Putting the (Green Wellington) boot in
Jamie Oliver has urged gardeners to be more ‘aggressive’ with local councils that fail to provide new allotments.
Jamie Oliver has urged gardeners to be more ‘aggressive’ with local councils that fail to provide new allotments. The celebrity chef is partly responsible for the recent craze for grow-your-own as people follow his advice to eat more healthily.But few of his fans have enough land to grow fruit and vegetables. The latest figures show almost 200,000 keen gardeners are on waiting lists for allotments, with some set to wait 40 years.
Jamie, 33, said keen gardeners should be lobbying their local authorities using little known legislation.He pointed out that the Small Holdings and Allotments Act forces councils to provide allotments if more than six people make a request.The television presenter and author said people need to “get noisy” and force councils to convert unused land like disused car parks or building sites into new plots.”Nothing seems to happen in this country any more unless you’re a bit renegade about it,” he said.”If gardeners want more plots they should all get together. It was the same with my campaign for school dinners.”People thought their voice couldn’t make a difference. But the minute people got together, things started to happen.”Mr Oliver said councils that drag their feet could be breaking the law.”There is an old law which states that if there is civic land that’s not being used, and all allotments are full, then they must hand it over,” he said.”Councils have a lot to deal with. So gardeners need to shout loud and clear. People need to be more aggressive about it.”They should go on to the Land Registry, identify council land that’s doing nothing, then go to the council with a clear vision of what they want.”But Mr Oliver said that a television campaign for more allotments, similar to his Jamie’s School Dinners initiative, was unlikely due to his workload.Donna McDaid, of the National Society of Allotment and Leisure Gardeners, said some councils are using a loophole in the law instead of providing land.”Some councils are dragging their feet – they seem to think that grow-your-own is just a bit of a fad,” she said.
