GardenLend – rescuing neglected gardens

Good news from the “Coupar Angus Bulletin” for the residents of Coupar Angus, Ardler and Bendochy
www.coupar-angus.org Issue 42 April 2009

“As reported in the March issue of the Bulletin, some 19 folk have to date expressed an interest in having an
allotment in Coupar Angus in response to the joint campaign by CART and the Community Council.
In response to specific proposals from CART and the Community Council, Perth and Kinross Council agreed to a meeting to consider the initiative, which was held on 6th March. Although we were hopeful of a positive response, regrettably the Council is not able to consider the release of land in their ownership or provide direct assistance for the community to acquire a site for development as allotments at this time.
The Council did, at least, commit to including the demand for allotments in Coupar Angus as part of a Greenspace Strategy across the whole of Perth & Kinross to be developed next year.
As a result CART and the Community Council have decided to put on hold allotments development until next year. We are, however, looking into developing a Garden Lend Scheme.”

http://www.coupar-angus.org/bulletinpdf/cabapr09.pdf

The Coupar Angus Regeneration Trust (CART) is a working community regeneration organisation which was constituted in 1999, the purposes of the Trust are for the regeneration of urban and rural areas in and around Coupar Angus and the nearby villages of Ardler and Bendochy, where there is social and economic deprivation … In short, the aim of CART is to make Coupar Angus a better place to live and work.

What eminently sensible and worthwhile objectives.  Why doesn’t every area have such far-sighted representatives?  More importantly, what is stopping anyone else from following such a lead?

Please contact me at info@GardenLend.co.uk if you would like to have your local area represented more closely than on a regional level within the members’ area

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“THE Forres Allotment Group are digging in for a council meeting being held next week, which will decide whether they can lease land near Bogton Road to provide allotments for keen gardeners in the town.

A list exists of nearly 70 people from the Forres area, who are keen to get a portion of land which would allow them to grow their own vegetables. A steering group was formed last year to try and take the issue forward.

Chairperson Carin Schwartz, from Forres Transition Towns, which is the umbrella organisation for the allotment group, said the council officials she had been dealing with had told her that the issue of the lease would now be decided at a meeting of the policy and resources committee due to be held on Tuesday (March 10) – nearly a month after it was first due to be heard.”

More at:http://www.forres-gazette.co.uk/news/fullstory.php/aid/4248/Decision_looms_on_allotments.html

Looking at http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=forres, the area seems full of green space and even gardens – could these not easily be put over to more active production without the  bureaucratic bungling of the local authority?  All that is required is the private agreement between land owners and those who wish to use the land – they can register their interest at http://find.GardenLend.co.uk and connect up with each other to their mutually greater benefit.

Seems a lot simpler than the struggle to get their council to agree anything; your thoughts are – as ever – warmly welcomed.

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According to Horticulture Week, “consumers fed up with the credit crunch will look to escape the news blues in 2009 by heading for the garden.”

This is something surely to be welcomed, but what of those who do not have a garden or access to any areas in which they can plant, sow and tend fruit and vegetables?

Aberdeen council is looking at implementing a similar garden sharing scheme to the one in place in Edinburgh and ,as previously noted, council-run garden-sharing schemes are starting to pop up; probably far too slowly for those waiting and eager to start growing their own.

One of the problems of such municipal set-ups is the amount of bureaucracy involved: by the time any authority has stumbled across the idea, run it “up the flag pole”, got it considered at a council meeting, thought a bit further, paid some consultants a ridiculous amount of money to agree the bleeding obvious, reported back and even got half-way started implementing the project, several seasons and vast amounts of tax payers’ money has been wasted.

Monitoring will no doubt play a large part in any such schemes, adding additional layers of bureaucracy to an essentially simple idea, thereby causing further waste and delays.  If anyone has had any experience of council-run initiatives, the thought of them running on time or budget, smoothly or efficiently, without invasive interference, is at best a pipe-dream.

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s “LandShare” project may encounter some of these problems; another that springs to mind is to which any “Guerrilla Gardening” operation is prey: namely that such “abandoned” or under-used plots of land that may be considered “up for grabs” need to have “designated guerrllas” else anyone could end up tending and – possibly more importantly – harvesting the fruits of another’s labours.  To circumvent this, “guerrlla police” will be required or perhaps the formation of a quango such as “OffMyLawn” or “OffPlot”, further adding layers of officialdom to what should be a community-led scheme of private agreements between growers and land-owners.

Hopefully, GardenLend, being a series of private arrangements between those with and those wanting space to grow food and plants, should not fall victim to these particular problems.

That said, all these initiatives are worthy and welcome in their own right: the more such projects and new ways of sharing the limited resources for the greatest good of the most people is surely in the interests of all.  Your thoughts – as ever – are warmly welcomed.

To end on a high note and to quote the mighty Zim: “It’s a wonder we can even feed ourselves”

Sources:

http://www.hortweek.com/channel/GardenRetail/article/870554/Consumers-will-head-garden-2009-says-HTA-president/

http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/Article.aspx/1016164?UserKey=

http://www.bobdylan.com/#/songs/idiot-wind

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