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Allotments should figure in long-term planning by local authorities in their Local Plans. The allotment community knows all about the length of waiting lists and demand for plots. It is also well aware of the legislation behind the provision and disposing of allotments.

However, the wish to recognise the value of allotments, provide more and keep what they have, seems to be slipping right off the long-term planning agenda.

The preparation of the next Local Plan for Carlisle City Council is now nearing its completion. This has taken about four years and five public consultations. There have been responses made to earlier drafts where it fails to deal adequately with allotments. These have been disregarded.

In the current Local Plan, there is a separate policy on allotments. In the new draft Plan, this has now disappeared and allotments are lumped together with nature reserves, football pitches and green open space as something desirable but not needing specific acknowledgement, despite the legislation to provide and protect.

This is probably being echoed all around the country in other draft plans. The general failure to recognise allotments can be further exacerbated when there are policies dealing with specific areas of land, which include allotment sites, and which are designated for future use other than allotments, eg. housing.

Fortunately this is not the case in Carlisle. However, plot holders in Christchurch might tell a different story as I am sure those on the Farm Terrace site in Watford could also do.

It is essential that all of us keep a very close eye on what is happening with allotments in our own local authority’s Local Plans. These will be found on the local authority’s website under Planning Policy. Remember that the DCLG guidance on disposal of statutory allotment land places emphasis on how allotments are represented in the Local Plan. It might be too late to do anything about it when your site is threatened with closure, if you have not raised the issue in the Local Plan consultation process.

If local authorities do not show a willingness to value allotments properly and recognise their legal requirements, our precious allotments may well be picked off piecemeal. We need to make sure that they are properly valued by contesting every Local Plan if it is felt that allotments are inadequately valued and protected.

The Carlisle Plan is still not complete; the Examination in Public is still to take place. It is not yet known if the allotments will figure in the issues the planning inspector wants to raise, but if this is the case, then there will be strong support at the hearing from at least one local plot holder.

Elizabeth Allnutt, Northern NAS mentor

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Courtesy of the Allotment & Leisure Gardener: Issue 3 2015
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PS: What is happening with your Local Plan?