City allotments could be restored to grow fresh food

THE number of urban allotments has declined by 65 per cent in the past 50 years, according to a study which suggests restoring them could feed thousands.

The number of allotments peaked between the Forties and Sixties in the wake of the Dig for Victory campaign of the Second World War.

But by 2016 almost half had been built on, due to growing demand for housing, according to the Institute for Sustainable Food (ISF) at the University of Sheffield.

Another quarter had been repurposed for other green space, said the study, which suggests many of these plots could be restored to grow enough fruit and vegetables for 14,000 people.

The study examined historic maps of Swansea, Southampton, Sheffield, Nottingham, Bristol, Leicester, Glasgow, Milton Keynes, Newcastle and Liverpool going back to the beginning of the 20th century. The decline has come despite waiting lists for allotments growing fivefold between 1996 and 2013. Would-be gardeners now wait around six to 18 months for a plot.

Councils in the UK are legally obliged to meet demand for growing space after a 19th-century law designed to provide food security for urban workers.

In each city, restored allotments could provide an average of 2,500 tons of food per year, according to the study, which was published in the journal Landscape And Urban Planning.

The study found that the decline in the number of allotments was particularly acute in the most deprived areas, which saw eight times as many closures as wealthier places, and which are most at risk of food insecurity.

The study comes amid concern that the coronavirus pandemic could threaten imports of fruit and vegetables. Only 16 per cent of fruit and 53 per cent of vegetables sold in the UK are grown domestically, with the vast majority imported from the EU.