Allotments
Land used by communities for growing vegetables, fruit, herbs or flowers which is not for profit
- Design stage
- Co-design
- Tags
- local plan
- Frequency of updates
- Every 6 months
- Discussion
- Join the discussion on GitHub
- Last updated
- 26 September 2024
Backlog
Who asked for 'Allotments' data?
Identified by the Geospatial Commission as a national dataset to make data easier to find for the sector.
What is the driver for the request?
Other
Which 2024 focus area does the request support?
Modern planning software;Other
Screen
What is the 'Allotments' consideration?
An allotment is a piece of ground that you pay rent for, usually a fairly small annual charge, in order to grow your own produce. - RHS
Is there legislation that defines 'Allotments'?
Yes
What is the legislation that defines 'Allotments'?
Allotments Act 1922, Section 3, Paragraph 7 - "In this section the expression “allotment” means any parcel of land, whether attached to a cottage or not, of not more than two acres in extent, held by a tenant under a landlord [otherwise than under a farm business tenancy (within the meaning of the Agricultural Tenancies Act 1995)] and cultivated as a farm or a garden, or partly as a garden and partly as a farm."
What is the specific part of the legislation that describes how a 'Allotments' gets designated?
Not legislation, but found through parliament.uk. "Allotment sites owned by local authorities can be designated as 'statutory' or 'temporary' where 'statutory' sites are subject to some protection under the Allotments Act 1925. 'Temporary' sites have no security beyond the usual planning system requirements. As a result of these differences, the designation of a site is important to local authorities and allotment holders alike."
What is the specific part of the legislation that requires the publication of 'Allotments'?
There is no specific legislation that requires the publication of allotment data.
Who, in law, is responsible for the planning consideration or makes decisions about 'Allotments'?
"An allotment authority is the district council, Outer London Borough, or where there is a parish council" - parliament.uk
Which organisations do we think should publish the data?
Local authorities
Is the Allotments a trigger?
Yes
What needs to be done because Allotments has acted as the trigger?
Not necessarily a trigger, but it is generally understood that development on an alloment would require reprovision elsewhere to the same, or better quality and size
Is the Allotments something to consult during plan making?
Yes
Provide information about when Allotments is used during plan making
Yes, LPAs are required to ensure that there is sufficient provision of allotments to meet demand, particularly when planning for growth. There are widely used planning standards for allotments (e.g. hectares/1000 population)
Is there any Allotments data already available?
Yes
What Allotments data is currently available?
- OS Open Greenspace (publisher: Ordnance Survey; coverage: National; licence: OpenData - Open Government Licence; fields: id;function;distinctiveName1;distinctiveName2;distinctiveName3;distinctiveName4;geometry)
Do we think the data should come from a single source?
Yes, most likely OS
Will a data standard be required?
No
Research
What other planning considerations does it interact with?
- Local plans - Allotments are occasionally referenced in local plans, so we think that this consideration feeds into the process of creating a local plan as provisions will need to be met.
What are the planning needs for this data?
LPAs are required to ensure that they provide sufficient allotment provision to meet demand, generally using agreed planning standards (e.g. hectare/1000 population). Statutory allotments will generally be on the proposals map