Allotments
gallery |  | Down
on the allotment | |
Down on the allotmentAllotments
have long been a feature of London's urban landscape. In recent years there
has been revived interest in them from a new generation spurred on by a desire
to enjoy fresh, organic produce - and fresh air! However many sites have
been sold off meaning that waiting lists for plots are now in the thousands.
Inside Out visits Hackney where a group of allotment holders are trying to save
their own site from redevelopment by Olympic planners. Plots of goldManor
Gardens Allotments in Hackney comprises 80 allotment plots which provide food
for over 150 families For some of these plot holders, the allotment produces
all the food they need. Take Hassan - everything he eats is from the garden
including tomatoes, cucumber, rocket, chilli and even sorrel, all of which are
lovingly grown on his plot. "We
sit down and talk - we eat something, drink a cup of tea..." | Hassan
on the allotment community |
In the 16 years Hassan has
been working on his plot, he has brought a little bit of the Mediterranean to
East London with olive and fig trees. Since he started, Hassan has also
made lifelong friendships with the other gardeners.
One of his best
friends is Reg, the real elder statesman of Manor Gardens. He started coming
to the allotments with his father when he was just eight-years-old and he's seen
many changes in that time. "I started coming up here before
the war with him, and then during the war we got moved off of here and the Army
took this site over. "When I first started coming up here, it was
all the like, East End of London people... you know, dockers and all that sort."
Reg
can remember the man who made all this possible - the wealthy local landowner,
Major Villiers.  | | Allotment
holders find a sense of place and community |
He gave away some
of his estate to be used as allotments by people in the area - Villiers told the
plot holders that the allotments would go on in perpetuity. "He said,
'you'll never be thrown off here... you'll be here forever'," recalls Reg. But
it appears that that the allotments are slap bang in the middle of the Olympic
site and are subject to compulsory purchase order by Olympic planners, the London
Development Agency. It defends its decision to acquire the land:
"The
allotment site is at the heart of the Olympic park that we're looking to develop
and, obviously, we're trying to assemble all the land to make that happen."
Fighting
off the bulldozers
Far from losing the plot, the gardeners
here are happy to take on the London Development Agency and stop their plans to
bulldoze this site.
They've been holding a few planning meetings of
their own under the guise of the Manor Gardens Society.  | | Food
for thought - Julie Sumner and the allotment holders fight on |
The
London Development Agency has offered them an alternative site, but moving locations
isn't as simple as it sounds. It wants the plot holders to get off the land
by March 2007 which means that the gardeners can't plant anything to harvest next
Spring. They also reckon that it will take them at least five years to get
up and running properly again. On top of that, the new site will only be
available for six or seven years, requiring them to move a second time. The
plot holders would prefer to find a permanent solution before Manor Gardens is
gone forever.
They are keen to stress that they are not 'anti-Olympics',
but they would like to find a compromise solution.
Green
Olympics?
Julie Sumner, the Society Secretary, points to
a missed opportunity for the Olympic planners:
"There's all this kind
of talk about聟 the Green Olympics聟 and yet they're taking out the greenest
thing they've got."
But it's not just the environment that will
suffer, the allotments are a meeting place - local people are united simply by
their love of the land. "It's
like one big family聟 tell you something, this is like my second home over
here." | Eddie, allotment
holder |
It's also a joy which is passed on down the generations
- many children get involved on the allotment.
Nine-year-old Josephine
has gained a lot of gardening know-how from her grandfather Eddie - she has been
helping on his plot since she was just knee high. Her friends also come
over to the allotments every weekend and join in, sometimes camping overnight. The
campaign to save the allotments is not just about fruit and vegetables - it's
about friendship and a sense of community. If the allotments are lost, then
a small piece of London's community life will be broken up forever. London
allotments - the factsThe London Assembly has recently carried
out the most comprehensive survey of allotments in the capital - and its main
findings were: * more than 1,500 plots have been lost over the past 10 years
聳 an area the size of more than 50 football pitches;
* London聮s
loss of allotments is occurring at three levels 聳 the number of sites, the
number of plots, and the land area used for allotments; * demand for allotments
has never been higher due to the growing interest in organic food, particularly
among women and young families; * there a re more than 4,300 people in London's
allotment waiting lists 聳 3,000 more than a decade ago. * in some
areas there is a 10 year wait for allotments and many popular sites have closed
their lists completely.
The report recommends that London's
boroughs share information about the allotments they have, and look at ways of
increasing supply. One idea is to insist that g developers of high density
housing allocate a proportion of land for new allotment sites. Mr Hulme-Cross
from the Allotments Regeneration Initiative says: "All
over London, where the pressure for land is intense, allotments are losing ground
in our urban landscape... "Allotments bring so many benefits, including
strong social networks, the health and financial advantages of growing fresh produce,
and a real sense of community. "It is essential that action is taken
to protect the capital聮s allotments, and I believe the recommendations in
this report outline the first steps towards their sustainable future."
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听听Coming
Up : Inside Out - London: Monday October 30, 2006
