TUESDAY 24 FEBRUARY 1998

MR MIKE BRANAGHAN, CLLR KEITH WHITMORE and CLLR NICKY GAVRON

  119.  This is the second session that the Committee has been holding into the future for allotments. Can I welcome you from the Local Government Association and ask you to identify yourselves for the record, please.

  (Cllr Whitmore)  I am Councillor Keith Whitmore. I am a Council member in Manchester City Council, Chairman, in a constituency next door to your own. My colleague, Mike Branaghan, is the Head of Parks and Heritage Estates for Bristol City Council. Unfortunately, Councillor Nicky Gavron has not made it yet. We are hoping that she will come. This could cause us some difficulties in relation to the planning process because Nicky, effectively, as our Chair of the Planning Committee of the Local Government Association, was going to deal with those issues. If she does not make it then as the Local Government Association can do a written note to fill you in on that.
Chairman:  We do hope that she manages to get here. She is coming from Harringay which is not quite as far away as Bristol or Manchester!

  120.  In general, what do you think are the trends for allotments over the next ten to 15 years?

  (Cllr Whitmore)  I think there is going to be an increase in demand. I am a member of the Leisure Committee of Manchester City Council and we are seeing more and more people wanting to get involved in allotments. In fact, we do have on some sites a shortage of plots, particularly on the north side of the city. Looking at new developments, certainly in cities that are on-stream, those do tend to be of a nature whereby there is a lot more actual garden provision, a lot of flat development, quite a lot of warehouse conversion in areas like city centres but not a lot of new housing development incorporating gardens. We feel that there is going to be an increased demand for allotment provision over a ten-year period.

  121.  How are you going to meet that demand?

  (Cllr Whitmore)  It is always difficult. In the case of Manchester, we have been looking at some temporary allotment provision in addition to the statutory allotments that we provide. I would hope that we can look at identified sites, possibly even brownfield sites for the further development of allotments and obviously working with local allotment societies and local allotments councils to see where we might be able to fulfil that provision.

  122.  You say the trend is going up, it is a natural trend and people want to go on to allotments for various reasons.

  (Cllr Whitmore)  Allotments is a really great recreation. I first became involved in allotments about 18 years ago. I am President of a local allotment society which was threatened with potential development. Before that I knew nothing at all about allotments. The enthusiasm of people when they get involved in allotments is such that it can almost take over people's lives. Certainly you will see people on their plots virtually ever day of the week in the area that I represent. I think there is a great enthusiasm and I think people probably catch the bug in that once they get involved they want to do it a lot more.

  123.  What would you want to be doing as a local authority to encourage more people to be allottees, or would you not want to encourage them because of provision?

  (Cllr Whitmore)  We do want to encourage them within the south side of the city because we do have one or two vacant plots on some of our south allotments that we want to see completely filled. On the north side of the city where we have a full complement of plots we would look towards the extension and possibly the temporary allotment of sites. It is important where those sites are put and brownfield sites are something that potentially could be looked at. The important thing is to enter into a proper debate with people like allotment councils and societies in relation to where you put them because you can actually do more harm than good by putting a temporary site in completely the wrong place and that has been done in local authorities in times past. I think it is important to have dialogue with people where you do this.

  124.  What mechanisms would you think the City Council ought to invoke to stimulate the demand, particularly in the south side where there are vacancies?

  (Cllr Whitmore)  I think one of the important things is that there is a regular dialogue with plot holders and most authorities do tend to have somebody like allotment councils that they can meet with.

Certainly in Manchester's case there is a regular quarterly meeting with the allotments council and that does tend to help in terms of talking through issues with them. If we are looking at an extension, that could be one particular body that we would want to look to to see what we could do in terms of expansion.

  125.  What percentage of the allotments in the Manchester area does the local authority own and how many are privately owned? How do you interact between your allottees and other allottees?

  (Cllr Whitmore)  We do not have an awful lot.

There are probably only something like 70 private plots as opposed to statutory allotment plots within the boundaries of the city.

  126.  How many have you got within the city?

  (Cllr Whitmore)  Within the city the total number of plots that we have is around about 4,000, of which probably about 400 vacant plots are mainly on the south side of the city.

  127.  How actively do you promote public health in connection with the promotion of allotments? Do you work with any of the statutory bodies to try and incorporate new ideas in promoting allotment sites? Do you believe that allotments not just in Manchester but in local authorities throughout the United Kingdom receive a fair share of the resources directed towards leisure provision within the local authority areas?

  (Cllr Whitmore)  On the first point, probably not enough is actually done in relation to the promotion of health. It is actually an issue that has been addressed very recently at allotment councils because there was a particular health problem on one site which related to a particular plant that grew on that site and it caused people to get some form of skin disease. So I think that is a particular issue that does need to be looked at much more thoroughly by local authorities. I think in general leisure services committees do cover a whole number of functions, allotments, local bowling greens and societies and we do not have a bottomless pot of money and it sometimes does cause pressures in relation to how we spend that at the end of the day.

We would all like to spend more but we cannot.

  128.  The question I asked was not about spending more but giving them a fair share of what is being spent on leisure provision. Do you really believe that allotments are receiving a fair crack of the whip—I am not just speaking about Manchester, I am speaking about local authorities in general—or are they viewed as the "Cinderella" of the leisure industry, something to be tolerated rather than promoted?

  (Cllr Whitmore)  No, I do not accept that at all. I think that local authorities do give very good consideration to allotment provision and certainly do put what resources they can into that.

  (Mr Branaghan)  One of the things that we are finding in Bristol and lots of other authorities is that allotments are seen as a sustainable activity within the Agenda 21 framework. Within that we believe that they give both intrinsic and extrinsic benefits to the community. For a lot of holders the health benefits obviously are derived through exercise and the fact that they get more fresh fruit and vegetables in their diet. Within my own authority there is a sustainable development team which actively supports people setting up community allotments, etcetera. I think the way it is going to increase is through Agenda 21 initiatives. The only problem is that some of the existing legislation for allotments does actually inhibit authorities and what they can do and obviously we need to consolidate some of the legislation and add bits to it so that people can sell crops to community cafes and co-operatives and grow other things as well as vegetables because at the moment only a small proportion of an allotment plot should go over to flowers. The trend is on the increase, but we do need to market and promote allotments in a new image. In that sense allotments will be getting a bigger bit of the finances from local authorities.

  (Cllr Gavron)  I am very sorry, I could not leave work until nine and this is the best I could do to get here. I do think that the allotments need to be, and will be, re-conceptualised as we move towards healthier and more sustainable living. They play a terrifically important role in neighbourhood development. I am sure that local authorities are going to appreciate this increasing importance more and more as time goes on.

Certainly in planning terms, and I am speaking as Chair of the LGA Planning Committee, we can see that they are going to play a very very crucial role.

  129.  What do local authorities do to protect these sites? Local authorities are cash strapped just now.

What do they do to bring the whole question of the allotments to the surface as far as the debate in your chambers is concerned?

  (Mr Branaghan)  Obviously there is a lot of pressure on local authorities as far as allotment use is concerned. They are subject to an abandonment and dereliction cycle if they are not careful. So it is up to local authorities and allotment associations to ensure that we break that cycle so that sites do not go into dereliction. Obviously housing managers and local authorities are put under considerable pressure to provide more housing and where land is at a premium within a local authority and there are little brownfield sites then allotments do tend to be targeted. It is important that we ensure that the use of allotments grows. Again, if we can change the image then that will improve the growth. So you are right, we are under a lot of pressure to find land for housing and industrial use to make our cities and towns sustainable.

  130.  Do you think in these circumstances that the statutory protection that is given under the Allotments Act is effective?

  (Mr Branaghan)  It is effective if you have got a vibrant allotment movement. Basically, if we are faced with a site that has no tenants, it is in disrepair and there is no waiting list and if an application is made to the minister, it is very easy for the minister to say, "Well, yes, I can see there is no demand for this site, therefore I will release it." If a site is vibrant, fully cultivated and has a huge waiting list then the matter is different, i.e. the minister would be concerned about allowing the disposal of that site. It depends on how proactive an allotment authority is in promoting its allotment.

  131.  But the minister has not turned down any of the applications made in the last year.

  (Mr Branaghan)  I do not know the individual cases. It would be far more difficult for the minister to make a decision if it was a vibrant allotment site than if it was not.

  132.  You mentioned two extremes, you mentioned the one that is fully cultivated and has a waiting list and the one that is derelict with nobody on it at all.

What about the middle bit, surely the problem arises in getting it full and vibrant, does it not?

  (Mr Branaghan)  In Bristol we had a survey carried out, funded by the City Council and commissioned by the National Federation of City Farms, to look at how we could increase the uptake of allotments because unlike Manchester, within Bristol, although we have a great proportion of our allotment plots in cultivation, there is still a large number that are not. We believe that there is a latent demand for allotments; it is just trying to attract the people to them. From our survey five issues were sighted as being key to encouraging people back on to allotments.

The first one was the clearance and maintenance of our derelict sites. There is nothing worse than for a first time allotment holder to come and see brambles and weeds facing them, it is totally disheartening such action would increase the morale of the existing holders as well. The next one was the reinforcement of boundary hedging. Again, such a treatment would actually improve the security and improve the morale.

One of the fears that people have is the fact that anything they grow might get stolen and that puts potential allotment holders off as well. It was mentioned about having participatory consultation.

That came out quite strongly in the Bristol City survey and especially where allotment tenants wanted to speak to people about putting actions and suggestions into place for specific allotment sites. They felt that a general action on allotments was not good enough, you needed to be site specific and each site had its own specific criteria that needed to be addressed. One of the other key things was awareness raising with other professionals. We need to raise awareness with teachers, health visitors, social workers, economic development units, etcetera, to increase the flow of information, to contribute towards the working of changing the allotment image and opening up the possibilities for new partnerships especially within the Agenda 21 framework. Although those five points were seen as the negative sides, they are all part of the degradation cycle. It was also felt that you needed to market the allotment properly, target the right audiences. That is something that local authorities probably have failed to do in the past on allotments.

  133.  Do you think that local authorities actually promote the whole question of allotments as they should?

  (Mr Branaghan)  I think there are those that do and those that do not. My own City Council is preparing an allotment strategy which is going to be a public document and it will show our community and electorate just what we intend to do with our allotments.

  134.  That is your authority. The Association who you are representing this morning, do they have any?

  (Mr Branaghan)  There are probably allotment authorities that do not actually have the same views as my own authority.

  (Cllr Gavron)  I think we have a duty to make people more aware of the importance of allotments, as they are very important within the urban situation. The urban situation is under incredible pressure and we want to make cities more attractive. We are looking at the moment at higher density living in cities, that means we are looking at more and more people living without having their own garden. They might have common amenity space but they do not necessarily have their own gardens, not even balconies. This means allotments are going to become more important, not less important. We are also looking at at least a third of the population being over 60 in the future. We know how important healthy living, fitness, being able to do something which takes away stress and so on are and the fact that gardening—I am not sure, is gardening the number one outdoor leisure pursuit in the country—or is it walking? The fact that gardening is very important will be an added incentive to local authorities. I know in my ward, which is Archway in Haringey, the allotment just off the A1 road is incredibly important to the community. In terms of management and maintenance and demand, we found that by putting fencing up and supplying water the waiting list grew. We found that by making sure that some of the residents from the areas where the children were vandalising the allotments are encouraged to work allotment plots, this made a huge difference to the level of vandalism, which declined.

  135.  What resources does your Council give to the allotments? Do you have a budget? How much is that budget to promote the allotments and also to maintain them? What does your local authority give to the allotments?

  (Cllr Gavron)  In my opinion it is the service which is the best value because it is under £1 a week, about £48 a year to have an allotment and that is the best value service we offer.[1]

  136.  What do you give back to that?

  (Cllr Gavron)  We have a full-time Allotments Officer, we liaise with the allotment holders and work with management committees.[2]

  137.  How do you promote it? You gave one example. How are you promoting this? Is every household given notification as to the availability of allotments? Is there anything done in terms of promotion?

  (Cllr Gavron)  It is part of what we provide as a leisure service and I think people are very aware that they can get allotments.[3]

  138.  But there is a reduction in the national sense in the number of allotments that are available to the public and you have said that it is something that you would expect should increase. Have there been any increases in your own local authority, which is the trend across the three authorities that are represented today, in terms of the number of allotments that there actually are? Is it not, as the statistics show, in the opposite direction in every case?

  (Cllr Gavron)  There is no doubt that we are looking at an open space use which is about to increase. The demand is going to increase and local government has a role in understanding that demand, and understanding the needs that allotments can meet for people living in sustainable cities as we approach the third millennium. There is a role for local authorities over and above the role they have currently been playing and we need to understand that.

  139.  As far as the Department themselves are concerned and the DETR, they suggest that something that we should consider is the removal of the ministerial control over the sale of allotment sites.

Would you welcome that?

  (Cllr Gavron)  Absolutely not.

2   Note by witness: This results is a 95 per cent occupancy rate for Haringey's allotments. There are waiting lists at most sites.

The 5 per cent vacancy rate is largely due to turnover of occupants. Back

3   Note by witness: Harimgey Council promotes allotments through its community newspaper. It sends out leaflets and carries out user surveys to ensure access for all sections of the community is good. Back