Tag: allotments

MSPs call for increased leadership by the Scottish Government to tackle growing demand for allotments

A Holyrood Committee has called for the Scottish Government to demonstrate increased leadership and oversight in the delivery of the Community Empowerment Act (“The Act”), as a new report exposes significant unmet demand for allotments and growing spaces across Scotland.  

Seven years after its introduction, the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee has undertaken an inquiry into the Act, examining whether it has improved the availability of allotments and reduced the barriers to accessing them. 

The report highlights the benefits that access to land for growing can have on people’s health, the environment, food security, and on communities.  

Despite positive developments since the Act came into force, the Committee found that further action is now needed if the ambitions contained in it are to be met. 

Evidence revealed that the COVID-19 pandemic had led to a further surge in demand and the emerging cost-of-living crisis is also expected to drive up the need for growing spaces even further.  

The inquiry heard that demand for allotment space is even more acute in Scotland’s cities, with the number of people on waiting lists in Edinburgh almost doubling since 2019, rising from 3,000 to 5,600 and Aberdeen’s waiting list increasing over six-fold, from 150 to 1,000 people in 5 years. 

With demand for allotments and growing space far outstripping supply, the Committee has warned that broader Scottish Government plans for developing community growing, food growth strategies and improving access to land are all being held back. 

The Committee has made several recommendations in its report for the Scottish Government, as well as proposing actions for local government.  

Recommendations to the Scottish Government include:  

  • Increasing the leadership and oversight provided by the Scottish Government to improve access to allotments and growing spaces.
  • The creation of a national partnership forum which could foster cross-sectoral collaboration, mutual support and enable local authorities to share expertise and good practice.
  • Reflecting the importance of allotments and food growing in wider strategies such as the National Planning Framework, the forthcoming Biodiversity Strategy, and the implementation of the new Good Food Nation Bill.
  • Tackling the complexity of existing rights under the Act for ‘community asset transfers’ which were created to enable the transfer of property and land to community groups.
  • The importance of land for growing food being incorporated into planning frameworks.
  • Improved clarity about how the requirement for local authorities to publish Food Growing Strategies intersects with the new requirement to produce Good Food Nation strategies.

Commenting on the report, Committee Convener Ariane Burgess MSP said: “The Community Empowerment Act recognised in 2015 how important allotments are to communities and individuals. Whilst there have been many positive developments since then, there is still a significant and increasing demand which is not being met, and access to land remains a challenge. 

“Scotland’s appetite for improved access to allotments and growing space is flourishing, in part due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, but also due to the rising cost-of-living and levels of food insecurity facing people across the country.  

“The benefits of allotments were made clear to the Committee by the many passionate individuals we met in our visits to sites and in the evidence we received. 

“These benefits extend from improving health and well-being to tackling social isolation, intergenerational engagement, education opportunities, carbon reduction and improved biodiversity. Nurturing communities’ and individuals’ interests in getting involved should be a priority for the government.  

“Our hope is that this report prepares the ground for real change and that the Scottish Government now demonstrate increased leadership and a renewed commitment to the Act to deliver on its own food growth and wellbeing ambitions.”

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Ageing Well allotment programme to run at Leith Links

Ageing Well, Edinburgh Leisure’s successful project promoting healthy lifestyles for older adults in Edinburgh, is launching their allotment programme at Leith Links.

It will run weekly from Wednesday, 20 March, from 10am-1pm. Continue reading Ageing Well allotment programme to run at Leith Links

Grow your own!

Communities urged to take advantage of new legislation

Community groups in Scotland’s towns and cities are being encouraged to take advantage of powers allowing them to create new places for growing fruit and vegetables. Allotments provided by local authorities are in high demand and the Cabinet Secretary for Land Reform, Roseanna Cunningham, says land reform powers could help reduce waiting lists by providing more land to grow food. Continue reading Grow your own!

Victoria Park allotments? Drop-in and have your say

Edinburgh and Lothian Greenspace Trust (ELGT) and the City of Edinburgh Council propose to turn the bowling green furthest away from the club house in Victoria Park  into allotments.

A community consultation drop-in event will take place on Thursday (4 December) from 4 – 7pm in the Bowling Green Clubhouse. Go along to see what’s being proposed and air your views.

See below for details:

Victoria Park Allotments consultation Victoria Park

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Grim outlook for Edinburgh’s community growers

Research by Scottish Green MSP Alison Johnstone has revealed a mounting crisis in Lothian region for the increasingly popular idea of growing your own food. A Freedom of Information request has revealed that Lothian residents face waits of up to NINE YEARS for a council allotment.

Research has revealed that over 3000 people are on waiting lists across the region – Edinburgh’s current waiting list is 2773 – with the waiting time for sites varying from four to nine years with an average waiting time of four to five years.

The Greens add that some local authorities are opposing the idea of timescales and targets for providing allotments. Existing legislation says councils should provide allotments but it doesn’t specify any timescale, resulting in huge waiting lists – and this despite statistics showing a third of Scotland’s population lives within 500 metres of vacant land!

Alison Johnstone, Green MSP for Lothian and food spokesperson for the Scottish Greens (pictured above), said:  “These figures suggest Scotland needs Right to Grow legislation in the same way we have seen community groups being given the right to buy land that comes up for sale. It is appalling that across Lothian than are over 3,000 people on waiting lists and probably hundreds more who feel it’s pointless putting their name down.

“It is hugely embarrassing that in East Lothian – known as the Garden of Scotland – there are over 300 people waiting yet the local authority doesn’t want to set timescales to reduce the lists. I will be looking for opportunities in the forthcoming Community Empowerment Bill to give control to the increasing numbers of people looking to grow their own food. The demand is there, the land is there and the benefits are obvious.”

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Minister pledges support for community growing schemes

Scotland’s growing Grow Your Own movement was given extra support by Rural Affairs Secretary Richard Lochhead during a visit to Drylaw Neighbourhood Centre this morning. The minister was impressed by the Centre’s Drylaw and Telford Community Gardens project, and after meeting some enthusiastic volunteers Mr Lochhead endorsed the workings of the Grow Your Own Working Group.

Made possible through Climate Challenge Funding, Drylaw’s community gardens project has now been running for three years and – like the healthiest of plants – has continued to thrive. From small beginnings the project has flourished and now encompasses two orchards and vegetable and flower beds at Drylaw Neighbourhood Centre, along with a number of patches of once unused and unwanted across the area which have been transformed. And it’s not only flowers and vegetables that have flourished – the number of volunteers involved in the gardening project has grown too, and the group has supported te development of gardening projects at nearby Ferryhill and Rowanfield schools.

Richard Lochhead met Centre staff and volunteers to talk about the project before going on to plant some tatties with Brendan and Brandon, two green-fingered helpers from Rowanfield School. He also met members of the Centre’s enthusiastic gardening group who proudly displayed their recenty-created willow tunnel.

The Minister said: ”  There are so many benefits to projects like this one, and I am really very encouraged and impressed by what I’ve seen in Drylaw today. It’s been great to see the contribution of the staff and the enthusiasm of the volunteers and it would be great to see these ideas replicated all over Scotland. I’ve also learned some posh new recipe ideas from some of the young volunteers, so well done to everyone involved!”

garen4Mr Lochhead’s support for community initiatives like Drylaw Community Gardens follows the launch of a consultation on simplifying and overhauling Scotland’s allotment rules, and there are three meetings taking place for people to air their views – in Inverness, Glasgow and Edinburgh. Twenty seven recommendations were made in a report from the Grow Your Own Working Group (GYOWG) that covered six key themes: planning, legal, skills, community land, guidance and funding. The GYOWG has been working collaboratively with the Scottish Government and other partners to deliver these recommendations.

Mr Lochhead said: “More and more people are looking to get their hands dirty by getting back to nature and growing their own food. Growing your own food allows people to eat the fruits of their own labour and understand where their food comes from – a topic which is high on the agenda at the moment. The work of the Grow Your Own Working Group is making it easier for people to do this by pulling people together to develop best practice and practical advice, and encouraging more people and groups to get involved.”

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David Jamieson, Chair of the Grow Your Own Working Group, said: “The wonderful garden in Drylaw is an excellent example of a community making the most of their local space to get active and grow food. We are delighted that Mr Lochhead is able to see for himself the fruits of their labour, and really pleased that the Scottish Government is doing so much to encourage communities across Scotland to do likewise.”

Cammy Day is vice-convener of the city council’s Health and Wellbeing Committee as well as being a member of Drylaw’s management committee. He said: “The health benefits associated with community growing include providing exercise in the open air – exercise which we can take at our own pace and therefore suitable for all ages; it helps to relieve stress and is of proven benefit to mental health and wellbeing. Locally produced food also contributes to healthy eating and helps to combat the risks of obesity and sedentary lifestyles. It also helps to reduce our carbon footprint, so contributes in a small way to the battle against climate change.”

He added: “The Community garden project has been a great success and it’s been a real community initiative that’s gone from strength to strength. I’d like to thank Roy (Douglas) and the staff and management committee at Drylaw Neighbourhood Centre, particularly Elizabeth (Graham) and her team of volunteers for all the hard work and effort they have put in.”

Jason Rust, also a city councillor, is legal adviser to Scottish Land & Estates. He added: “We are keen to see partnership working with public, private and community landowners making further land available for allotment sites and community growing spaces, and for awareness of the range of advantages to be increased. Drylaw is a great example of what can be achieved.”    

The Edinburgh allotment consultation meeting will be held on 

Thursday 16 May from 2 – 4pm in Saughton House, Broomhouse Drive, EH11 3XD.

For more information about growing your community, contact the Federation of City Farms and Community Gardens on 0131 623 7058, email scotland@farmgarden.org.uk or visit the website www.farmgarden.org.uk

You can also visit Drylaw & Telford Community Gardens on Facebook

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Growing demand produces allotment consultation

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Scotland’s Rural Affairs Secretary Richard Lochhead has launched a consultation to consider the shape of future allotment legislation following the announcement of Government plans to simplify and overhaul Scotland’s allotment rules.

Among the questions being asked are: should councils be required to provide people in their area within a specified timeframe? And should councils have a duty to provide a specific number of allotments in their area per head of population?

Mr Lochhead said: “Growing your own food is continuing to grow in popularity in Scotland and this goes hand in hand with an increasing desire to know where our food comes from. Allotments provide a range of benefits including better health, an opportunity to learn new skills, and an understanding of where food comes from – not forgetting the chance to eat the fruits of your labour.

“We’re committed to helping people to grow their own food and this consultation will consider what changes should be made to the existing legislation to make it simpler and fit for today’s community needs. Many communities have expressed a desire to get back to nature and more involved with growing their own food and that’s exactly what we’re working to make possible.”

The consultation runs until Friday 24 May.

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