The Allotment Development Awards helped allotment sites improve and sustain both their communities and their environment. They were also intended to encourage the sharing of knowledge and practice about good food cultivation and communal wellbeing across the city.

Three awards of £500 each were given to an Association in the South, the North East, and the North West to help them move forward with an improvement project.

The awards were decided on the basis of presentations made to an audience of GAF members in August, and the Associations who win the money come back with a report on how they have used it in the following year.

ADAs have been used by associations for a variety of purposes, including to help develop a community space for groups visiting a site, to move work forward the development of a small nature reserve, to provide better access for gardeners with disabilities, and to create a wildlife area and better communal facilities for plotholders.

The audience listened to three presentations, and judged them on three criteria:

• Caring for the Earth
• Building Your Association
• Making Local Connections