Allotment Fuss Over Nothing?

Government plan to free local authorities from 103-year-old obligation to provide plots of public land for cultivation by gardeners, which could see cash-strapped local authorities selling off allotment land. Or at least that’s what some believe is going to happen.

With all media outlets obsessing about the Royal Wedding last weekend, typical of the Independent Newspaper to run an ‘exclusive’, which couldn’t be more removed from all the pomp and ceremony.

Like many, I was quickly enraged by the idea that a Government, whose big sell is the Big Society (which is really about little community), could be making plans to abolish ‘the century-old right of people to demand an allotment from their council.’ After all, what better expression of the ideals of a Big Society is there than the thousands of tiny plots of land that are worked by ordinary people, sharing their knowledge, time, labour and harvest? Why target section 23 of the 1908 Smallholdings and Allotments Act and label it as a ‘burdensome’ regulation? Clearly the time to act is now! So, The Independent, in an act of solidarity with the common man, at a time when the world was watching the landed gentry, launched their ‘Dig For Victory’ campaign.

Keen to add my voice, I clicked on the link, which redirected me to the National Society of Allotment and Leisure Gardeners (NSALG), only to find that the Independent was simply piggy backing on an opportunity to add your voice to a much wider government consultation process which had already closed on 25th April!! Naturally, I was frustrated and not a little infuriated. Was this all just a storm in a watering can? It was certainly the most peculiar campaign I’ve seen in a long time. Launched after the closing date and then denied just three days later, not only by theDepartment for Communities and Local Government, but also by the Prime Minister himself during today’s PMQs. Responding to a statement by MIke Gapes MP, that “the obligation on councils to provide allotments is going”, Mr Cameron replied; “this is not the case”. 

Having said all that, there is a worrying disclaimer on the home page of the Smallholdings Act, and history does show that land, especially the land of common people, is vulnerable to the vagaries of those who wield power. So perhaps this is one to watch, even with the reassurances that came from the dispatch box of the House of Commons - after all, our politicians don’t have a great track record when it comes to keeping their promises. 

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