Allotments
By Cllr Keith Martin
I propose that Westport Town Council acquire agricultural land for the purpose of providing allotments to citizens of the town to allow them to grow vegetables, fruits and flowers.
This would allow citizens to develop sustainable and local foods for their own consumption and allow for food security and combat climate change through greater self-sufficiency and allotments are also a logical response to recent food price inflation.
The Office International du Coin de Terre et des Jardins Familiaux, a Luxembourg-based organization representing three million European allotment gardeners since 1926, describes the socio-cultural and economic functions of allotment gardens as follows:
- for the community a better quality of urban life through the reduction of noise, the binding of dust, the establishment of open green spaces in densely populated areas;
- for the environment the conservation of biotopes and the creation of linked biotopes;
- for families a meaningful leisure activity and the personal experience of sowing, growing, cultivating and harvesting healthy vegetables amidst high-rise buildings and the concrete jungle;
- for children and adolescents a place to play, communicate and to discover nature and its wonders;
- for working people relaxation from the stress of work;
- for the unemployed the feeling of being useful and not excluded as well as a supply of fresh vegetables at minimum cost;
- for immigrant families a possibility of communication and better integration in their host country;
- for disabled persons a place enabling them to participate in social life, to establish contacts and overcome loneliness;
- for senior citizens a place of communication with persons having the same interests as well as an opportunity of self-fulfillment during the period of retirement.
I would propose that these lands be purchased or compulsorily purchased under the
Acquisition of Land (Allotments) Act, 1926
2 1926 8
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| Local authorities may provide land for allotments. | 2.—(1) Whenever a local authority is of opinion, as a result of representations made to them or on their own motion, that there is a demand for allotments in their area and are further of opinion that the costs and expenses to be incurred by them in providing and maintaining the land for such allotments and otherwise in relation thereto may reasonably be expected to be recouped by the rents and other moneys to be received by them for the allotments, such local authority way resolve to provide land for such allotments under this Act, and may thereupon carry such resolution into execution under and in accordance with this Act. |
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Fingal County Council currently offer allotments measuring one tenth of an acre, for domestic use only for €19.00 p.a
Other councils offering allotments include South Dublin County Council, Galway City Council and Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council.
According to the Irish Times May 10 2006
Allotments are popular because they enable you to:
· Grow your own organic food or flowers
· Exercise
· Teach children about growing plants
· Have a chat with your neighbours
· Get out of the apartment and having your own small bit of outdoor space on the ground.
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