Allotments are under threat - Michael Wale becomes the ‘Red Adair’ of the movement against development plans

So it is on the allotment, all your plans are going to work, and every seed catalogue is going to be proved right.

Previous failures are forgotten. In my case all those Webbs Wonders I grew early indoors, only to see them melt in the sudden coldness of a mid-May day. May has become the dodgy weather month of the year as far as we allotment gardeners are concerned. It should have really warmed up by now, but the rainfall early on, and then the sudden dryness is not conducive to good cropping. Optimistically I am returning to the programme of early season salad stuff, hopefully helped by my polytunnel.

That is if I get any gardening done this summer as more and more allotments come under threat and I become the Red Adair of the allotment movement.

Leading the way is a fight that has been going on ever since London inexplicably won the right to stage the Olympics in 2012. The backdrop is the 100 year old Manor Gardens site in Hackney at the heart of the East End. It was given to the people of Hackney by the old Etonian and forward thinking Major Villiers, in perpetuity ,' who also started the Eton Manor club, to provide sports facilities for the deprived young people of the period. It still exists.

The London Development Association want to concrete over the allotments to provide a walkway to stadiums for four weeks. One hundred years of history swapped for four weeks of concrete in what the fork-tongued Mayor Livingstone labelled the Green Olympics. Meanwhile the total costs have escalated to a height where you wonder if they had told the truth London would have been awarded the Olympics at all.

No way would France have destroyed any greenery to stage the Olympics they had planned, and so deserved, for all they do for their young people.

Julie Sumner has been leading the fight for the plots she loves, and I have been down there several times to speak at well organised Open days to rally the troops. Ironically the London Development Agency first said they would move the allotments to a mile away, but in their stupidity, which does not surprise me, they chose a piece of Llamas land. Waltham Forest council kicked their application out.

Llamas land dates from the Norman Conquest and gives the rights of parishioners.to graze their cattle. Nowadays it is open free space for the community.

Hackney Marshes is also classified Llamas land and is also up for a partial concrete makeover in the cause of a car park.

Now that Friends of the Earth's top legal advisors have volunteered their services to Julie Sumner's fight anything is possible. As for Llamas land I doubt if a High Court judge would overturn land rights which have been in existence since Norman times.

The devastation that would be caused by the Olympic grab of the Manor Gardens site in East London is appalling. In the name of those great public benefactors Macdonalds and Coca Cola a local community will be destroyed. As with most inner city allotments it has brought together local East Enders and immigrants from countries from all over the world.

The Green Olympics?
As they are being sold as the Green Olympics I have suggested that these allotments should become part of the Olympic experience, by creating a heritage allotment site that would tell the history of the British allotment movement in video and sound. The days of the Second World War when these same allotments not only grew for victory, but provided gun emplacements to protect the East End of London. Several of them are still there.

No doubt the London Development Authority will bulldoze that bit of East End history as well. The allotment site would be spruced up and visitors from all over the world welcomed, and no doubt fed by the like of Hassan, an ex-chef, if ever there is such a thing as an ex-chef, from his enormous barbecue. Many of the families on Manor Gardens always barbecue their Sunday meal on the site.

The whole of Churchill's stirring Dig For Victory campaign would also be commemorated.

Not far away in the borough of Redbridge, that was taken over by the Conservatives at last May's local elections, there has been more devious goings on by the party that adopted the oak tree as their symbol, and green as their policy, according to leader David Cameron. The Redbridge Tories are planning to reduce the protection of allotments and open space from CS1 to CS2, which means if developers come along with the right offer there will no longer be the guaranteed protection that there has been in the past.

Seven Kings and Goodmayes Allotment Society has 200 members gardening 200 plots, and are leading the fight. At least one Conservative councillor has a conscience about it all, and refused to vote for what he did not believe. As a result Cllr Harold Moth was suspended from his party group for a month.

Cllr Moth said : "My issue is that there was no consultation with residents. Some things have to be kept confidential, but this will affect peoples lives, like the allotments". He also foresees more Tories rebelling over the coming months if their constituents are affected.

Another big fight to save allotments has been going on in the Oxfordshire town of Bicester. It went to a public inquiry with the result pending. The allotments had been used for as long as anyone could recall. The land is owned by the Church of England, who want the land for development, so they can make lots of money for the Diocese of Oxford, who claim they need it. Of course the words Christianity and community come to mind, especially as the allotmenteers were ordered to leave at that Christian moment in our calendar at Christmas. Even before then they had been barricaded out of their plots, which some had squat cultivated.

At the end of December the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, was a guest editor of Radio4's Today programme, and he steered the show that morning towards a green and environmental angle.

Indeed, he was interviewed at length himself and was asked "You talked a bit about the social values that you seem to be looking for in some of the ideas that you've put forward.

How does the whole question of a green agenda which you've phrased fit into that, particularly in the Christian sense.? It's not traditionally a Christian issue".

A significant part of the Archbishop's answer was : "It's a massive public moral issue, it's also got to be something to do with the personal responsibility of everybody. How do we come to live in a more responsible attuned way; in some sort of wholeness with our environment".

So I wrote to the archbishop saying how much I had enjoyed his editing of the Today programme. I criticised the Church of England's attitude to allotments over the years with epic battles in Durham and Bath, and Bicester. And I pointed out that allotments have welcomed and given hope to immigrants and those with mental problems: "Even more importantly , perhaps, they provide green and peaceful open space, where ordinary people can grow their own food".

I received a reply, not from the Archbishop but the Deputy Secretary for Public Affairs (spin doctor I presume). "He has asked those at Church House with responsibility for environmental matters to look into the concerns that you have raised. I am sure you will receive a more detailed reply in due course from the appropriate person at Church House".

I hope so.

In fact I feel that Rowan Williams is a bit of a rebel and could be good news. But like the rest of the good and the green will he get behind allotments, and make the Church of England into an ally rather than just another predator?

Meanwhile it's back to my plot thank goodness. I got an allotment to grow my own and find a bit of peace. Little did I know where it would all end up.

At least I have put some of last year's mistakes right. I have decided to grow just one crop of potatoes, the second early Cherie, a beautiful tasty red skinned salad variety, that can be allowed to grow larger and even roasted! Also I will weed my shallots.

Allotment gardening is simple, until the developers come along.

Allotments are under threat - Michael Wale becomes the Red Adair' of the movement against development plans ■■A mock Olympic torch is used to light the bonfire at an open day THIS month is rather like the start of the soccer season when everything is going to be wonderful. Everyone is going to be a winner.

So it is on the allotment, all your plans are going to work, and every seed catalogue is going to be proved right.

Previous failures are forgotten. In my case all those Webbs Wonders I grew early indoors, only to see them melt in the sudden coldness of a mid-May day. May has become the dodgy weather month of the year as far as we allotment gardeners are concerned. It should have really warmed up by now, but the rainfall early on, and then the sudden dryness is not conducive to good cropping. Optimistically I am returning to the programme of early season salad stuff, hopefully helped by my polytunnel.

That is if I get any gardening done this summer as more and more allotments come under threat and I become the Red Adair of the allotment movement.

Leading the way is a fight that has been going on ever since London inexplicably won the right to stage the Olympics in 2012. The backdrop is the 100 year old Manor Gardens site in Hackney at the heart of the East End. It was given to the people of Hackney by the old Etonian and forward thinking Major Villiers, in perpetuity ,' who also started the Eton Manor club, to provide sports facilities for the deprived young people of the period. It still exists.

The London Development Association want to concrete over the allotments to provide a walkway to stadiums for four weeks. One hundred years of history swapped for four weeks of concrete in what the fork-tongued Mayor Livingstone labelled the Green Olympics. Meanwhile the total costs have escalated to a height where you wonder if they had told the truth London would have been awarded the Olympics at all.

No way would France have destroyed any greenery to stage the Olympics they had planned, and so deserved, for all they do for their young people.

Julie Sumner has been leading the fight for the plots she loves, and I have been down there several times to speak at well organised Open days to rally the troops. Ironically the London Development Agency first said they would move the allotments to a mile away, but in their stupidity, which does not surprise me, they chose a piece of Llamas land. Waltham Forest council kicked their application out.

Llamas land dates from the Norman Conquest and gives the rights of parishioners.to graze their cattle. Nowadays it is open free space for the community.

Hackney Marshes is also classified Llamas land and is also up for a partial concrete makeover in the cause of a car park.

Now that Friends of the Earth's top legal advisors have volunteered their services to Julie Sumner's fight anything is possible. As for Llamas land I doubt if a High Court judge would overturn land rights which have been in existence since Norman times.

The devastation that would be caused by the Olympic grab of the Manor Gardens site in East London is appalling. In the name of those great public benefactors Macdonalds and Coca Cola a local community will be destroyed. As with most inner city allotments it has brought together local East Enders and immigrants from countries from all over the world.

The Green Olympics?
As they are being sold as the Green Olympics I have suggested that these allotments should become part of the Olympic experience, by creating a heritage allotment site that would tell the history of the British allotment movement in video and sound. The days of the Second World War when these same allotments not only grew for victory, but provided gun emplacements to protect the East End of London. Several of them are still there.

No doubt the London Development Authority will bulldoze that bit of East End history as well. The allotment site would be spruced up and visitors from all over the world welcomed, and no doubt fed by the like of Hassan, an ex-chef, if ever there is such a thing as an ex-chef, from his enormous barbecue. Many of the families on Manor Gardens always barbecue their Sunday meal on the site.

The whole of Churchill's stirring Dig For Victory campaign would also be commemorated.

Not far away in the borough of Redbridge, that was taken over by the Conservatives at last May's local elections, there has been more devious goings on by the party that adopted the oak tree as their symbol, and green as their policy, according to leader David Cameron. The Redbridge Tories are planning to reduce the protection of allotments and open space from CS1 to CS2, which means if developers come along with the right offer there will no longer be the guaranteed protection that there has been in the past.

Seven Kings and Goodmayes Allotment Society has 200 members gardening 200 plots, and are leading the fight. At least one Conservative councillor has a conscience about it all, and refused to vote for what he did not believe. As a result Cllr Harold Moth was suspended from his party group for a month.

Cllr Moth said : "My issue is that there was no consultation with residents. Some things have to be kept confidential, but this will affect peoples lives, like the allotments". He also foresees more Tories rebelling over the coming months if their constituents are affected.

Another big fight to save allotments has been going on in the Oxfordshire town of Bicester. It went to a public inquiry with the result pending. The allotments had been used for as long as anyone could recall. The land is owned by the Church of England, who want the land for development, so they can make lots of money for the Diocese of Oxford, who claim they need it. Of course the words Christianity and community come to mind, especially as the allotmenteers were ordered to leave at that Christian moment in our calendar at Christmas. Even before then they had been barricaded out of their plots, which some had squat cultivated.

At the end of December the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, was a guest editor of Radio4's Today programme, and he steered the show that morning towards a green and environmental angle.

Indeed, he was interviewed at length himself and was asked "You talked a bit about the social values that you seem to be looking for in some of the ideas that you've put forward.

How does the whole question of a green agenda which you've phrased fit into that, particularly in the Christian sense.? It's not traditionally a Christian issue".

A significant part of the Archbishop's answer was : "It's a massive public moral issue, it's also got to be something to do with the personal responsibility of everybody. How do we come to live in a more responsible attuned way; in some sort of wholeness with our environment".

So I wrote to the archbishop saying how much I had enjoyed his editing of the Today programme. I criticised the Church of England's attitude to allotments over the years with epic battles in Durham and Bath, and Bicester. And I pointed out that allotments have welcomed and given hope to immigrants and those with mental problems: "Even more importantly , perhaps, they provide green and peaceful open space, where ordinary people can grow their own food".

I received a reply, not from the Archbishop but the Deputy Secretary for Public Affairs (spin doctor I presume). "He has asked those at Church House with responsibility for environmental matters to look into the concerns that you have raised. I am sure you will receive a more detailed reply in due course from the appropriate person at Church House".

I hope so.

In fact I feel that Rowan Williams is a bit of a rebel and could be good news. But like the rest of the good and the green will he get behind allotments, and make the Church of England into an ally rather than just another predator?

Meanwhile it's back to my plot thank goodness. I got an allotment to grow my own and find a bit of peace. Little did I know where it would all end up.

At least I have put some of last year's mistakes right. I have decided to grow just one crop of potatoes, the second early Cherie, a beautiful tasty red skinned salad variety, that can be allowed to grow larger and even roasted! Also I will weed my shallots.

Allotment gardening is simple, until the developers come along.