Is There a Future for Allotmenteering

This article on the future of allotments originally appeared in 1992 but it still has relevance today especially in light of the upsurge of interest in growing vegetables on allotments.

I think that Mr Harriss of Blandford Forum (in the 1992 Handbook) is being unnecessarily despondent in his assessment of the allotment situation.

Unlike Mr Harriss, I believe that there is scope for change. Up until now allotments have been regarded as the province of working-class gardeners with cloth hats, whippets and giant leeks. This is no longer the case. It is true that nowadays the so-called working class-apart from a dwindling minority of old codgers like me - prefer to get their vegetables from the supermarket.

It is only stubbornness that keeps us old 'uns at it. But there is a new social class of allotmenteers coming along. They are members of the Thinking Class. Growing your own fruit and vegetables appeals to thinking people of every class. What we have to do now is to encourage them to take on some of the growing acres of almost derelict allotments.

Local authorities are obliged by statute to provide allotments for those who ask for them, but they are not compelled to go out of their way to persuade people to take up allotment gardening! On the contrary, if they keep quiet and allotment sites fall into disuse by neglect they can usually sell off the land at a huge profit.

But not all local authorities take such a cynical view. For example, a neighbouring authority provides water standpipes between pairs of plots, proper toilets on each site, vehicular access to every plot, on site storage sheds where manures and garden chemicals are available to tenants at reduced prices and grasscutters, wheelbarrows and rotavators for use on their allotments.

Each site has a well organised allotment society which holds regular meetings with the council officers and arranges an interesting programme of events. This year the rent for these plots is 7.25p per square metre with discounts for the over 60s and the out of work. It is not easy to get an allotment in this town; there is a long waiting list. Is it surprising?

I am convinced that successful allotmenteering depends on successful allotments associations. The enthusiasm of a good association rubs off on officials at the Town Hall. Believe it or not they are only human (I know, I used to be one) and there is nothing local government officers like better than to be helpful.

If allotments associations can get together with councils to stimulate interest and enthusiasm among local people for fresh, pesticide-free garden produce allotment sites may once again become the thriving social institutions they were during the war.

But even if your rate capped local authority is unable to lavish poll-tax payers' money on the leisure activity of allotmenteering, do not despair; there are other ways. There has been a lot of talk about "set aside" lately. Farm land set aside from normal agricultural production to avoid stockpiling unwanted food in the Common Market. Perhaps farmers near towns could be persuaded to lease surplus land for use as allotments.

The next generation of allotment sites might well be privately or co-operatively owned country gardens, with proper roads, car parks and childrens' play areas; shops dealing in seeds and fertilisers, hiring rotavators and grass cutters, selling ice cream and light refreshments - perhaps something stronger-with each plot having water and electricity laid on and its own hard standing for a car or greenhouse.

Allotments used to be places where whole families could spend their freetime out in the fresh air and sunshine; affluent nineties car owning allotment gardeners could well be demanding golf-links standards of sophistication on their plots and the market would be forced to cater for their demands. Imagine a 21st Century scene; town gardens as minuscule to non existent and a businessman is entertaining a client - not with a gin and tonic at the nineteenth hole after a round of golf but with a more wholesome beverage at his country garden clubhouse after an hour or two of healthy hoeing!

Far fetched? Well, who in the 15 th Century would have expected the country bumpkins' pastime, golf, to catch on as it has now?

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