With My Community
Follow our 4 step guide below for a simple way to campaign for more Allotments in your area... it's your right!
In 1908 the Small Holdings and Allotments Act was passed which set out guidelines and procedures surrounding the creation and maintenance of Allotments in the United Kingdom. One of the clauses in this Act, under Section 23, meant that when a minimum of 6 tax-paying residents of a single constituency contacts the local authority to request more allotments, the authority must follow through with an investigation.
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Here at AllotMe, we've created a simple 4 step process in accordance with this legislature to make it easy for you and your neighbours to push your local councillors into doing more.
1
Assemble!
Simply find 5 other council tax paying members within your local council that are also interested in growing food through an allotment or community garden. Your group can be as many neighbours as you want - the more the better, but you need a minimum of 6 people together before you can act.
2
Locate your Council
You need to know where to send your requests to. We recommend you use the following link to find your local council: https://www.gov.uk/find-local-council. Head straight to the ‘contact us’ section on your council’s site for the postal address to send your letters to. If there is a general inquiries email address, then feel free to use it as a follow up.
3
Download our Template
Writing letters to your local council may sound like a dull and arduous task - but fear not! We've made it super easy by creating templates for both the individual and covering letters that you'll need to send to you council. Each one of your group will need to fill in their / the council's details (in red) before collating and sending. Simply click on the below links for the Word file templates:
4
Send!
Once you and your other 5 neighbours have completed the sections in red on our templates, they're ready to send. When posting, you can put all 6 letters in a single envelope along with the cover page (we'd suggest recorded delivery). If you're emailing - use the text from our cover letter template in the email, with the 6 letters attached as PDFs. Use the postage details from Step 2, and send send send!
The quest doesn't stop here! Be sure to follow up your letters with a phone call and / or email every month until a formal response has been issued. Good luck - we'll be right there with you.
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NB: An important point to note, however, is that if you live within the 'Inner London Boroughs', your local council are not obliged to follow through in the same capacity as other councils - due to an amendment made in the 'London Government Act' of 1963, which changed the wording from 'shall' to 'may' with regards to the requirement for an investigation into more allotments upon request.