses and herbs are being grown by the Conservation Officer for the North Kent Wildlife Preservation Society, and at Gore Road plotholders are encouraged to assist in the conservation of the gene pool of archaic vegetable types through cooperation with Henry Doubleday Research. This valuable work goes largely unnoticed by the general public and even by many other plotholders.
Action points:
- Explore new ways of enhancing the environmental benefits of allotments sites in harmony with the principles of horticultural practice.
- Publicise and assist the public to enjoy these benefits.
10. Satisfying employment
Allotment gardening is not a paid activity, and produces only limited multiplier effects for local businesses. But it can and does perform a useful role for the unemployed, particularly for older citizens still of working age who face difficulties in securing stable employment, both as a means of obtaining food cheaply and as a source of pride and solace. Best practice schemes elsewhere in the country have assisted the unemployed to take up allotment gardening (4), and site development schemes such as those hinted at elsewhere in this report may generate casual but worthwhile employment for local people.
Action points:
- Cooperate with groups assisting the unemployed to maximise the benefits of allotment gardening for their members.
- Explore the employment-generation potential of allotment sites.
The way forward
This report has presented an entirely personal view of what allotment gardening could achieve in the Borough of Dartford in the context of Q.E.D. and Local Agenda 21. Means have to be identified however to realise this potential, in harmony with the Borough Leisure Strategy, with the Council's responsibilities as a land owner and as the responsible authority under the Allotment Acts, and with the new-found autonomy of individual sites achieved under delegated management and self-management. The old Allotments Committee, which was embedded within the Council's administrative structure, included representatives from each site and acted to assist the council officers who were responsible for the day-to-day management of allotments in the Borough. This Committee was abolished in 1991, as part of a wholesale (and in many ways welcome) change in policy towards allotments. With demise of the Allotments Committee, however, came the end of formal channels of communication between individual allotment sites. Since then new channels have opened up, through the advice offered between sites on self-management issues, and more especially through the successful organisation of the Dartford Festival Allotments Competition, which has established a model in which the Council enables, while the associations provide the enthusiasm, labour and expertise - precisely the sort of 'hands-on' effort from community groups which Agenda 21 demands.
The way forward must come from a cooperative and voluntary initiative led by the local allotment associations, drawing upon the experience and enthusiasm of their members, from the lessons provided by best practice elsewhere in the country, and from the expertise of other interest groups in the local area. Much has already been achieved by individual associations, and more could easily be done both at site level and through cooperation between sites across the Borough. The more ambitious ideas put forward in this report require much closer cooperation with the Borough Council in defining strategic objectives, and Q.E.D. offers an ideal means of achieving this, without placing additional burdens on the Council's budget and in full harmony with the democratic process.
As the initial step, however, it must be demonstrated that there is adequate enthusiasm for this initiative at the local level, amongst the associations themselves, for without this little of what has been suggested can be brought to fruition. It is proposed, therefore, to form a Steering Committee made up representatives from those local associations which are willing to participate, to determine whether active participation in Agenda 21 is feasible or desirable, and to plan a suitable course of action.
(1) 'Digging for economy and a wholesome diet'. The Independent, April 24, 1995, p. 5
(2) National Society of Allotment and Leisure Gardeners South East Region, Notes on Developing Allotment Gardening Areas for Gardeners with Special Needs. April 1996.
(3) Allotment and Leisure Gardener, Issue 3, 1996, p. 17
(4) Leeds is one recent example. Allotment and Leisure Gardener, Issue 2, 1996, p. 5