Are Allotments safe from recent government plans?

06 May 2011

Last weekend the Independent on Sunday launched its Dig For Victory Campaign to help raise awareness about the government's plan to review old and unnecessary duties imposed on councils in order to free them up from Whitehall red tape...and  the concern is that this included the requirement for local authorities to provide land for use as allotments. 
It is a horrifying thought, quite unbelievable, especially when the interest in grow your own and especially vegetable growing is so massive.

As a result of my quote in The Independent on Sunday I have now received a letter from Bob Neill MP, Local Government Minister, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State.  It is too long  to be quoted in its entirety right now, but here are the main points, and, if it is as I read it, perhaps all is not as bad as it seems :
'.....I want to reassure you that there is no threat to allotments . The future of allotments and the requirements on local authorities  to provide land for them is secure and will not be affected by the review that the Government is conducting into the regulatory burdens on councils.

The concerns that have been raised regarding the future of allotments have been prompted by a misinterpretation of the Government's plan to review old and unnecessary  duties imposed on councils in order to free them up from Whitehall red tape....

.....On the contrary we are currently looking at how we can make it easier for communities to work with their councils to to identify new land suitable for use as allotments as part of our neighbourhood planning proposals.  The changes will help to reverse the decade long decline in allotments  provision presided over by the previous government and give more people the chance to 'grow their own'.........'

The letter has certainly made me feel a little better, lets hope things go as it implies they will! Any spelling errors included in the quote are entirely my own, not Mr Neill's !

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