May 2011 update on Allotments

Click here to view information on the Town Council’s Allotment Sub-Committee

9 May, 2011

Allotments Update – May, 2011

Thank you to those who responded to Council’s enquiry regarding the uptake by potential allotment tenants if land were to be purchased for allotment use at the top of Clopton Road, in Avenue & New Town Ward.

9.97 acres of arable land is for sale at £135,000 which equates to £13,500 per acre.  The sum involved does not reflect any negotiation at this stage, but nonetheless, even two or three acres would put a significant burden on the Council’s resources which would, however, be fully justified if there was sufficient interest in the site.

Unfortunately, from a Waiting List of 87, only 12 responded to the short questionnaire and only 7 potential allotment tenants expressed a willingness to consider a plot on this site.  The Allotment Sub-Committee therefore recommended to Council that it should not pursue the purchase of this land for allotment use, which was ratified by Council on 3 May, 2011.

Fortunately, onward going negotiations with the District Council with regard to a site in Burbage Avenue, now looks as if it may come to fruition.  The District Council offered six sites to the Town Council, some of which were little more than grass verges.  Following detailed land surveys by Transition Stratford, only Burbage Avenue was thought feasible for allotment use.   A decisive approach was made to the District Council last week, confirming that the Town Council would be willing to take on the under utilised recreation and play area in Burbage Avenue, with the intention of retaining some play facilities, whilst creating what it hopes will be either six or eight allotments on the site.  This is the beginning of the process.  A full consultation exercise must be undertaken with residents, but Council is confident that a compromise is possible.

Town Council has always assured the District Council that it will be willing to take on the administrative and management responsibility for the Bordon Place/Hill allotments, and it continues in negotiation with a local organisation which expressed willingness for the Council to provide allotments on its land off Park Road, in Mount Pleasant Ward.

It is the Councils intention to realise allotments in every Ward and the Town Council continues to badger the District Council for much needed allotment land for Trinity Mead.

The Council will also continue to call for the Core Strategy to contain a specific provision for allotments, rather than the more nebulous but, it seems, restrictive provision of Open Spaces, and will definitely ensure that allotment and growing space provision features in the town’s forthcoming Neighbourhood Plan.

Sarah Summers

Town Clerk