Petitions
If you would like to submit a petition to your council, please feel free to copy and/or change any of the following:
environment_petition.doc
allotments_NHS_petition.doc
allotments_over_50s_petition.doc
Resources
Download a legal opinion on the question of statutory duty from the Legal Consultant at the National Society of Allotment and Leisure Gardeners Ltd www.nsalg.org.uk
The National Society for Allotment and Leisure Gardeners (www.nsalg.org.uk) provides a free leaflet on their website describing basic allotment legislation from their Legal Consultant "Allotments - The Basics"
An example of one local council's list of funding opportunities for Allotment Associations.
Relevant publications
• Allotment Waiting lists in England 2011
New waiting list information on plots managed by all the principal local authorities in England. Download the report.
A spreadsheet containing the responses is available, which gives links to individual council responses.
The individual council responses can also be viewed on the website www.WhatDoTheyKnow.com by searching on each local council.
• Campaigning for a New Allotment Site
The SWCAA is a national organisation promoting allotments. They have information about setting up a site, and a guide to campaigning for a new site, that you can order on line.
• Allotment Waiting Lists in England 2010
This surveyed waiting list information on plots managed by all the principal local authorities in England. Download the report.
A spreadsheet containing the responses is available, which gives links to individual council responses.
• A place to grow
A supplementary document to Growing in the community. Produced jointly by LGA and CLG, a response to increasing demand. Discusses waiting lists and how councils can work with others to help more people get growing. February 2010
Can be downloaded free from the LGA website at
www.lga.gov.uk/lga/publications/publication-display.do?id=9027596.
• Sustainable Cities Index 2010
Forum for the Future's annual Sustainable Cities Index tracks progress on sustainability in Britains 20 largest cities - highlighting their environmental performance, quality of life and their readiness for the challenges of the future. Last year they included allotment waiting lists as one of the criteria of a sustainable city.
Download Sustainable Cities Index 2010 (4.25Mb)
• Green up! Five ways to work with your council on the environment and sustainability
This publication from the Community Development Foundation provides community groups with advice on working with their councils on environment and sustainability issues. The guide explains the words and vocabulary commonly used by councils, and how community groups can use Local Area Agreements, Sustainable Community Strategies etc, to get their work supported.
Download the report from the Community Development Foundation website.
• Can You Dig it? Meeting community demand for allotments
"This paper argues that the revival in interest in allotments should be harnessed. We make a series of recommendations on how we can create, promote and protect them. Britain needs a new Dig for Victory campaign that recognises the myriad of positive outcomes that allotments can bring, that captures the public mood and which ensures a sustainable approach is adopted."
New Local Government Network, 2009 Can You Dig it? Meeting community demand for allotments
• Securing food supplies up to 2050
Acknowledges the important role of home-grown food and recommends that "When it has been established that there is an unmet demand for allotments in a local authority area, the Government should require the local authority to publish, within three years, a plan setting out how it proposes to meet the demand."
2009 House of Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee report Securing food supplies up to 2050: the challenges faced by the UK
• A Survey of Allotment waiting lists in England (June 2009)
This surveyed waiting list information on plots managed by all the principal local authorities in England. Download the report.
A spreadsheet containing the responses is available, which gives links to individual council responses.
The individual council responses can also be viewed on the website www.WhatDoTheyKnow.com by searching on each local council.
• Growing in the community: a good practice guide for the management of allotments
Second edition (March 2008) of this resource for allotment officers and associations. Provides an update on the policy framework, legislation and practice affecting allotment gardening.
This publication, from the Local Government Association, cannot be downloaded. It may be ordered from the following link:
Growing in the community: a good practice guide for the management of allotments
• Allotments: A Plot Holders' Guide (revised edition 2007)
This guide is for anyone who rents, or is thinking of renting, an allotment plot. It disusses legislation, outlines things you need to know and gives a list of contacts who can answer more detailed questions.
www.communities.gov.uk/documents/communities/pdf/131012.pdf
• Select Committee on Environment, Transport and Regional Affairs, Fifth Report
"Our recommendations include changes in legislation, policy and practice. We consider that the force of these measures will be lost if a piecemeal approach is adopted to their implementation. Only if the recommendations are introduced as a package will the Future for Allotments be assured."
'The Future for Allotments'
• Government's response to the Environment, Transport and Regional Affairs Committee's report
Government's response to The Future for Allotments
• Planning Policy Guidance 17 (2002)
Planning Policy Guidance 17 (PPG17) sets out policies needing to be taken into account by local planning authorities in the preparation of development plans. It requires local authorities to audit provision of open space, sport and recreation, and specifically includes allotments. The audit examines evidence of local demand. It sets standards for the quantity and quality of provision, and sets distance thresholds. It compares current provision against these standards. It goes on to provides a framework for determining the need for planning conditions or the negotiation of planning agreements.
Paragraph 33 says that "Planning obligations should be used as a means to remedy local deficiencies in the quantity or quality of open space, sports and recreational provision. Local authorities will be justified in seeking planning obligations where the quantity or quality of provision is inadequate or under threat, or where new development increases local needs. It is essential that local authorities have undertaken detailed assessments of needs and audits of existing facilities, and set appropriate local standards in order to justify planning obligations."
Planning Policy Guidance 17: Planning for open space, sport and recreation
and Assessing needs and opportunities: a companion guide to PPG17
What are 'planning obligations'? When a new property is built within the Borough a levy is charged by the Council, often referred to as either a Section 106 payment (from Section 106 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990) or a developer contribution. The principle behind the levy is that additional houses cause an increase in population, which leads to an increase in demand for public facilities, such as roads, libraries, parks, allotments etc.
• Survey of Allotments, Community Gardens and City Farms: Urban Research Summary No.23
This summary presents the key findings of the Survey of Allotments, Community Gardens and City Farms carried out by the University of Derby on behalf of Communities and Local Government1 (Communities and Local Government), published 28 September 2006.
Survey of Allotments, Community Gardens and City Farms
• Living Places: Cleaner, Safer, Greener
Sets out the Government's approach to making cleaner, safer, greener public spaces.
Living Places: Cleaner, Safer, Greener
• Leading the way: how local authorities can meet the challenge of climate change
A Local Government Association publication "Suburban food growing may seem marginal and inconsequential - until it is recognised as a way of reducing long-distance food transport, increasing resilience, giving a healthier diet, building moderate healthy exercise into lifestyles and a source of pleasure, fulfilment and co-operation - all at the same time."
Leading the way: how local authorities can meet the challenge of climate change