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We Are ...The Future For Allotments! |
We Are ...
The Future For Allotments!
A Parliamentary Inquiry ...
On June 24, 1998 the House of Commons Environment, Transport and Regional Affairs Committee published the report of its inquiry into "The Future for Allotments". The report makes sweeping recommendations for the reform of the Allotments Acts and for the dissemination of Best Practice in Allotment Management.
The Committee received written evidence from eighty-eight individuals and organisations, including the National Society of Allotment and Leisure Gardeners, Amateur Gardening magazine (winner of a "campaign of the year" award for its work on behalf of allotment gardeners), local allotment associations and ordinary allotment holders.
In its discussion of Best Practice in Allotment Management, the Committee noted that ...
"...the best allotment societies often play an active role in the wider community ... through Local Agenda 21 initiatives ..." (Report, p. xxxi)
To illustrate its point, the Committee singled out the evidence submitted by Dartford's QED Allotments Group.
In its recommendations (p.xxxv), the Committee concluded that ...
"...allotments form an important part of leisure provision and this should be reflected within a local authority's Leisure Strategy and Local Agenda 21 initiatives."
These things already happen in Dartford - and that's why we are ... The Future for Allotments.
... and more
The QED Allotments Group has also submitted evidence on the environmental and social benefits of allotments in the context of Local Agenda 21 to ...
Self-Management
The Future for Allotments Report says:
"We believe that self-management fulfills the twin aims of ensuring greater control of a site by allotment holders and also reducing a local authority's administrative responsibilities. We recommend that all local authorities examine the potential for self-management of their allotment sites". (p. xxxii)
Section Sixteen of Dartford Borough Council's Leisure Strategy acknowledges the benefits of local control over allotment sites, and seeks to promote the advantages of allotment gardening as a leisure activity, mirroring the goals of Local Agenda 21.
The Leisure Strategy also seeks to secure resources for continuing improvements to allotment sites in the Borough. The QED Allotments Group is helping to achieve this goal, through cooperation with the QED Waste Management Group to identify sources of useable recycled materials from local businesses and other means.
Allotment land in Dartford is recognised in the Borough Plan and afforded protection consistent with the Allotment Acts. Our submission to the Dartford Borough Plan Review on the role of allotments in a sustainable future for Dartford is available through the National Society of Allotment and Leisure Gardeners as a model for Local Agenda 21 initiatives elsewhere in Britain. Our vision for the Future of Allotments lies at the heart of the plan for a "Model Allotment" site at Darenth Country Park, which when completed will be Britain's first totally new allotment site for at least two decades.
The policy of local control has been taken furthest on the two largest sites in the Borough, Dartford Road and Gore Road. Both have been leased by the Borough Council since 1992 to self-sustaining local Associations, which manage these sites on behalf of the tenants, to whom they are directly accountable. Both sites are now regularly fully tenanted. Smaller sites like Wilmot Road are achieving similar standards - or better.
In March 1998 the Dartford Road Allotment Association's lease on its 6.6 acre site in West Dartford was renewed for a further seven years. The Association's policy is to encourage new plotholders to take an active role in the management of the site - to encourage new blood and fresh ideas - and the success of this policy can be judged from the fact that none of the Trustees who have been appointed to take the site into the next century had an allotment at the time the Association was formed in 1991.
Local Agenda 21 is about sustainable communities, as well as environmental issues.
The Future for Allotments Report also says:
"We recommend that a Best Practice regime for allotments be drawn up and implemented by local authorities and their umbrella organisations, in conjunction with the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions". (p. xxx)
The QED Allotments Group is cooperating with the National Society of Allotment and Leisure Gardeners, the National Federation of City Farms and local authority organisations to help identify and disseminate good management practices. We go further that the Parliamentary Inquiry, however, in recognising the need for Best Practice to spread not just "from the top down", through regimes devised and adopted by local authorities and other official bodies, but also "from the bottom up - and sideways", by sharing our experience of allotment management - and participation in Local Agenda 21 - directly with allotment associations elsewhere in Britain.
Over the past year the QED Allotments Group has participated in the first ever national conference for community gardeners, and advice has been given on self-management to allotment groups in places as far apart as Ashford and Nantwich. We have arranged visits to successful allotment projects in Bromley, Birmingham and Bradford. And we have exploited the technology of the future to share our expertise: a complete guide to the policies for self-management devised at Dartford Road can be downloaded over the Internet from the QED Website.
Community Links ...
In her evidence to the inquiry into The Future for Allotments, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Angela Eagle said:
" The Government is committed to the sustainable regeneration of our towns and cities, and recognises that allotments can contribute to our aim of providing green areas in urban environments". (p. xii)
She also noted that although ...
"the potential for community involvement in allotments is very great", it is "scarcely tapped". (p. xii)
And the Committee itself noted that:
"The best allotment societies often play a wider role in community schemes, becoming involved in initiatives with local schools, as well as programmes for the mentally and physically ill or disabled". (p. xii)
Allotment and garden societies in Dartford and neighbouring towns have long played an active role in promoting gardening activities, through horticultural shows, public lectures, trading in seeds and composts and organising trips. Other sections of this exhibit show how the QED Allotments Group is already involved with schools and health programmes. The challenge is to widen access and to extend the benefits of allotments even further.
We have made a start: assisting our local beekeepers, for example, in their search for a permanent site for a teaching apiary in Dartford. We welcome other ideas - and other opportunities for cooperation with the wider community.
Allotments as a Resource for Environmental Education ...
The Future for Allotments Report says:
"Allotment gardening can be very educational for school children learning about growing vegetables and fruit".(p. xxxi)
Allotment associations in Dartford have pioneered other educational uses for allotment sites:
Horticultural Therapy ...
The Future for Allotments Report says:
" We believe that allotments will often form a component part of healthy neighbourhoods. Given the undisputed health benefits of allotments, we strongly recommend that allotment provision be explicitly noted in national public health strategy and be integrated into the local delivery of that strategy, particularly for the over 50s age-group which traditionally dominates the profile of allotment holders". (p. xi)
And :
" We recommend that health authorities recognise and exploit the therapeutic potential of allotments for people with mental or physical health problems." (p. xi)
Allotment sites in Dartford provide a welcome respite from the cares and pressures of a fast-changing world - for people of all ages and backgrounds. The QED Allotments and QED Health Groups are working together to extend the benefits of allotment gardening to people with physical and mental health problems and learning difficulties. At Dartford Road Allotments, for example, two plots have been made available to student from the Assisted Learning Division of North West Kent College, who have made a great start on growing their own vegetables and fruits. A shed has been obtained for the students through the QED Waste Management Group - donated by a local resident - and a grant request has been submitted for tools under B&Q's "Quest" support scheme for Local Agenda 21 initiatives.
A "Walking Tour Guide" to Dartford Road Allotments is also available, which allows casual visitors to take pleasure in the green environment and relaxed atmosphere of the site, even if they have no time to cultivate an allotment, and some paths have been widened and shade provided for visitors in wheelchairs.
Access for all is also one of the themes of the proposed "model allotments" at Darenth Country Park. The QED Allotments Group is keen to support any initiative which promotes the therapeutic value of gardening - on allotments or elsewhere.
Seeding the Internet
The QED Allotments Group has pioneered the use of the Internet to disseminate information about best management practices in allotment and community gardening.
The QED Virtual Potting Shed Project is a unique service designed to help allotment associations participating in Local Agenda 21 initiatives to gain access to the Internet, a service which has earned praise from the Local Government Management Board. Client associations are given a free page on the QED Website, and assistance with finding a local computer enthusiast who can lend expertise, with a view to spinning pages off as independent websites.
Current clients include Uplands Allotments Association - the biggest in Britain, allotment federations in Bristol and Hull, and the National Food Alliance's CityHarvest Project. There are also pages on the QED Website for several allotment associations in Dartford, including Bean, Dartford Road, Wilmot Road and the West Dartford Allotment and Garden Society.
Visit the QED Virtual Potting Shed at:
www.btinternet.com/~richard.wiltshire/potshed1.htm
Best Practice in Newsletters ...
The Future for Allotments Report recommends (on p.xxxi) that newsletters should be used to encourage, maintain and broaden the demand for allotments as part of best practice in allotment management.
The QED Allotments Newsletter is identified in the Report (footnote 157) as an example of best practice. Copies are distributed to every allotment gardener in Dartford and are made available to the general public at the Civic Centre and to the world via the QED Website.
End: Return to the QED Allotments Group Home Page