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What 'allot' of waste!
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| EMPTY SPACE: Tony Murrills on one of the unused allotment plots. Echo picture by Malcolm Nethersole. Order no: 6972002 |
THEY are among the most sought after pieces of land in Hampshire.
As the credit crunch bites ever deeper, greater numbers of people are trying to cut their food bills by growing their own vegetables on an allotment.
Hundreds of residents are currently on waiting lists to get a prized plot to avoid food inflation running at more than seven per cent.
Today the Daily Echo can reveal that one council has left dozens of allotments to go to rack and ruin in the face of huge demand.
Plots vacated over the past six years at Woodside Allotments, in Woodside Avenue, Eastleigh, have been left abandoned - despite the fact there are now more than 250 people on the waiting list and the council has a legal duty to provide enough allotment space for its residents.
Woodside does not appear on Eastleigh Borough Council's list of sites and therefore, according to the remaining occupants of the site, might as well be invisible. There are now 35 full size plots unoccupied - over one third of the site - at Woodside, the largest remaining allotment site in Eastleigh. Some vacant plots have been carpeted over to stop them overgrowing with weeds. Others have turned into mini meadows.
Council chiefs say it is because the site is reserved for housing, although no planning consent, or even permission to dispose of the allotments, has yet to be granted.
Jeff Dunn, who has rented a Woodside allotment for seven years, said: "Woodside does not appear on the council's list, but we are definitely here!
"There are empty plots here that people could be growing things on. I'm extremely sad that's not happening.
"The council is tearing the heart out of the allotments service because this is a shining example of everything that is good in allotment gardening."
Fellow Woodside allotment gardener Tony Murrills, secretary of the 500-member East-leigh and Bishopstoke Allotments Co-operative Association, said: "Seventy people could have a half-size plot and be off the waiting list. But this is the invisible site - it does not exist as far as the public is concerned.
"Why have those plots not been released to the waiting list?"
The council must submit a planning application, which it can grant itself, but also get Government permission to dispose of any allotments.
A spokesman for Eastleigh Borough Council said there were currently 255 people on its allotments waiting list.
He said: "The council is not taking new tenants at Woodside because the site has been allocated for housing in the district plan that was adopted in May 2006. Woodside does not appear on the council's list of sites for the same reason. But the council has always envisaged the retention of some allotments at Woodside.
"We are managing the current waiting list. The current turnover is about five plots per week."
10:19am Tuesday 8th July 2008
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CommentPosted by: goard, Southampton area allotments on 10:59am Tue 8 Jul 08
I despair of the ignorant Administrative Dept who do not even know the value of allotments taken away from the gardeners - do they realise just how much work is put into an allotment? Years of building up the soil to grow their vegetables and the tremendous work put in year after year to make it viable. It takes quite a bit of finance to achieve this, and all is taken away from them by a stoke of a pen. To take on another area of land, weed infested, rocks, stones and usually very poor soil and possibly not the same watering provision really needs to be pointed out to them - not that they will care, for the time being the people can have the ground until such a time the Council will want it back.
goard
I despair of the ignorant Administrative Dept who do not even know the value of allotments taken away from the gardeners - do they realise just how much work is put into an allotment? Years of building up the soil to grow their vegetables and the tremendous work put in year after year to make it viable. It takes quite a bit of finance to achieve this, and all is taken away from them by a stoke of a pen. To take on another area of land, weed infested, rocks, stones and usually very poor soil and possibly not the same watering provision really needs to be pointed out to them - not that they will care, for the time being the people can have the ground until such a time the Council will want it back.
goard
Posted by: Spud, soton on 11:21am Tue 8 Jul 08
Goard - yes I agree, I do get a bit hot under the collar, over ownership, the council own nothing it belongs to the local people. they are supposed to administer on behalf of these people. Councils should be reminded of that fact !
Goard - yes I agree, I do get a bit hot under the collar, over ownership, the council own nothing it belongs to the local people. they are supposed to administer on behalf of these people. Councils should be reminded of that fact !
Posted by: a on 11:50am Tue 8 Jul 08
why do people feel they have a god given right to have everything handed to them on a plate?!
do you have gardens?!
why do people feel they have a god given right to have everything handed to them on a plate?!
do you have gardens?!
Posted by: Clive, Soton on 12:38pm Tue 8 Jul 08
I could see this coming, along with many others. With rising fuel prices and the threat of recession and indeed an energy crisis in thenext decade, it seems the right thing to go back to working the soil. That was what happened in the 1930s, the last war and in the 1970s to stave off food shortages. With the country's agricultural base being brought down to its knees by our politicians, allotments are becoming ever more important. With Woodside Avenue, it is a disgrace that well-drained land should be run down so that the selfish local authority can build flats on them as they are not productive at all. There was supposedly a 14,000 signature petition against development, only for the likes of mr Martin "bitter and twisted" Kyrle to brand them as a "rump protest group." Come on, let these allotments be used again and stop being so selfish EBC.
I could see this coming, along with many others. With rising fuel prices and the threat of recession and indeed an energy crisis in thenext decade, it seems the right thing to go back to working the soil. That was what happened in the 1930s, the last war and in the 1970s to stave off food shortages. With the country's agricultural base being brought down to its knees by our politicians, allotments are becoming ever more important. With Woodside Avenue, it is a disgrace that well-drained land should be run down so that the selfish local authority can build flats on them as they are not productive at all. There was supposedly a 14,000 signature petition against development, only for the likes of mr Martin "bitter and twisted" Kyrle to brand them as a "rump protest group." Come on, let these allotments be used again and stop being so selfish EBC.
Posted by: TottonPete, Totton on 1:11pm Tue 8 Jul 08
Just guessing but perhaps the reason the allotment in the picture is still up for grabs is because it appears to be made of concrete?
Now I don't mind a bit of digging but I think I'd wait until one came along that consisted of dirt/grass.
Just guessing but perhaps the reason the allotment in the picture is still up for grabs is because it appears to be made of concrete?
Now I don't mind a bit of digging but I think I'd wait until one came along that consisted of dirt/grass.
Posted by: b on 2:36pm Tue 8 Jul 08
[quote][bold]a[/bold] wrote:
why do people feel they have a god given right to have everything handed to them on a plate?! do you have gardens?![/quote] Quite the opposite. Allotments are paid for not handed on a plate! And much hard-graft goes into making them a success.
a wrote:
why do people feel they have a god given right to have everything handed to them on a plate?! do you have gardens?!
Quite the opposite. Allotments are paid for not handed on a plate! And much hard-graft goes into making them a success.
Posted by: C on 3:29pm Tue 8 Jul 08
Doesn't matter if they have gardens or not, the allotments are for rent so what does it matter?
Doesn't matter if they have gardens or not, the allotments are for rent so what does it matter?
Posted by: goard, Allotments and fields on 4:42pm Tue 8 Jul 08
The good soil that is being built upon is sacraledge and also it should be taken into consideration Clive's observation. The Government are crying out 'don'waste food'. If there is a recession then will the Government search their conscience as to selling off meadows, brown or green. These fields are centuries old and will provide much needed food in the future. There is much land speculation and owners of these lands are waiting for the right moment to sell. Some land has been left for years all waiting for the big sell-off.
goard
The good soil that is being built upon is sacraledge and also it should be taken into consideration Clive's observation. The Government are crying out 'don'waste food'. If there is a recession then will the Government search their conscience as to selling off meadows, brown or green. These fields are centuries old and will provide much needed food in the future. There is much land speculation and owners of these lands are waiting for the right moment to sell. Some land has been left for years all waiting for the big sell-off.
goard
Posted by: allotment gardener, eastleigh on 4:57pm Tue 8 Jul 08
Yet again we see EBC using the same plan that they used at South street, when the goverment ask how many of the plots are taken up? the council will be able to show them a half empty site! dispite the fact there is a long waiting list.Very underhanded, but as we have seen at South street EBC got their way and now it is covered in rabbit hutch houses!
Yet again we see EBC using the same plan that they used at South street, when the goverment ask how many of the plots are taken up? the council will be able to show them a half empty site! dispite the fact there is a long waiting list.Very underhanded, but as we have seen at South street EBC got their way and now it is covered in rabbit hutch houses!
Posted by: Rock and roll on 6:08pm Tue 8 Jul 08
Build on the allotments..
Millbrook is overflowing with lowlife unwanted pregnancies. that in only 13 or so years will needs caaancil aaaases.
Build them high, install no lifts and more importantly BUILD THEM IN EASTLEIGH.
Build on the allotments..
Millbrook is overflowing with lowlife unwanted pregnancies. that in only 13 or so years will needs caaancil aaaases.
Build them high, install no lifts and more importantly BUILD THEM IN EASTLEIGH.
Posted by: c on 7:28pm Tue 8 Jul 08
[quote][bold]Rock and roll[/bold] wrote:
Build on the allotments..
Millbrook is overflowing with lowlife unwanted pregnancies. that in only 13 or so years will needs caaancil aaaases.
Build them high, install no lifts and more importantly BUILD THEM IN EASTLEIGH.[/quote] R a r, you are such an idiot.
Rock and roll wrote:
Build on the allotments..
Millbrook is overflowing with lowlife unwanted pregnancies. that in only 13 or so years will needs caaancil aaaases.
Build them high, install no lifts and more importantly BUILD THEM IN EASTLEIGH.
R a r, you are such an idiot.
Posted by: Wasted, Southampton on 7:41am Wed 9 Jul 08
Typical of councils governments to have all this land. While they could earn something from this waste lad and use it as allotments until it usually gets built on. Councils have no idea at all.
They can waste money re surfacing roads then dig up again as they have done in SHIRLEY
Typical of councils governments to have all this land. While they could earn something from this waste lad and use it as allotments until it usually gets built on. Councils have no idea at all.
They can waste money re surfacing roads then dig up again as they have done in SHIRLEY
Posted by: Winchester Gardener, Winchester on 10:35am Wed 9 Jul 08
This is a terrible situation.
[quote]Yet again we see EBC using the same plan that they used at South street, when the goverment ask how many of the plots are taken up? the council will be able to show them a half empty site! dispite the fact there is a long waiting list.Very underhanded[/quote]
Have you contacted your MP about this? It seems a good environmental issue to bring to the attention of the BBC1 Inside Out team - details how to contact can be found online.
This is a terrible situation.
Yet again we see EBC using the same plan that they used at South street, when the goverment ask how many of the plots are taken up? the council will be able to show them a half empty site! dispite the fact there is a long waiting list.Very underhanded
Have you contacted your MP about this? It seems a good environmental issue to bring to the attention of the BBC1 Inside Out team - details how to contact can be found online.
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