1. Sustainability Objectives: Allotment gardens are a significant element of local environmental character. We note the objective of the Strategy to "encourage, where appropriate, patterns of development which will enable local needs to be met locally, and which will maximise effective use of resources and minimise pollution and waste". Evidence recently published by the House of Commons Environment, Transport and Regional Affairs Committee in its report on "The Future for Allotments" demonstrates the importance of allotments as a component of sustainable local food production and active leisure policies and recommends a national standard for allotment provision (20 plots per 1000 households). We urge SERPLAN to take the recommendations of "The Future for Allotments" into account as an integral component of a sustainable development strategy for the region.
2. Regional Patterns of Development: We note the comment on page 3 that "SERPLAN thinks that the region should accommodate within its urban areas as much development as is consistent with high quality urban living". Given the benefits that allotment gardening confers to the local population and to the urban environment, we urge SERPLAN to accept the need for the protection of the region's much reduced stock of allotment sites and for a positive policy to enhance their contribution to high quality urban living. Allotment sites are not brown fields or 'previously developed land' - and further 'town cramming', with a consequent reduction in private garden areas, can only add to the demand for allotments, not diminish it. Policies EE1, CD2 and CD3 should reflect this view.
3. Regional Variations: No part of the South East faces greater development pressures over the next two decades than North West Kent. This is an opportunity for the area to set new standards for sustainability in the major new residential developments that we are obliged to accommodate. The QED Allotments Group has already argued in its submission to the current Dartford Local Plan Review for the creation of local community composting facilities linked to allotments and community gardens, and we are developing a model allotment scheme along these lines at Darenth Country ParkÝ. We urge SERPLAN to recommend this approach as a model for other major residential developments in the region, as a practical implementation of Policy EE6.
4. Policies: In addition to references to specific policies above, we note that allotments can play a positive role in the attainment of Policies OE3 and OE5, particularly through schemes for self-management as advocated in "The Future for Allotments" and the spread of participation in Local Agenda 21 initiatives, and of Policy OE6, given the undisputed health benefits of allotment gardening and the value of allotments for people with physical and mental health problems, again as identified in the recommendations of "The Future for Allotments" Report.
Richard Wiltshire (Chair: QED Allotments Group), July 21 1998
Ý http://www.btinternet.com/~richard.wiltshire/dcp1.htm
To: The Secretariat, SERPLAN, 14 Buckingham Gate, London SW1E 6LB
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