It certainly feels like allotment fever has taken over the country in the past few years. The Grow Your Own campaign and the Landshare scheme are two fantastic examples.
Yesterday I went to see evidence of the allotment revival in Leamington Spa, south east of Birmingham. The Dobson Lane Allotments are brand new; they only opened their gates to growers a week and a half ago, after a design and development period that involved all sorts of different people and businesses from the local community. The site used to house allotments 20 years ago but they weren’t being used and fell into disrepair.
The Council were keen to sell the land for redevelopment but the local people, led by the environmental social enterprise Action 21, campaigned to keep the site and turn it back into allotments. All of the plots have already been taken so local farmers helped with the ploughing and local businesses donated employee time and money to get a communal garden area established. This is a great example of the Big Society in action.
Alison and her two year old son Rufus were there to meet me yesterday despite the rain and the mud. We planted onions and embarked on a tour with Rufus leading the way – though I have to say I decided not to follow him on a bottom slide down a mud pile! Alison’s husband Rick runs Action 21, which has taken on responsibility for the lease of the site. Action 21 makes money on energy, transport, recycling and food projects and then pours the profits into local community projects that promote sustainability. To date, they have spent £24,000 on the Dobson Lane Allotments alone.
It was easy to imagine, whilst watching Rufus careering around with a big smile on his face, how much fun everyone will have during the summer months. Forty families all helping each other out, relaxing at the end of a hard day’s digging, the children playing from dawn ’til dusk, and to top it off the promise of their own fresh fruit and vegetables for supper. That’s surely what community is all about.
To find out more about go to Action 21′s website.
( 3 comments ) Tags: allotments, Big Society, Birmingham, Grow your Own, Landshare, Leamington Spa
Comment by Bill McDonald on May 1, 2010 at 2:52 pm
It is good to see that this type of venture is clearly what community is all about. Well done Sam for highlighting this and other projects.
Comment by Maxine on May 3, 2010 at 11:50 am
This shows just what the power of the community can achieve, and it will have multiple beneifts to the local community. Thank you, Samantha, for taking the time and trouble to visit the site.
Comment by chris james on May 3, 2010 at 10:31 pm
prehaps if the other mp`s took a leaf out of david`s book and got out and visit local people we could start to have faith again,up till today no-one has been in our village to ask what we want,do they just expect us to turn up on thursday and vote for them??