Allotments meeting
Last Tuesday (20th January) evening saw what could almost be termed as the
allotments summit take place with representatives from the various
Glossopdale groups wanting improved allotment provision in the area, coming
together with officers from the council along with the executive member for
the environment, who chaired the session.
The meeting started off with a review of a number of sites across
Glossopdale including some that had been suggested by local residents
following the press coverage prior to Christmas, along with consideration of
some of the potential planning issues that may affect some of the sites in
terms of usage.
County Cllr Dave Wilcox suggested a number of additional sites, with
representatives from the Glossopdale Action for Allotments (GAFA) and Cllr
Graham Oakley suggesting a few more. The GAFA group also suggested that the
council should look at some sort of fruit / community orchard as another way
of approaching the issue.
Following from an airing of various issues the gathering agreed to meet
again in a month, with the various groups (and anyone else) been asked to
continue to suggest further sites, along with trying to firm up from those
on the various lists as to how many actually want an allotment and what size
of allotment they want, as opposed to some that may have signed the various
petition because they support the idea of increasing the supply of
allotments.
In turn the council will review further the list of sites, and look (as some
of the groups are already doing) in to the practicalities of developing and
managing new sites.