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Secretary's Report November 2001
SAGS
has had an excellent year, with an active Committee increased with
new members joining at the AGM in June.
Unfortunately the treasurer Jim Glencross resigned through
pressure of other activities but has been replaced by the FEDAGA
representative Ali Black.
1. Membership
- There has been a rise in membership of the associated sites and
closer ties with FEDAGA. We now have 32
sites in Scotland as Association members and 21 sites affiliated
through FEDAGA. We also have 26 individual members. In total
we represent 2,600 plot holders.
2. SASU
- We are pleased at the continuing relation with the
Society of Friends. This year we distributed 180 grants of £7
to
19 sites from the SASU grant scheme.
3. Archives
- In November 2000 we set up the Allotment Archives
at the University of Glasgow with material from Victor Webb. He
gave us SASU documents and allotments minutes and photographs
from the 1930's. These are very valuable since there is very little
published material on the allotment movement. We are planning to
apply for a grant to get the material professionally archived and
then it will be available to researchers on allotment history.
4. Committee
meetings - during 2000-2001 we held 7 committee meetings and
3 working party meetings. Since the AGM we have restructured the
committee with several working parties reporting
to the committee meetings which will be held four times a year.
The working parties are: SASU, Public Relations, Finance, Policy
and Strategy, Information, Promotions, Constitution and Archives.
5. Newsletters
- We are continuing to distribute biannual
newsletters to all the site secretaries and individual members.
6. Publicity
- Harry Gunn, our web-master,
updates the website regularly.
(i) There have been several newspaper articles
and reports in
the Herald, Gardeners World, Sunday Herald, Dundee Courier,
Big Issue. (These have been scanned into the website and will be
in the archives.)
(ii) Committee
members have taken part in radio interviews on
the closure of the Hawkhill site and on a discussion on allotments
on the Lesley Riddoch show.
(iii) We sent
our press releases before we presented the petition
to the Scottish Parliament. We produced several publicity documents,
including a very well received pamphlet for the Local Government
Committee inquiry.
(iv) We are building
up a database of media contacts, which will be useful for further
campaigns.
7. Grants -
In November 2000 we obtained a grant of £1,000 from Scottish
Natural Heritage towards developing the website. Shell
Better Britain Campaign gave us £150 for Caitlin de Silvey
to allow
her to contact other allotment sites on our behalf while she was
on
her Merlin Trust expedition. Caitlin has produced a lovely report
of
her travels which is available from the secretary and is being
mounted on the website.
8. Campaigns - Scottish Parliament
- we organised the petition
and presented it to the Petitions Committee. Three committee
members made a verbal submission to the inquiry.
The local authorities gave evidence in September and the report
is due by the end of the year. A copy of the petition document and
minutes of the meetings can be found on the Scottish Parliament
website
Follow through
to the Local Government minutes and reports of meetings.
City of Glasgow - Last year the
President and Secretary had a
meeting with the Convener of Land Services, Councillor Watson, Councillor
Ron Davies and his officials to discuss the 2020 Vision document
and lack of mention of allotments. We arranged a meeting
of representatives from all the allotment sites in Glasgow with
Councillor Watson and John Conway about the rent rise to £26
per
plot holder. As a result of of this meeting Glasgow City Council
through the direction of John Conway from Land Services together
with SAGS have set up an Allotment Forum for all the allotment
sites in Glasgow GAF. The Forum will meet four times a year and
discuss matters affecting the sites. Although it grew out of protests
at the sudden, very sharp increase in rents for the plots announced
in the Spring Budget, the outcomes from the first two meetings have
been very encouraging. The allotment representatives accepted that
John Conway was not responsible for the rent rise and any action
would have to be taken through the Councillors. John Conway has-
Appointed a new Allotments Officer who is attending
training
sessions on allotment provision and management set up by the
LGA in England. These follow from the publication of the Document
"Growing in the Community - a good practice guide for the
management of allotments" by the DETR.
Bought a software programme to manage the sites
and track requirements with a priority for water, toilets, security
and disabled access.
Promised he will bring in long term leases and
security of tenure
for sites.
Asked his managers for lists of material surplus
to requirements
that could be available for sites.
Will work with the forum to access funds for
allotments.
He also promised that the Council will vigorously implement Policy
ENV 14 in the City Plan.
The government
is concerned about the continued loss of
allotments land and intends to either amend legislation or issue
guidance requiring planning authorities to protect the existing
resource and take steps to increase provision if there is a demand
for it.
The Plan aims to reinvigorate the economic, social
and physical realms of the City in ways that are consistent with
sustainable development.
It proposes a target for the city-wide provision
of recreational
green space of 5 hectares per 1,000 population to be achieved over
the 20 year period to 2020.
Allotments are seen as having an important and
long standing relationship to communities living at high density,
with little or no provision for sizeable private gardens.
Of the overall target, 0.05 hectares per 1,000 population
is
allocated for allotments and reflects the area currently given to
their use.
During the period of the plan the Council intends
to protect those facilities in its ownership and will expect owners
of private sites to
do the same.
Existing allotments are covered by the Green Space
designation
on the Development Policy Principles map
POLICY
There is a presumption in favour of retaining
all land that is or
has been used for allotments.
Proposals affecting existing or proposed allotment
sites will only
be considered if they meet the criteria set out below:
(a) if the developer makes provision for an equivalent
(or better) replacement in the vicinity of the existing resource.
The Council will have to be satisfied on behalf of
the users that
all relevant matters including location, access, aspect, soil quality,
services and fencing are being appropriately addressed; and
(b) in assessing any changes or improvements to
allotment
provision the Council will seek to ensure that households have reasonable,
safe and easy access, particularly through walking
and/or cycling, to the site.
Edinburgh City
Council commissioned a consultant, Dr Michael Cuthbert, to prepare
an Allotments Strategy for the city.
In conjunction with this a working group with
members from
FEDAGA and Judy Wilkinson as the SAGS representative has
been set up by the Recreation Department.
Judy is working closely with the FEDAGA representatives
to
ensure the resulting report will be a fair analysis and relevant
recommendations.
It will be used by other Councils and in the Scottish
Parliament inquiry.
The report is due imminently.
9. Advice
and information
Hawkhill - several committee members attended
meetings to
try and help Hawkhill Plot-holders to preserve their site.
Unfortunately this was lost when the Planning
Committee of
Edinburgh City council ruled in favour of a development by
Wisharts, on the grounds that jobs would be saved.
However Wisharts have now said that they don't
now need the
whole warehouse they intended to build on Hawkhill, and will be
letting parts of it out to other businesses.
SAGS are working with FEDAGA to ask that the City
Council investigate this matter.
Planning decisions must be built on good practice
in evaluating
the legitimate use of land.
The Secretary
wrote letters to the Council to support Saughton
Mains site in their representation to the Leith walkway inquiry.
A Committee member
advised a site at Newburgh (Fife) on writing
a constitution and forming an Association.
10. Submissions
Scottish Parliament: Local Government
committee - allotments
review ( as described above).
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