According to its mission statement, the Urban Task Force was required to "establish a new vision for urban regeneration founded on the principles of design excellence, social well-being and environmental responsibility within a viable economic and legislative framework". The Task Force's Final Report, Towards an Urban Renaissance, is very clear on the importance of design, and will no doubt be welcomed by the architectural and allied professions whose members will find ample employment within the proposed "integrated design teams" (Figure 2.11, p. 76). It would be surprising, however, if any of these experts were to include allotments in their thinking, for allotments have never made money for professional designers, and the design of many allotment structures defies the notion of excellence, being merely the spontaneous expression of the untutored genius for innovation of ordinary people. It comes as little surprise then that there is no mention of allotments in the Report (other than a welcome exclusion from the category of "urban greenfields" on p. 186), that there is no reference to the value of growing food in cities (Garnett, 1999), and that allotments are missing from the Report's "key components of a mixed-use and integrated urban neighbourhood" (Figure 2.8, p. 66). The allotment gardener's only genuine grounds for disappointment here are first, that the Task Force's reading of the Consultation Draft PPG3 (Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions, 1999) did not extend as far as Paragraph 52, which provides food for thought, and second, that the observations of one of the Task Force's members (Professor Sir Peter Hall) on the importance of allotments in the design of sustainable neighbourhoods have not filtered into the Report:

"There are other features that could and should be incorporated in at least some of these developments ... This is an allotment garden, which ideally would be provided in the communal open spaces in the middle of a superblock, entirely surrounded by houses and their own small private gardens. It would answer the insistent call for organic food from an increasingly sophisticated and worried public" (Hall and Ward, 1998, pp. 206-207).

The exclusion of allotments from the world of design excellence is of particular concern to those of us who live in the heart of the Thames Gateway, which Professor Hall has described as "a unique chance to design a model sustainable urban development on a huge scale, a model for the entire world" (ibid., p. 157).

It would be reassuring to think that some balance will be provided by the "local consultation" which, according to the Report (p. 76), is to be a part of the design process, and particularly by Local Agenda 21, the government's preferred route for genuine community involvement in sustainable development issues, to which allotment gardeners (including Dartford's QED Allotments Group) are making a valuable contribution around the country, and in the process finding a "voice" for the many values inherent in allotment gardening which were so carefully documented by last year's "Future for Allotments" Inquiry (House of Commons, 1998). It is less than reassuring, therefore, to note that there is no reference to Local Agenda 21 anywhere in the Task Force's Report. The route to community involvement in sustainable development turns out to be a cul-de-sac, designed out of an inedible urban renaissance.

Cul-de-sacs were once the epitome of excellence in urban design - well before allotment gardeners were last called on to "dig for victory".

_____

Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions, Revision of Planning Policy Guidance Note 3 Housing: Public Consultation Draft. (London: HMSO), 1999.

Tara Garnett, CityHarvest: The Feasibility of Growing More Food in London. (London: Sustain), 1999.

Peter Hall and Colin Ward, Sociable Cities. (London: Wiley), 1998.

House of Commons, Environment, Transport and Regional Affairs Committee, The Future for Allotments. (London: HMSO), 1998.

Urban Task Force, Towards an Urban Renaissance. (London: E&FN Spon), 1999.

End: Return to the QED Allotments Group Home Page