Glasgow City Council has a consultation out on the use of golf courses. The 6 courses owned by the Council tend to be underused and are proving very costly to maintain. Golf courses are a possible source of good, cultivable land which could be used for allotments, market gardens and community gardens. Such a change in use would support the City’s Food Growing Strategy.
Unfortunately the consultation form initially asks you questions about golf which you have to answer before you can get to the open-ended questions that allow you to express possible alternative uses for the sites. This means that, if like me you have no interest in golf, you have to provide dubious data for questions 1 and 2 – though you can point this out in the open-ended section. If you feel that we need better provision for allotments in the City – we haven’t had a new site since 2005 and getting a plot on many of our sites means being on a waiting list for 8 – 10 years – you may want express an opinion on the matter despite the restrictions set by the form. The consultation closes on July 7th. The link is: http://www.glasgow.gov.uk/consultations.
The Guidance to Local Authorities for Part 9 of the Community Empowerment Act was published yesterday at https://www.gov.scot/publications/part-9-community-empowerment-scotland-act-2015-allotments-guidance-local-authorities/
It sends a strong message about the need for stakeholder engagement in paragraphs 9.1 to 9.4 and 11.19 of section 119 ‘food-growing strategy guidance.’
(5). Ensuring there is sufficient suitable land to satisfy future demand:
3.22 Local authorities should, where practicable, (e.g. based on the scale of the development) incorporate growing spaces in planning briefs for regeneration and new developments, preserving sufficient good quality land to satisfy current and future demand.
Finally, Holmlea’s Open Day plus you’ll find new contact data for their site and South Western allotments in the table attached to our Sites page.
