Topic: Communually managed land

[Cruz]

A proposal has been raised at our allotment to give over a 40-rod section of the allotment to a biodiversity/communal orchard.
Asking round the membership, a lot of negative views were put forward: it is too large an area, it would cost a lot of money, it would have to be maintained, plus being new fruit trees planted it would take years to provide a benefit to all current members, who would have to fund it, as well. The question has also been asked as to how it would be maintained and by whom. Another objection is that it would tie up much needed plots to satisfy the waiting list.
On the plus side, there would be a communal area, a large pond and some fruit at the end of the day.
Has anybody had experience with this type of project? If so any feedback appreciated.
Would such a development be strictly legal?

[elvis2003]

no,it is not legal,you need permission from the sec of state to use allotment land for any other use than allotments.are you council owned? start with them

[Robert_Brenchley]

We've done it, and nobody's come back and said we shouldn't! We're doing it with an organisation called Birmingham Trees for Life, which provided the expertise. We used a plot that had been in a terrible state for years, and this offered a way to restore it. What helped was that there's been a tradition of planting apples on the site for 160 years, some of the vasrieties are rare, and many of the trees are old. We've lost a lot, and deaths are a regular occurrence. We wanted to maintain the tradition by encouraging plotholders to plant old varieties, and use the derelict land to create an orchard. It's part of an ongong apple project on the site, which has included training in apple identification and pruning.

It's been there a couple of years, the trees have established well despite some problems with flooding, and some of them produced a small crop this year. The kids who do the school plot next door had most of them, and nobody was arguing; they deserved them! Their plot won 'Best Newcomer' in a city-wide competition last year.

We've laid it down to grass, and that has two drawbacks. You have to do something with the ground, and grass is probably the easiest thing, but somebody has to mow it. On our site, that means the committee, and if whoever's on the rota hasn't done it for any reason, it's usually me that has to step in. I do think it's worth it, however. The other is that we're supposed to clear a yard round each tree so that they can establish themselves without competition. In practice, it hasn't happened, but the trees seem to cope.

[elvis2003]

robert that sounds lovely,do you have a pic,or a link to a pic?

[Robert_Brenchley]

I don't personally. There might be something on the Association website http://www.edgbastonguineagardens.org.uk/ , but the site is dreadfully slow and not very practical.

[Cruz]

Robert,
Who paid for all this and have you any idea of the final cost? Are you talking about a 10-rod plot? Our planned orchard would cover four times that, which given the maintenance sounds like a huge job!!

[Robert_Brenchley]

Off the top of my head, I don't know. I could find out. It's at least ten rods, but I'm not sure of the exact area.

[Unwashed]

Elvis makes a good point, and there's planning permission for change of use to think about too.  It would turn on whether the communal orchard thingy was consistent with an allotment site.  Here's S.26 Small Holdings and Allotments Act 1908

26.  Improvement and adaptation of land for allotments.
(1) The council of a borough, urban district, or parish may improve any land acquired by them for allotments and adapt the same for letting in allotments, by draining, fencing, and dividing the same, acquiring approaches, making roads and otherwise, as they think fit, and may from time to time do such things as may be necessary for maintaining such drains, fences, approaches, and roads, or otherwise for maintaining the allotments in a proper condition.
(2) The council may also adapt the land for allotments by erecting buildings and making adaptations of existing buildings...

And it's the bold bit that gives the council reasonable latitude to define what kind of adaptations and improvements are consistent.  

For example, car parks aren't specifically mentioned (it is 1908 remember), but using part of the site for tenant parking is generally considered consistent with the above (though a self-management committee would likely need planning permission for a hard-standing), however, if the car park was for non-tenants then that wouldn't be consistent.

Likewise, a communal area is going to be consistent with the above because it's an adaptation that supports the tenants in their allotmenteering, but it's not so obvious that a wildlife area per se is consistent where the intention is primarily to benefit wildlife.  In fact communal gardening generally is inconsistent with allotmenteering.

Something to think about would be an orchard where tenants rented 2'x2' plots separated all round by 8' paths, just to grow trees (though it would have to be some kind of fruit or nut tree), and when the tenant moved on a new tenant could rent their old tree.  That's consistent with the spirit of allotmenteering and it creates pretty much what you're after.

[halfofmanic]

We've laid it down to grass, and that has two drawbacks. You have to do something with the ground, and grass is probably the easiest thing, but somebody has to mow it. On our site, that means the committee, and if whoever's on the rota hasn't done it for any reason, it's usually me that has to step in.


Hi Robert     good being on the committee      I think it would be nice if more plotty holders    commit  excuse the pun but I thought it apt         

[lavenderlux]

We have around 45 rod as a community and wildlife area;  part of this was planted with hazel - about 5 rod - (to provide a renewable source of pea sticks) in 1996 and the rest developed from very overgrown plots (covered in brambles and nettles) in an area of difficult access in 2005.  At the time we had very many empty plots and didn't ever think we'd find people to take these on, let alone these very neglected plot (but we now have a waiting list of 30+). 
We have 'young offenders' come to do community work on our field and they helped a lot with the initial clearing, also we had working parties of plot holders.   We have areas of banks, sown with wild flowers, pathways which are kept mown round and through the area, areas which are treated as wild flower meadows, areas for 'arable' wild flowers where we also grow wheat and barley to show our visiting school age pupils these crops, further areas we have planted with British native small trees (hawthorn, more hazel, silver birch, various willows), and area of community orchard, a living willow 'igloo'.  We have woodpiles for small wildlife, which includes slow-worms. There's an area kept as a 'lawn' which is used for community activities, two wheelchair height raised beds which pupils from a school for children with special and additional needs use;  there's also a wildlife pond - and bordering the area there's a stream.
The original hazel planting was by a wildlife group, the young saplings for the 2005 planting were donated by another wildlife group.  Other costs were met by various money making ways such as local tree surgeons bringing in wood chippings for which we ask plot holders who take them to make a donation, we have pallets donated and ask for a donation for these – and other things donated which we sell on our trading table.

It was my idea originally to make these untidy overgrown plots which had been used as a dumping ground into a community area and our committee agreed. Our community area is used by visiting school groups as well as by our plot holders and is an asset to our field.  It does take regular work, such as mowing the pathways, the lawn areas and between the fruit trees and as one of our fields ‘field wardens’ I help with this – but the result is well worth it.  Our site is council owned and they are aware of our community area and very happy with that we’ve done.