Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption
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spicycauldron
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Allotments - council obligations, online resources etcJust had an hour's meeting with our council's Project Manager and his assistant over allotment policy. I've put my name down, the waiting list is 18 months here, but I was told two months ago they stopped taking applications for livestock allotments due to demand for 'gardening' plots.
Those already listed for livestock will get a livestock plot when one becomes available. When all those waiting for livestock plots have one, any livestock plots that become available will be turned over to gardening plots unless new land is located, which the council says it is looking for.
On the plus side, it was very positive they were willing to engage as they have and the meeting was very friendly, and I think they really want to find a way forward. But I was told you can't keep bees or chickens on a so-called gardening plot, and argued to them that the distinction was a false one causing an unnecessary frustration. If boundary fences are maintained, and housing too, no reason you can't have bees, chooks and veg on the same plot and at no risk to your neighbours' plots.
Also, the council IS looking to change its allotments policy but just doesn't yet know HOW to change it in terms of what can be done. It is open to public ideas, as today evidenced, and I was advised that the guy I spoke to has to come up with ideas, put them down in writing and pass them over to the town councilllors to actually vote on.
I told them about some evidence I'd seen of animal cruelty and neglect, too - some really sad-looking cockerels with festering eyes, hens with open wounds - on some plots, while others are clearly well-maintained by people who have high standards in animal husbandry. The council said it is aware, it does throw people off plots but has limited resources to police the allotments. But I am aggrieved that in some instances, a minority, chickens are suffering and nobody is doing anything about it. I said the allotments are popular for walkabouts, and a nicely maintained livestock or veg setup is lovely for grandparents and grandchildren to see as they walk past, but festering wounds and eyes are nice for nobody to see, or for the animals to endure.
It has, it says, three choices in addition to seeking new land:
1. To take over running all allotments completely (though how that helps with resources, I've no idea).
2. To work out new agreements with more responsibility on allotmenteers.
3. To get volunteers involved who may or may not want allotments, to help police and maintain them and 'help out' those who need support, say in building veg beds and so on. This would basically be allotmenteers plus 'friends of'.
I think the ban on chooks and bees is absurd, and we should be seeing allotments in the 21st Century used more for growing crops and keeping livestock than growing prize dahlias. Times have changed and the original purpose of allotments - to give people gardens - was a long, long time ago. 100 years or so, actually.
I said that while we keep birds in our garden, I want an allotment because I am interested in conserving rare breed chickens and getting involved in breeding programmes and, of course, cannot keep adult cockerels in the garden of our semi-detached. I was told there are private allotments but I pointed out I have a disability and am on benefits, and know full well that there would be a massive difference in rents charged on private plots compared to public ones.
I know I'm going to contact my local counsellor, but what else can I do? Any online resources people can point me to, especially on what the legal obligations of the council are - I mean, can they simply say "sorry, we won't take applications for livestock allotments anymore" and that's that?
Thanks for any advice and I hope this generates some useful discussion for others as well.
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jocorless
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I think this is an area that many councils are really struggling with because they are obliged to provide allotments by law if I think 3 or more people request them to BUT for years allotments have been something that only old blokes have NOW they are THE trendy thing to have and demand has gone through the roof leaving the councils and allotment associations in a complete state of disarray
I know our local council has a working party on it but so far they've not come up with any conclusions or a plan of action - so would be really interested in anything this thread throws up
Its great though that you've had a really positive meeting
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Ageing Hippy
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I don`t think you should give up on private sites thinking that they`re always expensive.
My allotment is on a private site and the rent is just over half the rent of the neighbouring council sites. We pay £25 a year and the council charge up to £45 p.a.
Good luck with your quest - and your chooks!
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spicycauldron
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Yeah, I couldn't fault them on sincerity, and wouldn't try to denigrate their efforts - the town council is tiny for a town of this size, quite ridiculous really. They just don't know what to do, though I of course am quite aggrieved at the idea that my council will not provide livestock space now or in the future for me (as things stand) on a relatively arbitrary cut-off that was not even notified to the public in advance. Partly because I'd be on the list for livestock plots if I'd applied just eight or so weeks ago.
If the list was closed temporarily, I'd understand somewhat given the pressures they're under; but this amounts to a slow creeping colonisation of livestock plots over time, reducing their number, and that just doesn't sit with me as right at all in age of concern over supermarkets, GM food, pesticides, torture chicken, etc....
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spicycauldron
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| Ageing Hippy wrote: | I don`t think you should give up on private sites thinking that they`re always expensive.
My allotment is on a private site and the rent is just over half the rent of the neighbouring council sites. We pay £25 a year and the council charge up to £45 p.a.
Good luck with your quest - and your chooks! |
Thanks. The council didn't point me to any organisations at all, maybe they weren't allowed to, so I don't even know where these private allotments are supposed to be or how to get in touch with the right people. Yellow Pages? If so, what do I search for?
I am going to talk to the newly set-up Craven Poultry Society as well, it's literally just started but I think it could be a campaign issue for the group, certainly.
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RichardW
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To my mind this is an easy problem to fix.
Stop all council arty farty spending.
Stop all council funded trips abroad.
Stop all the costly hired in "experts" that just mess it up any way with no liability
Stop selling council owned land to builders for a quid.
Buy back all the land that has been sold for a quid, for a quid. Then resell it for the proper going rate.
Its cheap to buy agri land so the council can buy some & soon recoup the cost in rentals.
Does not need to be "in town" as people manage to shop, work & leisure out of town so they can grow out of town too.
Councils must be the worst run businesses in the land. There seems to be no accountability when things go wrong.
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spicycauldron
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The council guy did agree that the problem is only going to escalate rapidly, as each new opportunistic property development gets the go-ahead and people pay upwards of £150k even here in North Yorkshire for tiny little boxes called 'apartments' and then discover they want to grow food or raise livestock and don't even have window sills on which to grow plants, or even have contractual rules that say no greenery...
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spicycauldron
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| RichardW wrote: |
Does not need to be "in town" as people manage to shop, work & leisure out of town so they can grow out of town too. |
I don't drive, I have a disability that makes walking far a no-no, and the bus service (this being a semi-rural market town surrounded by the moors and villages in the middle of nowhere) is crappy. So yes, I agree - for some. Not all of us, no.
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spicycauldron
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So far drawing a blank on web searches for:
"private allotments" Skipton
so if there are any, they're not exactly high profile in terms of information...
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orangepippin
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I think our allotment association will be approaching our local authority soon, to suggest that when they grant permission for new housing developments they should insist that land is set aside for allotments. We have 100 plots and a waiting list of 40. The new houses are built with such tiny gardens (because of planning rules) that inevitably it pushes up demand for allotments. There is some "section" of planning law apparently whereby the local authority can require the developer to contribute to the local community in some way. The problem is that when building permission is granted everyone (local authority, builder, land owner) all gain from the deal.
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spicycauldron
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| orangepippin wrote: | | I think our allotment association will be approaching our local authority soon, to suggest that when they grant permission for new housing developments they should insist that land is set aside for allotments. We have 100 plots and a waiting list of 40. The new houses are built with such tiny gardens (because of planning rules) that inevitably it pushes up demand for allotments. There is some "section" of planning law apparently whereby the local authority can require the developer to contribute to the local community in some way. The problem is that when building permission is granted everyone (local authority, builder, land owner) all gain from the deal. |
There's certainly a crisis and it's only going to get worse as long as property developers and government think it's progressive to provide homes without access to even a small plot, and continue to provide vast acres of green 'desert' in our towns and cities that do nothing other than require cutting several times a year. Manchester City Council is trying something different and positive, I was reading in Home Farmer magazine.
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orangepippin
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I am actually fairly hopeful that in our area we will be able to achieve something with the local authority. They are sensitive to criticism that their house-building plans are unsustainable so I think they will be keen to take opportunities to work with community groups to offset this. I think it is primarily central government that is at fault here - I would not blame the developers, or local authorities, since they both have to work within central government planning guidelines (even though they both exploit them to their own advantage of course). Why not try contacting your local authority and ask them how they are featuring allotments within their local development framework as a way to improve the sustainability of new housing developments?
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Behemoth
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Houses with no garden or small plots are nothing new, the 1930's semi with a 100ft garden was a revelation in its time. Pre-war housing estates similalry had large gardens but it was noted these were often neglected, as they still are. It was a deliberate decision that the while providing increased space, the space would be open and maintained by the local authority. Hence the green deserts and the shabby bits that no-one appears to be responsible for.
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