[ted_woodley]

Allotmenteers in Greater London may be interested in the following report which has just been published by the Greater London Authority reviewing the state of allotment provision in the capital "A Lot to Lose".

http://www.london.gov.uk/assembly/reports/environment.jsp

[sully]

An interesting read though not suprising. In our site in the London Borough of Barnet there were vacant plots when we got ours, there are quite a few sites considering a big chunk is suburban housing with gardens, and parts of the outskirts are green belt. The rent is slightly higher for non-barnet residents though.

It's a shame the maps are wrong though (at least for Barnet), the sites are listed in Alphabetical order but the numbers were placed by locality and won't help if people are looking for a site in an adjacent borough.

[cornykev]

There are a lot of sites here in sunny Enfield, all full as far as I know but if they dont stay full the council and fairviews will get there way. :roll:

[noshed]

We're trying to get tomato-growing put on the exhibition list for the olympics - it'll be just down the road.

[ted_woodley]

As far as I can see for my area (Hammersmith & Fulham, and Richmond) the maps have a few errors (plus they are very hard to read) but as this is the first time all the information has been brought together this is inevitable and they should be improved given time (if we contact them and point out the errors and omissions).

Interesting that Friends of the Earth (no less) concluded that the effect on biodiversity in London of all the allotment sites was zero.

[muntjac]

thats because  freinds of the earth see no merit in anything that doesnt get them trips all over the world  on conferences ... and as usual they are talking out thier asses ,,,, the wildlife corridoors that allotments supply is massive .so remember when they staret asking for money to do this or that ,, strange how they fly all over drive . and stay in expensive hotels ...... :twisted: i have one word for them but i would be spanked for saying it ,, but the werd illegitimate  is not  

[ted_woodley]

Well, it is easy to assert that "the wildlife corridoors that allotments supply is massive" (and it seems obvious at first glance) but that is not the conclusion in  "Elkin, T, 'Chapter 4: Green Space and Wildlife', in Reviving the City', Friends of the Earth". But applying a little thought, why should the effect of the relatively few allotments in Greater London (none in Westminster, none in Kensington and Chelsea, none in The City) be anything other than trivial compared with (say) the contribution of all the domestic back gardens in London ?  

Also, does your description of Friends of the Earth "talking out of their assess" apply to (for example) their campaign that local allotment holders should be informed if GM crops are to be grown locally (which is not currently a requirement) ?

[muntjac]

not into the argument over gm crops as it seems a bit late to shut the door after the horse has bolted, crops have been manipulated for centuries ,and if this  "new" fad for more gm crops feeds more starving people then i am for it 100% the comment about FOE talking out of thier asses are made in reference to the allotment section in your post only ,eveybody knows that even a tip of a garden adds to the diversity of wildlife .in fact it is tidy gardens that reduce the biodiversity . the parks that are in london add to this also as do all the trees ,1 oak tree  is i believe proven to hold more species of insects than a large suburban lawn and the wildlife will use these allotment to leap frog on thier travels across london and the rest of the uk and i have spent 50 yrs in the countryside probably  seing more than a few " scientists " do in the course of writing a report