Lettuce stay! Allotment owners’ Plea to council
AROUND 40 families who have allotments on the edge of South Bristol are appealing to be allowed to keep their plots.
The allotment holders at Court Farm Road allotments have been told by Bristol City Council they will have to be gone by July.
The organisers of the allotments told the Post they feel they are the innocent casualties of the fallout from the controversy surrounding Hartcliffe Community Farm.
They began renting the field at the end of Court Farm Road from the farm eight years ago, and have developed what was an unused bit of ground into some smart allotments.
Over a controversial saga, Bristol City Council took back control of Hartcliffe Community Farm from the board of local volunteers that ran it. It was only last week that the last animals were removed and sold by the former farm management, and the farm itself is now empty.
Last year, the council put the running of the farm out to tender and earlier this year, the farm’s future was saved when the council agreed to hand it over to the winning bid from a collaboration between Windmill Hill City Farm in Bedminster and the local community group Heart of BS13.
The council handed over the farm with ‘vacant possession’ – and that includes the field with the allotments in.
Bristol City Council defended its decision to hand over the entire farm, including the allotments, and said it had offered the allotment holders unused plots in other allotments. It said it was important to give the new tenants a clear site and a fresh start.
Windmill Hill City Farm and Heart of BS13 said they want to involve the community to come up with future plans for the farm, but are determined to reopen it as a free visitor centre with animals at the heart of the local community.
But the treasurer of the allotment committee David Francis and the secretary Lin Cummings said they have tried everything they could think of to be allowed to stay, and are making one last appeal to the council, Heart of BS13 and Windmill Hill City Farm, to let them continue.
“We feel like we’ve been tarred with the same brush as the farm,” said David Francis. “That they’ve just decided they want everyone out and to start again.”
The council has tried for more than a year to take back control of the farm itself, ending the lease with the former farm board.
The farm includes a farmyard, a number of units and outbuildings and several fields, including one furthest to the east, that has its own entrance that’s actually in Whitchurch. That field, at the end of Court Farm Road, was empty for years until around 2012, when a group of
local people asked if they could create allotment plots there.
“Since then, we’ve done loads of work here, sorting out the drainage, laying paths, creating lots of different plots, and it’s really successful,” said Mr Francis.
As he showed the Post the allotments, he and secretary Lin Cummings pointed to each plot and explained who had been growing there.
“There’s 40 people who have plots here, but that’s 40 families – the kids and grandkids come here, checking in the pond for the frogs, and helping out. And then all the produce grown gets shared around,” said Ms Cummings.
Mr Francis’ own piece of the Dundry Slopes is filled with onions, while his wife grows flowers in a plot opposite.
“It’s a real escape. We’ve put so much work into this, and we would
love the chance to make it even better. Things have tailed off a bit since last year, because of all the uncertainty,” he added.
Mr Francis said the committee, which formed to manage the allotments and co-ordinate paying the rent, managed to get the council to give them permission to stay until July this year, during all the controversy involving the farm last year.
But now he said, he’s been told that the council had handed the farm over with vacant possession, and that didn’t include them.
Efforts to persuade the new owners the Heart of BS13 and Windmill Hill City Farm to allow them to stay, even in the short-term, have been made in vain.
Mr Francis said he can’t understand why.
“Growing your own is their flagship council policy but they are deliberately blocking us out, even
though they knew we were here,” he said. “We proposed self-management as private or council allotments, or completely open collaboration with any other site use proposals.
“The council could have granted allotment use like they did in Sturminster Road, or adopted it as council allotments, or protected it within the farm, like they did with Windmill Hill. They chose not to. Why?”
Mr Francis said efforts to invite deputy mayor Asher Craig, who is the cabinet member for place at Bristol City Council, to visit the allotments have failed. He said the committee sent an email explaining their situation. “We didn’t even have an acknowledgement, let alone a reply,” he said.
“We just wanted the opportunity to show her and the people who are taking on the farm, what we’ve achieved already and what our plans are.
“The decision makers have spurned offers to meet. It’s entirely possible that the allotments are tainted by tenuous association with the old farm board and are being punished.”
Local councillor Tim Kent, who was on the board of Hartcliffe Community Park Farm, organised the creation of the allotments in 2012 and arranged for the allotment holders to pay rent to the farm. He is still calling for an eleventh hour reprieve for the allotments.
“It is a real shame and we feel the council is running roughshod over the local community and these wonderful allotments which were grown from nothing,” said Cllr Kent.
“The allotments were opened eight years ago after I secured a grant of £5,000 to get them started. Since then dozens of local families have engaged in food growing who would never have had that opportunity.
“I find it hard to believe that the council or the new tenants need to close these allotments in the middle of the growing season when there are no current plans to use the land for anything else – I hope those in power see a little sense and give these allotment holders a break.”
Mr Francis proudly showed a drainage ditch, dug out in front of the southern hedge – it’s turned the very wet ground into something usable, channelling the water that runs off the many springs in the Dundry Slopes above.
He said some of the field, in the far north west corner, is still too wet to grow anything, but an orchard was recently planted around it.
“We thought we had a lifetime, so development has been slow and steady, allotmenteers spreading news of availability by word of mouth and a notice on our gate,” he said.
“The primary use of the allotments is to grow your own veg, flowers and herbs. There are so many benefits shared with friends, family and neighbours.
“The second thing is the benefits of being here for health and wellbeing. The wildlife, birdsong, breathing the air, peace and tranquility, seeing the seasons change, working the land – it’s beyond price.
“All will be lost,” said Mr Francis, as he viewed his neighbour’s veg coming up. “We’ll be thrown out
❝ It’s a real escape. We’ve put so much work into this, and we would love the chance to make it even better
mid-growing season and the land left unused for the foreseeable future.”
“People have structures here, sheds and polytunnels. Some of them live in flats with no gardens, where are they supposed to put them?” asked Ms Cummings.
Mr Francis said his frustration was aimed first at the council, for passing on the farm as ‘vacant possession,’ and not ensuring the allotments were written in as part of the deal, and then with Windmill Hill City Farm and Heart of BS13, for deciding they will have to leave.
“All we want is to be given the chance,” he said.
Georgina Perry is the executive director of Heart of BS13, a community organisation. The charity has a kitchen garden, and is well placed to take on Hartcliffe Farm, with expertise from the people that run Windmill Hill City Farm, in Bedminster.
Ms Perry said the decision not to allow the allotments to continue was taken by the council when they offered the farm as a vacant possession.
“The allotment holders are tenants of Bristol City Council, who are asking them to move off of the land by July,” she said. “This was made clear to them as it was to all other private tenants on the site (who had arrangements with the previous farm management). The terms of the asset transfer for the farm were very transparent, that the site would be handed over to new management in ‘vacant possession.’
“This was the basis on which all interested parties (including our partnership) entered into the tender process.
“The previous farm management have had to be removed by the council and as a result we have just – as of last week – been able to access the site. We are excited to see its potential for the whole community and are currently undertaking due diligence of the land to learn what may or may not be possible there.
“Our community engagement is about to begin, and we already have hundreds of people on board who will be sharing their thoughts and ideas about the farm with us.
“We hope the allotment holders will be part of that conversation. However, our intention (as stated in our bid) is to start the new farm with a clean slate which means no private tenants.
“It is a space that will become a resource for the thousands of people who live in the area, and we know from the conversations we are having across the community that there is tremendous support for that principle.
“We don’t yet know what the plan will be because the engagement process has just begun, and we are looking forward to hearing from many voices.
“We do know however that in order for us to fulfil our obligations to the council and community, the plan must reflect the principles on which we were successful in our asset transfer bid which is to shape the site in accordance with the democratically sought views of a broad range of community voices and not privilege private individuals.”
Bristol City Council said making sure the entire Hartcliffe Community Park Farm site was part of the package put out to tender was important because it meant giving whoever took it over ‘a fresh start.’
“The situation has arisen due to the complete failure of previous management at the farm, which led to the eviction of HCPF Ltd, and we have been in regular contact with the Court Farm Road allotments committee, who were their tenants, during this process to offer advice and support,” a spokesperson for the council said.
“This includes offering priority for transfer to more than 30 vacant allotment plots locally, for which the take-up has so far been limited.
“Offering the organisations driv
David Francis
ing forward the regeneration of the site, for the benefit of the community, a fresh start allows them the best opportunity to make their exciting vision a success and they have been clear about their future approach to food growing being one that provides opportunities for anyone within the wider community that may wish to be involved.
“Despite our offers of practical help, some allotment tenants have chosen to continue to cultivate their plots with the full understanding that they can’t remain on-site after the end of July.”