An unusual allotment protest

This is a new one on me - a newspaper story about a campaign to stop allotments.

Furious residents have sworn to fight the council "tooth and nail" over plans to extend the allotments in Barking Park.

So says the Barking and Dagenham Recorder in an article that goes on to explain that the plan to extend the plots is down to the closure of other allotments in the area.

The story quotes the secretary of the local residents' association as saying:

Fellow residents and I will fight tooth and nail to stop any development in Barking Park. If this application is granted, how confident may residents feel that further areas of the park will not be swallowed up for allotments as ever more green land is swallowed up for housing development?

A tricky one, this: allotments will perhaps never be a majority pursuit, and the needs of veg growers need to be weighed against those of other users of green space. I don't know enough about the specifics of this case to pontificate (I know, I know - it never normally stops me), but it would be interesting to hear from any locals who can fill in the gaps on what exactly the arguments for and against are in this case. It seems as if the allotment extension is being viewed as the thin end of the wedge in a plan to eat up a lot of green public space with other kinds of development, namely housing.

Either way, it's a stark illustration of the fact the calls for more allotment provision have to battle against many other demands from local communities, be it teenagers who want somewhere to skateboard or cyclists and dog walkers who want safe paths and green grass. And the lure of developers with money burning a hole in their pocket wanting to build houses and flats in urban and suburban areas.

Comments

[Alissa]

Glad you posted this Jane. I think it's going to become more of an issue as pressure on land, particularly in urban areas, increases. If allotments were more like they are in Holland or Germany - more open, better managed, nearer to where people live, more visually appealing maybe (though personally I love the site of 'messy' allotments) then perhaps there wouldn't be this tension about green space. We need to make allotments places where everyone (except the vadals!) can interact, with each other and their green spaces.
Ever optimistic, I am.

[Helen Chisholm]

I know nothing about this specific case but my experince is that many local autorities in their drive to find more space for housing, seem to find it a great deal easier to pass the change of use from allotments (percived as messy and harbouring pests)than permission to build on a green field site. In my locality this process is definately seen as the thin edge of the wedge for example 1995 green space, 2000 allotments, 2010? Housing?1?

Personally I would just say that I think the sight of allotments is one of most beautiful things on this planet "messy" or otherwise.