An update on the pigs

I heard back today from the council officer who deals with allotment business about the pigs. She said:

The Allotment Liaison Committee received a request to home 6-8 pigs on a section of the unused allotments at Steppingley Road. Members of the ALC considered this, and they met with the consortium running the project. The ALC have agreed that an 8 month trial period be undertaken to see how this works. Several rules and regulations have been stipulated i.e. no food to be kept on site (only to be brought in on a daily basis), water to be replenished daily etc. This project should have been undertaken earlier in the year but because of the hot weather conditions the consortium asked if this could be deferred until the weather turned cooler. The land is being rented for the period but on completion of the trial period this could be extended – we will just have to wait and see.

So the pigs will be there for the next few months at least. I wonder whether it will inspire other people to put in requests for livestock on the site - there wasn't even a chicken before the pigs. I know some allotments have everything from goats and ponies to guinea fowl and bees, which is great, provided the plot holders don't neglect their charges. You can, after all, leave a row of beetroot untended for a fortnight, but hens are a lot less forgiving of neglect.