Save The Allotment - Isleworth's Park Road

So currently Monday night appears to be the time to write the blog.  All well and good but with that the pressure mounts.  When not much is growing what can I blog about.  Well up until a few minutes ago i wasn't sure but having just been sent a tweet regarding closure of an allotment site up north (https://twitter.com/parkroadallotm1) I feel a bit ,more investigation on this matter is needed.

I must admit being a civil engineer I had to undertake a design for building a housing estate over former allotments at site about 50 miles away.  I was told by my client (council) that the demand wasn't there when the decision to sell off the land was made.  Several years later  perhaps this had changed the client inferred with the uptake and interest in allotment gardening becoming a more popular hobby (or aspiration)

In 2014 the Telegraph reported that in the period between 2010 and 2014 that some 3,000 plots had been destroyed in that 4 years!  Approximately 2% of the national total.  We had 1.4 million allotments in the late 1940s, but now only 150,000 remain.

In 2015 Leicester City Council sold off part of an allotment site  for £4 million for housing as the site had fallen into disrepair.

Now without undertaking a full GIS assessment of population density versus allotment location and demographic I suppose it is difficult to assess whether or not the decision to sell off land is justified.

From a plot holders point of view it is somewhat frustrating that  enforcement is woefully inadequate with plots not being worked and no evidence, probably due to resource, that the managing company are doing much about it.  One Manager responsible for 60+ plots allocated only a couple of days per week is not an effective way to free up plots or keep the allotmenteers who abuse the system in check.

My colleague (Yoda) says that the Allotment Committee (not council) were on his case after he hadn't turned his plot one winter! I suspect there is a happy medium.

I hear reports from other unnamed sources that a conspiracy exists.  Older allotmenteers want to give up their plot but cannot bear the thought that the council won't pass it on and will simply use their giving up as a nail in the coffin of the site. Perhaps if allotment holders knew there was a waiting list the turnaround would be quicker and the task of getting a plot ship shape would be more manageable.

Unloved Allotment Plot - Not worked in over 2 years.

Each plot will have its own problem and I cannot begin to solve the problem here.  However perhaps worth checking out the recommendations on the National Allotment Society if your plot is facing "prerssure" from the council or landlord.
http://www.nsalg.org.uk/news-events-campaigns/protect-your-plots/

And if you want to help Isleworths's Park Road Allotment .... https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/save-the-isleworth-park-road-allotments-from-redevelopment

If you are a Barnsley reader and see plots that are unattended or poorly maintained let the chaps at Groundworks (and your councillor) know. http://www.groundworksy.org.uk/allotments