Yorkshire and Lincolnshire: Digging in

Len Tingle Political Editor, Yorkshire and Lincolnshire

Ernie Brown - allotment holder digging in against steep rent rises

As an enthusiastic allotment holder Ernie Brown expects to see things grow.

But he was taken aback when he heard how much his allotment rent is about to shoot up.

North East Lincolnshire Council has notified him that the increase will be 700%.

"It is ludicrous," Ernie tells Len Tingle on the Yorkshire and Lincolnshire regional edition of The Politics Show.

It is going to mean that many of these allotments will be empty next year.

But I think that's what the council wants.

Ernie and his fellow allotment holders at Cleethorpes near Grimsby are now digging in for a fight.

They are organising public meetings and making sure they have officially constituted allotment societies in place. Mr Brown went on;

I think that the council wants to get us off.

Allotments have been on this site for a century but the land is now worth an awful lot of money to a commercial developer who wants to build houses or put a supermarket here.

Allotment holders want things to grow but were astonished at way rents are shooting up

It is a concern that spreads much further than Cleethorpes.

Blind eye?

The National Association of Allotment Holders says local councils across the country appear to be turning a blind eye to their legal obligations when it comes to allotments.

"Local authorities have a legal duty to provide allotments," says the northern spokesperson for the Association Derek Humphries.

But they aren't ensuring that they are being used properly.

They allow them to be vandalised or let tenants use them for other purposes than growing vegetables and plants.

There is a strong suspicion that they want to bring in developers and make a huge killing.

Council's are not taking their legal obligations seriously

Derek took the Politics Show cameras to allotment sites around his local area in the West Yorkshire town of Halifax where many had become derelict.

How do they expect people to take an allotment when it looks like this.

Some of them had such poor access that you can't even get a manure delivery on the site.

Since Common Land in the UK started to be legally enclosed in the 19th Century.

Parliament has passed a series of laws forcing local authorities to make land available as allotments at cheap rents.

Thousands of allotments have been abandoned leaving derelict greenhouses and potting sheds

Until the 1970s there were waiting lists to take on allotments but a combination of higher incomes and availability of cheaper fresh produce in supermarkets has made them less popular.

Vacant allotments

However, all the councils contacted by the Politics Show deny a deliberate policy of selling off allotments.

North East Lincolnshire Council, which runs the Cleethorpes sites, claims rent rises are simply a reflection of how it desperately needs to raise revenues from all its activities.

Its Council Leader, who refused to appear on the programme, says there are no plans to sell off allotments.

The Politics Show

Yorkshire and Lincolnshire Politics Show - full programme

Join the debate on the Politics Show for Yorkshire and Lincolnshire.

Let us know what you think. That is the Politics Show Sunday 01 February at Midday.

Join presenter Cathy Killick for The Politics Show on BBC One on Sundays at Noon.

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