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Response of the Quality Environment for Dartford (QED) Allotments Group to the "Opportunities for Change" Consultation Paper
1. Re: Paragraphs 57-59. As an active participant in Dartford's Local Agenda 21 initiative the QED Allotments Group welcomes the support given to Local Agenda 21 in paragraph 57 of the Consultation Paper. In our experience, participation in Local Agenda 21 is made far more effective when local citizens are directly involved in the management of environmental assets, and our successful experiences of self-management over the past six years (including, in one case, doubling the number of tenants and reclaiming all derelict land on a large allotment site) suggests to us that allotments would be just as valid an exemplar to use in paragraph 58 as public forests - and one with a far wider and locally accessible distribution.
2. Re: Paragraphs 47 and 51. There is an important role for Local Agenda 21 initiatives to play in support of regeneration projects and the drive to tackle social exclusion. For example, QED's Health and Allotment Groups are seeking to emulate "Gardening for Health", an Asian women's group who are developing an allotment as part of Bradford's 'Heartsmart' campaign, within the Asian community of Kent Thames-side. Allotments are of value to all communities, however, as an opportunity for regular and meaningful exercise in pursuit of a healthy diet. These and other benefits of allotments have recently been considered by the Environment Sub-Committee's enquiry into "The Future for Allotments", and as contributors to that enquiry we would urge the DETR to give full consideration to the Sub-Committee's recommendations once they are published.
3. Re: Paragraphs 37, 39, 40 and 78. The full potential contribution of allotments to the attainment of sustainable development at the local level can only be realised, however, if allotments are properly protected and promoted by local authorities, allotment associations and initiatives such as Local Agenda 21. This is nowhere more true than in urban areas, where the pressure to identify brownfield development sites to defend a distant countryside, while laudable in theory, poses a significant practical threat to those allotment sites and community gardens which offer local access to scarce open space in the areas where most people live. The need to conserve what remains of our urban allotment space is compounded by the growing requirement to recycle organic wastes locally. Community composting schemes, in which our QED Waste Management and Allotment Groups have a special interest, require space to compost and space to convert the compost back into food. In its submission to the current local plan review for Dartford the QED Allotments Group has argued that every major new residential development planned for this area should include a space provision for composting and community gardens. This vision is now being realised through the QED Darenth Country Park Project, the planning of which is entirely community-based. We note with approval the reference in Paragraph 39 to two new good practice guides to help local authorities achieve sustainable development, and would urge the DETR to ensure that adequate coverage is given in these guides to the reservation of space for community composting and gardening schemes.