Look busy,

the allotment police are out to check 'productivity’ - Telegraph

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Catherine on August 16, 2012 at 16:02

Goodness! My brother has an allotment, I think it is private, not council. He went up to it one day and a man with a strimmer had cut down his asparagus and raspberry trees!!! Then a few days later he came back and sprayed all over the beds!! What is going on in the U.K.?

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Permalink Reply by Darren Blick on August 16, 2012 at 20:50

I read this article

I think it's disgusting what they have done to him

Apparently he put his plot to grass with trees following the death of his wife as he struggled to manage it on his own and wanted a garden to enjoy

On my plots, we have plenty like his and are just grateful they are kept up together as there are far worse with weeds mounting up

Our council is useless and doesn't manage anything and people that are problems, get away with murder

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Permalink Reply by Malagrowther on August 17, 2012 at 13:16

Allotments have evolved in different ways in different parts of the world. In German cities people build on their plots and spend the weekend there with no requirement to grow vegetables at all!

It seems a shame that the legacy of the coincidence of the property boom and the green revolution in the last half century has worked its way out to this. Local authorities have recently realised that there is nothing to stop them turning the screws on the custodians of the bits of ground they couldn't sell to developers and bumping up the rents. The introduction of petty rules (like the 70% cultivation rule which has no basis in law but has been adopted wholesale) bolsters up their authority over their tennants. Hard times ahead for allotment holders - especially if they allow individuals who don't conform to the Council's ideas to be picked off like this.