Raising the Rents
Last week (17 Feb), Glasgow City Council approved a proposal to raise the rent for a full size allotment plot from £35 a year to £114 a year. A more than 200% rise in one year!
Glasgow Allotments Forum will be holding a public meeting to discuss responses to this decision and on-going developments with regard to allotment regulations in the very near future, so please watch this space.
Glasgow City Council’s food growing team occasionally issue summaries of funding opportunities available to the public. The following is the latest list:
Capital grants of up to £250,000 and revenue grants up to £50,000 are available for UK community organisations to take on the sustainable ownership of community assets that are at risk of being lost to a local area.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/community-ownership-fund-prospectus
Grants up to £10,000 are available for community and voluntary organisations for locally identified needs and investment priorities within each Partnership boundary. Amounts and application deadlines vary.
Research your own area from 6 January
Grants up to £100,000 are available for community groups and voluntary organisations to help children and young people become more confident and realise their potential.
https://www.tnlcommunityfund.org.uk/funding/programmes/young-start
Charities which can demonstrate they address disadvantage or social exclusion and will reach the most vulnerable people across Scotland, to provide them with opportunity and equality and making positive, sustainable change can apply. For disadvantage, examples include charities addressing primary disadvantage such as homelessness, abuse, mental health or poverty, or secondary disadvantage such as debt issues, learning disabilities, illiteracy, lack of employability skills or health issues. For social exclusion, examples include charities addressing exclusionary challenges for minorities, people with disabilities, LGBT people, drug users, institutional care leavers, the elderly or the young.
https://bankofscotlandfoundation.org/funding-programmes/reach
Grants of up to £2,500 are available to charitable organisations supporting challenged and vulnerable young people under the age of 16 in the UK. The 7stars Foundation will provide funding for projects which support young living in areas of deprivation and socioeconomic disadvantage who are challenged by abuse or addiction, who are young carers, or who are homeless. Projects should address a lack of provision and provide immediate support.
https://the7starsfoundation.co.uk/apply/project-funding-application
Grants of up to £10,000 are available to UK-based artists & activists to use art and creative actions to highlight the role of the UK’s industrial food system in the climate crisis and to create change within places of public, political and corporate power. In recognition of inequities built into the industrial food system, the project will prioritise the perspectives of those who self-identify as Black, Indigenous, people of colour and/or working class.
https://www.greenpeace.org.uk/take-action/bad-taste/
The theme for this funding round will be tackling pollution and single-use plastic. The Trust will be looking for community projects who are running initiatives to tackle these issues. In previous funding rounds the Trust has awarded grants of between £500 to £2,500.
Glasgow City Council is proposing to put forward new draft rules and regulations for allotment sites and a first draft scheme of delegation of management to site Associations early in the New Year.
The timetable we have been given is:
Your rents, services, obligations, legal status and future development are all up for discussion and alteration as part of this process.
GAF will be organising opportunities for briefings and discussions about this process. It is very important that you get involved.
Many allotment sites in Glasgow have long waiting lists, are concerned about the rules and regulations and have no clear agreement with the Council on Association Committees’ management responsibilities.
The fact that information on the missives on the Council’s website consists of the 1959 rules and regs says it all!
The Community Empowerment Act passed in 2015 was supposed to sort all this out but action on implementation has been next to non-existent.
Make your voice heard by filling in the questionnaire for the Parliament Allotment Inquiry.
GAF has submitted our own response, which you can read below. Please use it when you write your own response, if that would be helpful.
Remember to get your response in by the 24th May – help would be plotters and the planet to a greener future.
The Scottish Local Council Election for Glasgow City is due to take place on the 5th May 2022. This Good Food Hustings will be a chance to hear from party representatives on where they stand on key issues such as urban growing and allotments, emergency food provision, and food procurement. After hearing from candidates, attendees will have the chance to ask questions.
With the Glasgow City Food Plan launched in June 2021, this election is key in ensuring that elected councillors will support the implementation of the plan and the Good Food movement more broadly. The Glasgow City Food Plan is a framework to achieve: “a food system in Glasgow that is fair, resilient and environmentally sustainable and enables everyone in Glasgow to eat healthy, affordable, culturally appropriate Good Food irrespective of where they live, their income or personal circumstances.”
Representatives have been invited from the SNP, Scottish Greens, Scottish Labour, Scottish Conservatives, Alba and the Scottish Liberal-Democrats.
Why a 5:30pm start? We are starting the event at 5:30pm in order to be finished by 7pm, so that anyone who is observing Ramadan is able to fully participate.
You can see who the candidates are in all Glasgow wards here.