Government suggestions that local councils should sell off allotments to raise money are deeply disturbing, say local Greens.
The local party spoke out at the start of National Allotment Week (August 11-17) after Housing Secretary Angela Rayner announced new ‘flexibility’ for councils to sell off assets, including allotment plots.
Some sites around the country have already been sold off, with some subsequently used for development.
There are five allotment sites spread around the parish of Stroud, all owned by Stroud Town Council: Bisley Old Road, Spider Lane, Summer Street, Stratford Road and Uplands – totalling more than 200 plots. Sites in other parts of the district are owned by other town and parish councils.
Cllr Lucas Schoemaker, Green district councillor for Trinity ward, where the Spider Lane site is situated, said: “Though the Town Council has no intention whatsoever to sell off its allotments (they are all well used and have waiting lists), my fear is that what the government calls the ‘flexibility’ to sell sites could, before we know it, become an instruction to sell off sites.
“The fact that this idea is being touted by government as a way to raise money also raises fears that central government plans further cuts to local council funding.
“Allotments are a well-loved feature of the town, and form part of the green spaces that are so important to residents in Stroud. They give people who don’t have gardens access to the open air, they enable the affordable production of healthy, local food, and gardening is well known as being good for mental health. Government should be protecting allotments, not throwing doubt on the future of our beloved green spaces, which add so much to the joy and wellbeing of so many residents.”
Pictured: Lucas Schoemaker, Green district councillor for Trinity ward, at the Spider Lane allotments with Joe Pedder, chair of the Spider Lane Allotment Association.