Dear Watford Allotment Holder

1

1

Dear Watford Allotment Holder

We are writing to all current Watfordallotment holders to bring you up to date on the work that has been progressing since July and on the next steps.

If you remember, we held an open meeting for all allotment holders on 17 July. At this meeting we made a commitment to engage with those of you who expressed an interest in getting involved. This has been through two working groups:

1. Farm Terrace Group – focusing on the future of the Farm Terrace allotments as part of the wider Watford Health Campus scheme.

The meetings so far have covered:

• Explanation by the Watford Health Campus team as to the current status of proposals and the project;
• Discussion with a West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust representative to explain why the Trust needs part of the allotment site for the future hospital;
• A participative session to enable the group to understand the Health Campus site more fully and explore alternative development scenarios for the Campus

1. Allotment Stakeholder Panel –looking at the council’s Allotment Strategy, an acceptable quality standard for allotments and the level of investment needed to achieve this standard across all sites in the borough.
   The meetings so far have covered:
2. Current issues of concern to allotment holders;
3. The ‘model’ allotment and how this might relate to Watford;
4. Priorities for improvement.

Meetings of both groups have been held regularly since August. We are very grateful for the time and commitment people have shown to participate in the groups and the level of discussion and ideas that have arisen through the meetings.

Our aim was always to bring these two groups together to share the progress made so far. This happened on 7 November 2012. We felt it was important, in turn, to share the content and outcomes of this meeting with all allotment holders so that you have a clear picture of where we are and what will happen next.

1

con

I chaired the meeting on the 7th. Also present were:

Watford Borough Council:

• Manny Lewis (Managing Director)
• Paul Rabbitts (Parks and Open Spaces section head)
• Kathryn Robson (Partnerships and Performance section head)

Watford Health Campus

• Tom Dobrashian (Development Director, Watford Health Campus)
• Leigh Thomas (Development Director, Kier Property)
• Phil Woods (Project Manager, Kier Property)

In addition, around thirty allotment holders and a representative from the National Allotment Society (NSALG) attended.

Update on Farm Terrace
The Farm Terrace Group had asked for an opportunity to hear directly from Kier Property (the preferred private sector bidder for the Watford Health Campus scheme) about its work on developing a masterplan for the Health Campus site. The presentation from Kier outlined three options for the allotments within the masterplan. In simple terms, these involve:

• not using any of the allotments;
• using some of the allotments;
• using all of the allotments.

West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust has now clarified its requirements for more space. This has been stated by the Trust’s Chairman in a letter to the Mayor:

‘Therefore, it will be imperative that the option of additional land is available to provide for the facilities required by our patients and in my view it will be most difficult to achieve this without the contribution of part of the land presently allocated to the farm terrace allotments. In light of this, I would wish to support the Council in giving full consideration to the patients' needs in reaching its decision to consider this for hospital use.’

Kier explained, therefore, that they have to ensure there is sufficient flexibility in the masterplan to allow for new hospital buildings and facilities in the future.

Kier also outlined that a significant benefit from including the allotment land would be the delivery of family homes, as a considerable proportion of the current development land is in the flood plain and the Environmental Agency restricts the building of houses in these areas. Furthermore, the financial viability of the scheme would be greatly improved and this is an issue for both the council and the Trust. Farm Terrace allotment holders were obviously concerned about the potential impact on the allotments and raised a number of points (including the value of community / allotment gardening to people’s health and wellbeing and the contribution it can make to building a sense of community and local food production), which the council committed to include in the information that will be presented to Cabinet in December. This is when a decision on the masterplan and whether to include the allotments will be taken. Concerns were also expressed about disruption, pollution and the effect of construction works on the allotments during the building of the Campus.

If any, or all, of the allotments are needed, all current Farm Terrace allotment holders will be offered an alternative plot. Paul Rabbitts presented the outcome of recent work to identify relocation options.

con

The findings show that there is scope tosignificantly increase the size of Paddock Road allotments (allowing for more allotment space than is currently provided at Farm Terrace) and to accommodate some further plots at the Holywell allotment site (around half a mile away).

The relocation at Paddock Road, (which is 1.2 miles away), would ensure that the overall level of allotment provision in the borough is maintained. The meeting heard that, if relocation is required, the council would work alongside each Farm Terrace tenant to arrive at the best solution for them.

Investment in Allotments

Also at the meeting, Paul shared the priority areas for investment that allotment holders have identified and where improvements are most needed. Key proposals include improvements to fencing, toilets, access to sites and the supply of water.

Paul was also able to provide some initial idea of what this might cost but acknowledged more detailed work is needed. Overall, the expenditure proposed is for the council to commit around £1.6m on the relocations and the investment strategy to bring all allotments up to the agreed standard.Allotment holders were interested to know, if a programme of investment is agreed, how it would be funded. It was explained that the improvements, like any project or area work funded by WatfordBC, would need to be considered as part of the council’s annual budget setting process. The investment in allotments would need to come from capital funding – this is not money from council tax. It is a separate ‘pot’ that councils hold to pay for significant projects like this – it cannot come from the money we have to fund day to day activities and services. Paul explained that there would be engagement with each site on their individual needs before any programme of work is agreed.

Next steps

The next key date for the Health Campus masterplan is 3 December 2012 when the council’s Cabinet will meet to make the decision on Farm Terrace based on the information presented. Further engagement will be arranged with the Farm Terrace Group but the nature of this will depend on the decision taken. Even if not included in the scheme, the allotments will be significantly impacted by the Health Campus development over the next decade or so. Whatever option for the allotments is finally agreed, discussions will need to continue with the Farm Terrace group in the New Year.

The Allotment Stakeholder Panel will also meet again in the New Year towork on updating the current tenancy agreement and allotment FAQs (frequently asked questions). This will help us when we review the Allotment Strategy, which is currently planned for approval by Cabinet in March 2013.

We want all allotment holders to feel informed about issues that affect you, your site and Watford’s wider allotment community and so I hope the information in this letter is helpful.

If you want to comment on any of the issues raised or would like clarification on any particular points, please contact Kathryn Robson (Partnerships and Performance) at or on (01923) 278077.

Yours sincerely

Lesley Palumbo

Head of Community Services