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| The overgrown allotment plots at Gladstone Park |
I got my plot after a 2 year wait. Everything you wrote
yesterday could have been about Gladstone Park allotments also. Had my plot been allocated
back in the autumn, I could have made a good start on clearing the ground of
the dense couch grass, horseradish, bindweed etc, getting them to rot over the
winter and preparing the plot for planting. The council rejected my request for
help with clearing it.
I am aware of other newbies with worse plots which they
have been told they must clear and dispose of the rubbish themselves –
including bricks, broken glass, abandoned contents of sheds. Although there
have been several waves this spring of allotments being released to newcomers,
a number of allotments remain abandoned and dilapidated. I’ve attached a couple
of photos of examples but there are more. As you say, you can see why newcomers
become overwhelmed and give up, perpetuating the general neglect.
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| The allotment sheds |
The council has no idea who rents the council sheds.
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| The toilet |
The toilet apparently has not worked for some time and the
internal key was lost, I don’t know the current situation. The on-site
allotment offices are abandoned and locked up. More could be done to organise
communally beneficial services such as bulk purchase of compost, maybe have a
large polytunnel on the overgrown plot which used to be communal – like the one
they showed on Gardeners World recently, where the wider community can get
involved in the growing process.
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| Abandoned buildings |
The on site supervisor does her best with the lack of council
support. There are incidents of theft.
Apparently the allotment key fits every padlock on all the Brent allotments so there
is no knowing who is coming in legitimately or not. Updating entry security is
long overdue.
The 'neglect' and 'dilapidation' at Gladstone Park allotments is a sad reflection of the neglect on a wider scale throughout Brent.
ReplyDeleteI have become accustomed to this having lived in Brent for the past 51 years.
In fact I say that if I saw anything other than neglect in Brent I would have to do a double take and rub my eyes to convince myself that I'm not dreaming.
It is worth adding to this, that these photos are highly selective. Just looking in a different direction from the same place you would see well cultivated plots. There is a friendly and growing sense of community among the plotholders and many places where the cultivation is a credit to those who look after and live their it's.
ReplyDeleteI take your point - it is the same on Birchen Grove but the problem is that the well-cultivated plots are suffering from grass and weed seed blown over from the over-grown plots which makes life that bit harder. My L shaped plot has uncultivated plots on three sides which isn't fun! Good management of the waiting lists would really help the problem.
DeleteI am quite shocked by the bias of this article. My plot is one of the very well kept plots that sit near photographs. The photographer has angled the camera to avoid capturing my plot or the ones next to mine to make his/her point.
DeleteThere is a great community building at Gladstone allotments.
Allotments are very popular and lots of people sign up for one. Having waited for one, many then find it is not for them. It takes time for them to realise this and give the allotment up. It takes no time for the weeds to come in.
If the person who is writing this article is from our allotments, you are undermining our attempt to build up a community. If you are not from our allotments, please do not come into our community, take photos and draw us into your agenda with your unwelcome comments.
You have been very selective with your photographs in this article. Why did you not take photos at Birchen Grove where you are a tenant.
ReplyDeleteThe majority of the neglect is tenants not tending their plots. There is a culture within allotmenting of it being rather trendy with people taking on plots not realising that it's a lot of hard work. It was inevitable that things would take a downward turn with the last allotment officer leaving and the council not replacing her. Maybe you should use your energies to encourage the council to appoint a new officer who would lobby on tenants accounts to have some services available to them.
Hi Marcia , the article was submitted by one of the Gladstone Park allotment holders in reaction to a post the day before by me. The author took the photographs, not me. I have visited Gladstone Park allotments and thought it was a great community.I published photographs of Birchen Grove in the earlier article. I agree with your point about people not realising how much work is involved, especially when taking over an overgrown plot. When it was clear that V was going to be made redundant I spoke up at a consultation meeting on her behalf. I published the original article, which I hope you will read, to make the case for proper management of the allotments. I apologise to anyone who feels this article was a attack on allotment holders themselves.
ReplyDeleteThis is the post where I invited other allotment holders to let me know if there were similar problems on their allotments as we have at Birchen Grove. https://wembleymatters.blogspot.com/2018/06/the-cost-of-allotment-neglect-in-brent.html
DeleteThank you Martin to replying. Apologies to you for assuming that you had been on site and taken these photographs. My point stands to whoever the plot holder was for taking these photos though. Apart from the photos taken by the car park the rest of the plots have tenants who for whatever their reasons are not tending their plots.
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