Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn attack Labour over allotment sales
Politics / Thu 7th Aug 2025 at 09:46am
FORMER Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has attacked his former Labour colleague Angela Rayner for signing off the sale of land at eight allotment sites since the general election reports the BBC
Allotments are small, rented plots of land where residents can grow their own fruit and vegetables, and are protected from development or sale under the Allotment Act 1925, except with ministerial sign-off.
A government spokesperson said strict criteria were in place for allotment sales, which should only be made where they are “clearly necessary”.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3dpkvkkjjno
Nigel
2025-08-07 09:58:23
Not very often that I agree with Jeremy Corbyn, but on this one he is spot on. Allotments are a little bit of sanctuary for many, and also a spot of land that cannot be concreted over.
shel
2025-08-07 10:12:30
'Allotments are a little bit of sanctuary for many'. Very true. Labour are intent on destroying nature, to build unaffordable doll houses and 'apartments' (flats to give them their real name!). In England there are 700,000 empty homes, according to the Governments own figures! of those 264,884 are classed as long term empty - no one has lived in them for six months or more. More needs to be done to tackle this before seizing allotments. If this is allowed, it may pave the way (no pun intended) to take other types of land that we think, are sacred.
Nicholas Taylor
2025-08-07 11:14:37
Of course Labour have a history of doing this, the sorry tale of the land adjacent to Bushy Croft is proof of that. Our then Labour Council failed to advise residents that land they planned to build on was in fact allocated as allotment land back in the 1950's.Despite nearly 200 objections they gave themselves planning permission but then needed to seek permission from the Secretary of State. Instead of writing to residents informing them they had a right to object, they just stuck a notice up in the Civic Offices, put an advert in the local gazett and a note on their website. No-one could have seen these because the council could report (despite the response to the planning application), not a single resident had objected to the change of use. I wonder if they have done the same with the change of use of the allotment at Canons Gate?
Terry
2025-08-07 12:32:49
Says the man that supports Hamas!
Peter Henegan
2025-08-07 12:53:14
I lived in the Gardiners, they were built around 1997 on the site of an allotment. A new allotment was created next door. I have no idea how the size of the old allotment compared with the new. Guess the position of the built on site was considered better (more profitable?) than building on the adjacent site
Peter Henegan
2025-08-07 12:58:24
I think that allotments are great although I do not have one, but there again I am woke/green whatever. I don't know how many Harlow homes have gardens (Nich can you help?) but I wonder how many gardens have produce growing. Me, I have 9 fruit trees plus a variety of other stuff so allotments aren't the only way to grow your own
Nicholas Taylor
2025-08-07 15:08:47
Peter, well there are about 40,000 homes in Harlow now and I would estimate that perhaps three quarters are houses and bungalows so about 30,000 will have gardens. Putting aside an area in a garden to grow fruit and veg is a good way of keeping food bills down and can be good for a persons physical and mental wellbeing. That's why building so many high rise flat blocks in this town is not a good idea, every allotment space needs to be kept. The council said at the time of the Bushy Croft saga that they advertised vacant allotment plots, I proved that was not the case.
Michael beere
2025-08-08 16:22:55
According to the National Allotment Association Every one of the eight sold-off allotments that were mentioned in the story the NAS did not object to when plans went through the statutory process which means the NAS must be consulted. Some of the sites were given better allotment land to replace them, while one increased from 40 to 60+ plots when it was relocated, Others were for a single allotment that was not in use The rules have not changed since introduction in 2016 under the Tories and there has been no increase in proposals for change of use. Between 5and 8 allotments on average per year are sold and there are strict criteria in place to protect them. Yet more disinformation. Please clarify the facts before jumping to conclusions.
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