I walked past my old allotment today

I had a run up to the town where I spent a few years of my life when I was younger today. So much has changed. The housing estate where I lived has been demolished. No big deal, it was awful anyway.

Then I took the wife and lad down the road and parked up at the allotments car park, and we got out to have a little walk.

I couldn't believe it. The allotments used to cover about 5 acres, maybe more. It used to be 2 blocks of good sized allotments with a path down the middle. Now there are just two allotments left. The rest have just gone to ruin. I found what I believe may have been my old plot. Now just a dilapidated mesh fence with great gaps in it, and loads of junk strewn all over the floor.

I'd like to say that at least nature has reclaimed the site, but apart from a few well overgrown hedges, half of which are fire damaged, the whole site looked like one big fly tipping ground.

We bumped into a lass walking her dog. Her dog came over to see us so I took that as an ice breaker. I told her I'd come to see what's changed since I was last here years ago. We got chatting and I asked what had happened to the allotments. She told me a shameful story.

It seems that the allotments suffered a lot of theft and vandalism, which drove a lot of people to give up their plots. They campaigned to the council to put a secure fence around the site like you see at a lot of sites these days but they just weren't interested, especially as so many people had already given up. She went on to say how the domino effect kicked in. The more people that leave, the less that remain, which means that less people are watching over the site, meaning more vandalism and theft. She told me how she gave up her plot after coming down one morning to find all her pet rabbits had been killed.

Oddly enough, the council did eventually put a secure metal fence around some of the plots, the two that remain there now. The rest of the site is just a ruin.

Its such a shame. With people on massive waiting lists for an allotment, a good site that once had water on tap, a good sheltered location on the edge of town, with good soil, has just gone to ruin. When I first got my plot, it was overgrown having stood empty for a couple of years. I made my hands bleed (literally) and my bones ache clearing that place, before I went on to get a number of good crops of all sorts from it. Now its wrecked.

The lass that I chatted to told me that a steadily increasing number of locals now wanted allotments, and had been lobbying the council to reopen the site, but the council just aren't interested. Such a waste, and such a shame.

 

Shameful ! And it amazes me that people can behave like that !
All I can say is you have moved on, and never go back !

 

I'm more amazed at the short sightedness, pettiness, bureaucratic wranglings and self serving nepotism that goes on in most Councils! And that they continue to get away with it, despite bleating that they have no money!

 

That is a very sad tale to tell Clueless. Feel sorry for the girl that lost all her pet rabbits. I hope the locals can pressure the council into re-opening the site.

Chopper.

 

It took lots of lobbying over a period of nearly 2 years but with the support of local councillors, we've managed to get our local council to re-open a derelict site.

 

Today I happened to chatting to somebody I know who worked for the council round about the time it all went pear shaped. The plot thickens. It has been suggested, by a reliable source, that the council received thousands of pounds in EU funding to renovate the site, erect secure fencing, clear unused plots etc, and that money just sort of went.

 

Hi Clueless

I get very very angry when I hear about officials mis-using things. They are there to do a job which we as council tax payers are paying them to do. There must be someone that can tell you if there is any truth in what you were told. Maybe a Freedom of Information request? Local MP or EMP?

Could be worth a try asking at the council themselves. Shame the penpushers into doing something right for once.

Chopper.

 

This is so sad to hear, and even worse for the poor girl who lost her rabbits......all over kids with nothing better to do!!

 

My allotment site has an 8ft metal fence around with large gates and we still get broken into. The plot opposite me has a nice double-door summer house where he pulls a bench out onto a little patio in the summer and does bacon rolls on the BBQ for whoever's there. All winter it's been broken into with kids sitting in there smoking dope and stealing his stuff.
Most of us have taken to not putting locks on our sheds and leaving nothing valuable inside.
Fingers crossed there's been no greenhouse or crop damage yet, but I'm sure it's only a matter of time.
I don't understand how kids get so bored that this becomes their entertainment. Surely they should be in their bedrooms, alone, playing on PlaySations?!

 

That is appalling behaviour. Nothing that a good caning wouldn't solve.

Ideally kids should be seen, not heard, somebody elses and kept in a laboratory until they are old enough for national service or live organ donation.

Chopper.

 

I wonder what would happen if the kids were given their own allotment to share, ie their own 'turf' (or whatever the kids of today say when referring to territory).

I bet some would be interested, and would take pride in it.

Many more would definitely not be interested. However, as kids quite often police themselves, there's at least a chance that the ones that were interested would quickly have the genuine bad ones marked as outcasts.

The trouble is kids often believe it is them against everyone else. I'm not saying that's how it is, but its sometimes how they perceive it.

I think a fair balance of rewarding the good behaviour and punishing the bad, is what's needed. Give the kids a plot to share, get older gardeners to offer them advice on what to do with it, and give them a chance to take pride in it. Then if they or other kids step out of line, then punish them all by taking the plot off them (which would make the decent ones sort out the bad ones their own way) AND let the law deal with them, prosecuting for theft, tresspass and criminal damage rather than just turning a blind eye.

 

It makes your heart sink to hear stories like this.

It is so increadibly sad that people who want to live a quiet life, and make a little bit of difference to a plot of land, are forced out by people who don't stop in their actions for one second to consider the other person.

And as for the council abusing a grant like that - discusting.

 

Whats the betting that someone on the council has "something to do" with a development company, and the are waiting for the local residents to complain about the derelict land, vandalism & eyesore. Then the council will say people dont want the allotments & the local are complaining about the vandalism & eyesore, we will have to sell it to the developers..........

 

My Father put his heart and soul into his allotment in the 1950s and early 1960s then his new job meant we had to move away. Several years later and he too decided to take a trip 'down memory lane', sadly it turned out to be 'memory motorway' - the M20 now crosses what was once his allotment, the Tesco petrol station at the Cheriton interchange is pretty much where his little shed was and they call this 'progress'.

 

My Father put his heart and soul into his allotment in the 1950s and early 1960s then his new job meant we had to move away. Several years later and he too decided to take a trip 'down memory lane', sadly it turned out to be 'memory motorway' - the M20 now crosses what was once his allotment, the Tesco petrol station at the Cheriton interchange is pretty much where his little shed was and they call this 'progress'.