Farm Terrace allotment holders launch campaign to save nation's plots
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Version 0 of 1. A group of amateur gardeners has launched a campaign to save the nation’s allotments after their local council submitted a third bid to build over their plots, despite being defeated in court on its two previous attempts. Plot holders at the Farm Terrace site in Watford celebrated in October when the high court overturned a decision by the communities secretary, Eric Pickles, to allow the 128 allotments to be ripped up for housing, a car park for the town’s football club and a possible future hospital development. It was the second time a decision by Pickles to nod through a proposed redevelopment scheme on the 118-year-old site had been overturned by the courts. Watford borough council, however, has now confirmed that it has applied for a third time to build on the Farm Terrace plots, arguing that the site is needed to meet the town’s “acute” housing shortage. In response, the gardeners, who fought a spirited battle against the development thanks in part to crowdfunding, have launched a campaign calling for the government to strengthen the law against building on supposedly protected allotment land. Under the 1925 Allotments Act, councils can only build on allotment sites in exceptional circumstances, and then only with the explicit permission of the secretary of state for communities and local government. In reality, however, such requests are rarely denied. In the four years to May 2014, 68 individual consents were granted to councils to build on allotment land. Sara Jane Trebar, a spokeswoman for the campaign group, said she and her fellow gardeners had been shocked at the council’s decision to resubmit the bid, given how much support they had received locally for their campaign. “We felt very disheartened, because we thought that if we fought we would win or we would lose, but at least we would have fought. To fight it and win but then lose is ridiculous.” The campaigners have until Friday to submit their response to the revised application, and Trebar said that if the judgement went against them they would consider a third legal challenge. She has also launched a petition calling on the government to review the criteria by which allotments can be built over, and to tighten the law in favour of protecting them. “I think [the new council bid] broke us to begin with, but now it has made us stronger, because we think, well, the law is wrong here. The law is leaving [allotment holders] exposed.” Watford borough council says the scheme would provide 750 new homes, “expansion space for hospital improvements” and community facilities. It also says the “overwhelming majority” of local residents support the development. Trebar’s group argues that while the council’s bid is based in part on a possible future development of an adjacent hospital, no concrete plans or funding is in place to expand the site. It also argues that it would be possible to expand the hospital without destroying the allotments, which make up only 15% of the proposed development site, and that the inclusion of their gardens is about profit rather than need. The award-winning landscape designer Cleve West told the Guardian that “any intelligent person” could see that allotments needed more protection under law. “It’s a disgrace that the public should have to put so much effort into protecting priceless resources such as these just to make money. So much for the government’s green promises at the last election.” In a statement, a Watford borough council spokesperson said: “We have always been clear that we would be updating our submission given the importance of the allotments to the Watford health campus scheme, and the fact that the judicial review ruling was made on what the judge deemed ‘very narrow ground’. “Watford is suffering from an acute housing shortage and the hospital is in need of redevelopment, both of which need to be prioritised.” Stephen Williams, the minister for communities, said the government “actively supports” allotments. “Where we have consented to the disposal of allotments, alternative plots have been provided. Surveys too by the National Allotment Society show that over 2,000 new allotment places have been created in last few years, and allotment waiting times have fallen.” |