Is allotment act overdue?

People I would like to know your opinion on the 'prohibition on sales' of your allotment or allotments in general? I think locally produce foods, fruit and vegetables mainly, should be encouraged not banned. Especially when the economy is not doing very well and many people would possibly welcome few extra pounds. I just cant see how it could go wrong.

 

Hello. There is no prohibition on sales from an allotment. There are restrictions, as there are with any business operation. You can sell limited amounts of produce locally 'at the gate'. You can't start mass producing and shipping stuff out, but then you could if you set up a legit business and paid the tax and had the necessary food hygiene certificates etc, just like any other food production business.

 

oh i did not know there were any updates since the 1998 house of commons meeting:
''mainly cultivated by the occupier for the production of vegetables and fruit crops for consumption by himself and his family. The implication of this is that only a limited proportion of a plot may be used for growing flowers and no commercial use may be made of produce''. Such restrictions were at the time criticized however I may be mistaken and there was already amendment to the Act.

 

I'm not sure on the rules, but I was under the impression I could not grow produce for profit on my allotment.
And I dont think you should be able to, it would be open to all kinds of problems and unscrupulous dealings, and is not in the spirit of allotment growing.

 

My view is that allotments are subsidised, and thus people profiting from sales of produce would be unreasonable. Sales in support of the allotment association seem entirely reasonable to me, and any modest sales as already mentioned. The difficulty is where to draw the line between someone flogging a few (Ahem!!) courgettes that they have in Glut, and someone deliberately running a business with 2 or 3 allotments and flogging everything they can produce. That person should get a commercial plot, pay taxes and all the rest of the things that a business could normally be expected to do. There is a line in the middle, but given how vague that is then I think it better to see it as "no sales" rather than "some sales, but we can't say how much"

 

We can sell produce in aid of the association if we like but as beens said not for ones own profit,i think seeds get sold back to us also from other holders donations and also selected seed companys,i was late at getting the allotments last yr so i hope to find out more this yr when the meetings start
The only true organic edible veg(last yr) id grown was my spring onions,chard & cabbage from seed and we & my hens loved it no way would i sell it

 

When I was the allotment sec.some years ago,in our rules and contract that you had to sign was that 2/3rd's of your plot had to be veg and soft fruit's and no more than 1/3 flowers.You could not sell anything from your plot. 1 shed and 1 greenhouse where all so allowed. We had 1 chap who had some rolls of wire netting and sheets of tin who put out a sign saying how much he wanted to sell them for,I had to tell him that this was not allowed and to remove his sign. In reply all I got was some very foul language ,this went before the committee,A letter was sent from the general sec, telling him to remove his sign with immediate effect and come and say sorry to me.or he would be told to leave his plot.This he duly did and we had no more problems.

 

It's very much a grey area, we all know there are some on allotments who sell what they have grown or bred, but I don't think they can make a decent living from it given the size of plots that allotments generally are. On our site we have been told that the parish council don't mind us selling a dozen eggs or a few cabbages, whatever we have as a glut at that time. But setting up a market stall is a big no-no. I think this is a sensible approach.

Myself, if we have a glut I give away the excess to friends and neighbours and I'm very happy to do so as I think a gift is far better than a couple of quid in my pocket. In return I get things such as grass clippings for my compost heap or anything that I can recycle for gardening use, that they are throwing out. Plus I can always muster a few pairs of hands if I need a lift with something.

If you wanted to grow to sell, I think you would have to consider a smallholding or renting/leasing a piece of land NOT under local authority control.

Steve...

[Edit] NO I don't think allotment act is overdue, I think if it was reviewed and discussed, many of the rules would change meaning tighter rules and probably higher rents for all. Allotments work well as far as I can see and know from others comments that I have seen. Even starting topics such as this, start the ball rolling towards a new allotment act.[/Edit]