Digging in Allotment holders begin planting with council keeping watch
COUNCIL chiefs have told the Post they are keeping the situation at a large field near Bristol which is about to be turned into a controversial 700-plot allotment ‘under review,’ but confirmed that the firm doing the work are allowed to go ahead.
Roots Allotments have been engaged in a huge row with residents in Abbots Leigh for almost 18 months over a plan to turn a large field next to the entrance to Leigh Woods.
But last weekend the very first allotment holders, who have paid to get their own plot and been waiting for more than a year, got to do the first bit of planting there. Around 40 people who Roots call ‘grower members’ helped plant a fruit tree orchard on part of the large area that Roots has leased from the landowner to create the biggest allotment site in the Bristol area. Local residents in the village next to the field say they are going to be watching developments closely, to report any activity they say Roots do not have planning permission for, to North Somerset Council’s planning officers.
The plan for the huge allotment site on what is currently a grass field angered residents of Abbots Leigh so much that on several occasions over the past year, they have physically tried to – and succeeded in – stopping the Roots team from starting work to convert the field into allotments. Villagers say while they agree on the need for more allotments around Bristol, the site is in the wrong place, is far too big and almost all those paying for plots will be driving to the field.
While there have been repeated scenes on the field itself, a second battle has been going on at North Somerset Council, with Roots declining to submit a formal planning application for the conversion, and instead relying on permitted development laws which permit agricultural fields to be broken up into allotment plots.
Roots have signed up hundreds of people to take plots at Abbots Leigh, and their original plan to open the field last spring was scuppered by the neighbours’ objections and action. This year, things have now started happening, after North Somerset Council’s planners decided Roots were permitted to convert the field.
Roots said more work will continue in the coming weeks to lay down topsoil for their ‘no-dig’ allotments, and it will open in the next few weeks.
“The allotments are set to officially open in spring, with Roots providing its members with the education, equipment and tools to grow their own food,” said a Roots spokesperson. “No sheds or other structures will be permitted on the site and Roots and its members will follow the no-dig technique to build soil health on the field which has a past of conventional agriculture use, including the growing of wheat and potatoes.
“The allotments will provide chemical-free and nutritiouslydense food to more than 600 families, with more than half of the allotments already sold to members and high demand for the ones that remain,” she added.
One of the biggest concerns among neighbours in Abbots Leigh has been the original plan for a 70-space car park, with a large number of people driving to the site. Roots claims to be trying to discourage that.
A council spokesperson said planners would be reviewing what Roots did next.
“The council has confirmed to the operators of Roots Allotments that they can use the land off Abbots Leigh Road for allotments,” the council spokesperson said.
“In planning law, ‘allotments’ are seen as agricultural use, and therefore, in this case, they do not result in a change of use for which planning permission is required.
“Whether or not planning permission is required for any future works depends exactly on the type of work intended to be carried out and their use.
“Some works may be so small that they don’t amount to ‘development’ in planning terms. Alternatively they could be movable objects, which may not require planning permission in their own right. It is also possible to carry out activities that support the use of the land as allotments, and therefore would not require planning permission in their own right.
“This could extend to the use of land for allotment users to park their cars on, but is unlikely to extend to laying a surface for cars to park on.
“Putting up fencing or gates would not require a planning application, as long as they met the relevant height and locational limits.”
❝ The allotments will provide chemical-free and nutritiously-dense food to more than 600 families
Roots spokesman