The Allotments
Woodhouse Moor was acquired by Leeds City Council in 1857 and was intended to be a “People’s Park.” At the time, there were kennels and a pub on the park. These were compulsorily purchased and demolished as they were felt to detract from the park’s “country estate” appearance. During the 19th century, the park remained largely free of encroachments.
Allotments were established on Woodhouse Moor in February 1917. These were all completely removed in 1923. Allotments were re-established in March 1940. These were removed in 1953, and replaced by a smaller area comprising 92 allotments. The council said that these were temporary and would be removed when the emergency (rationing) was over. They are still in place today.
FIRST WORLD WAR
In December 1916, the Yorkshire Evening Post reported that the Parks Committee had decided to make allotments available in parks from Spring 1917. The first allotments on Woodhouse Moor were leased out in February 1917. Eventually, the number of plots on the Moor was increased to over 200. In October 1919, a Woodhouse resident complained that some people had two or three allotments on the Moor.
“As a Federation, there are certain parks which, in the interests of the general public, ought to be turned over to the public again. At the same time we are of the opinion that in certain cases, the reduction of the plots will inconvenience nobody.
“Woodhouse Moor is one place which should go back to the public at the first opportunity. The difficulty here, however, is that there are no other lands in the neighbourhood for the plot-holders who will be dispossessed. We feel that no allotment holder who wants to remain should be deprived of his plot until other accommodation is found for him.”
In September 1919, a local resident wrote to the Yorkshire Evening Post to respond to Mr Green:
“I would remind Mr P F Green and all others interested in allotments, that Woodhouse Moor belongs to all of the citizens of Leeds, and not to a favoured few. The sooner they all get notice to quit, the better. Even the children’s corner was not sacred. The best bit on the Moor, where the babies and little toddlers were wont to play, could not be let alone. It had to be hacked up to grow a few cabbages etc.
“What is there more restful to the eyes and to jaded nerves than a large stretch of grass and an open space where one can roam at will? And what more irritating than to find that same space labelled forbidden ground, and turned into plots, to be used as kitchen gardens? We are all ratepayers. Give the old folks, the invalids, the worker who needs recreation, and the children a chance. To cut a long story short, give us back Woodhouse Moor.”
“Woodhouse Moor is such a grand place for the children to play upon, and I, for one, shall be very glad to see it free from allotments. Why should they benefit as they must do (vegetables are so dear, 3d and 4d for a lettuce, 6d for a cabbage)? If they did not make a large profit, they would have departed long ago, and taken the horrid smells away, which we endured during the war without grumbling. But we sincerely hope that next summer we shall be able to enjoy the Moor as in pre-war days.”
“I am not attacking the allotment movement. If I had my way, not a cottage from one end of England to the other would be without its patch of garden; but the allotments on public recreation grounds were only supposed to be a war-time expedient, and holders retaining them are seeking to convert to their own private use and benefit, that which is intended for the use of all in another way altogether.
“No doubt the plots have given satisfaction to the holders. I sincerely wish them success. but hope they will find plots somewhere else than on Woodhouse Moor.”
“The parks and open spaces belong to the people, and if the exigencies of war-time demand the giving over of these ‘lungs of the city’ to allotments, then they should be restored as soon as the conditions are normal again. Leeds is not too well provided with open spaces in which children can play and grow. After all, children are more important than cabbages. Seventy thousand back-to-back houses, together with a fairly large number of houses without gardens, make the need of open spaces more vital.
“Surely the allotment holders can expect no compensation for giving up what they knew must be temporary. The benefit that accrues from allotments falls almost entirely to the holders and the years of war have well repaid them. If they wish to continue in occupation, they should find the children playing-fields as a recompense.”
In September 1919, at the second annual show of produce grown by members of the Leeds and District Federation of Allotments Associations, the Lord Mayor, Mr Joseph Henry said:
“I do not wish to introduce the slightest discord, but I wish to express the pious hope that as soon as the city’s parklands can be spared, they should be given back to the people for their original purpose. I am in no great hurry, but I should like to impress on both the Parks Committee and on the Allotment Holders’ Federation what a valuable asset and what an education the parks were to the people.”
In 1921, the Ministry of Agriculture called for the clearing of allotments from parks. In July 1921, the Yorkshire Post reported that the council was looking to acquire alternative sites for allotment holders who would be dispossessed when allotments were cleared from parks at the end of 1922. Allotment holders on the Moor were asked to quit their plots by the end of 1922. In March 1923, the council acquired land for permanent allotments at Ash Road, Ratcliffe Wood, Meanwood and in other parts of the city. Plot-holders who had been dispossessed of their plots at Woodhouse Moor were invited to apply for plots at these new permanent sites.
SECOND WORLD WAR
In March 1940 as part of the “Dig for Victory Campaign,” 157 allotments were created on Woodhouse Moor. By the end of the war, the number of allotments had increased to 264.
In February 1946, Mr E Kavanagh, the chairman of the Parks Committee said that whilst they had originally intended to clear allotments from all the city’s parks in 1946, in view of the continuing food shortages, they had decided not to proceed with the plan. This decision was made as a result of the Ministry of Agriculture urging local authorities not to serve notices to quit on allotment holders. In March 1946, the Yorkshire Evening Post reported declining interest in allotments.
In August 1946 at the Parks Administration Conference in Leeds Town Hall, Alderman A E Masser, deputy chairman of the Leeds Parks Committee said:
“We are all in agreement that park lands must be returned to their ordinary purpose as soon as possible. The only solution to the allotment problem is the provision of permanent plots . . .
“This does not necessarily conflict with the government’s advice to local authorities to provide allotments in the public parks during the food crisis. That is all “pro tem.” In some cases the supply of allotments exceeds present demand. Vacant plots are seen – and they are not a pretty sight – as a result of removals, or of loss of interest, due in part to an opinion that in regard to vegetables at any rate, the crisis is past.
“Some who dug for victory found a hobby they would like to keep up. Obviously public parks are not for this sectional interest, whatever its merits.”
In January 1947, a local resident wrote:
“Now the war is over when are the ratepayers of Hyde Park going to have their playground – Woodhouse Moor – returned to them as it used to be? Allotments, half of them now derelict, and with broken fences give the Moor an appearance of desolation.”
In September 1948, another local resident complained that “a great many” of the allotments were “derelict” and that the allotment holders were “trespassers.”
In September 1950, the Parks Committee announced that all the allotments would be cleared from the Moor by the end of 1952. In December 1950, the Committee’s Socialist chairwoman Alderman Mrs M Pearce said:
“I have been very disappointed with the allotment holders on Woodhouse Moor. The site we have agreed to take has been a disgrace, with its huts and shacks. They do not deserve any consideration. They have done their best to make it into a rubbish heap. But there are also good allotment holders.”
The decision to clear the allotments from the Moor was opposed at the meeting by Conservative councillor A W C Cumming. In May 1951, the Conservatives gained control of the council. As a result, Alderman Mrs G A Stevenson replaced Alderman Mrs M Pearce as chairman of the Allotments Sub Committee of the Parks Committee. Councillor Cumming remained on the Committee. In September 1951, the Committee met. The minutes of the meeting show that it was attended by Mr R Rudd, Mr G Thompson and Mr H Hill. This article reveals that they were the chairman, vice-chairman and honorary secretary of the Leeds and District Federation of Allotment Associations. This article reveals that they were co-opted members of the Allotments Sub Committee, and therefore entitled to vote. Since the end of the war, the Federation had been lobbying for allotments to be established on parks which didn’t already have allotments, and for war-time temporary allotments to continue on a permanent basis. The minutes state that the Allotments Sub Committee had received a letter from the General Secretary of the Federation asking for some of the allotments on the Moor to be retained. The Committee voted to put aside the decision made a year earlier to clear all the allotments from the Moor and decided instead to replace the existing allotments with a smaller number of temporary allotments. The idea to concentrate active allotment holders in one area of a park rather than to give notices to quit to all park allotment holders came from the Leeds and District Federation of Allotments Associations.
A local resident wrote to the Yorkshire Evening Post to complain:
“A year ago I read in your paper that all allotments on the Moor were to disappear by the end of 1952: and many people have been looking forward to the time when the whole of the Moor would be returned to the general public. Does this mean that 92 people are to be permitted to use public property for their own private purposes after the end of 1952? If so, I think it is wrong, and hope that somebody more influential will protest. Woodhouse Moor provides health and recreation for a large number of people in the vicinity. It should be jealously guarded against further encroachments on its limited space.”
The Yorkshire Evening Post replied saying that the intention was to create 92 temporary allotments which would be removed when the emergency (rationing) was over. The newspaper’s reply was worded sympathetically to the decision (the Yorkshire Evening Post was owned by Yorkshire Conservative Newspapers Ltd).
In October 1951, the Allotments Sub Committee of the Parks Committee voted to confirm the decision it took in September to establish after the 31st December 1952, an area of 92 allotments on the Moor. The minutes of the meeting show that the same executive members of the Leeds and District Federation of Allotments Associations were present at the meeting as had been present at the September meeting.
In August 1952, the Parks Committee said that the reason it had decided to relocate allotment holders into a smaller area was “because of the untidy and derelict state of many of the holdings.”
TEMPORARY AND STATUTORY (PERMANENT) ALLOTMENTS
There are temporary allotments, and there are statutory (permanent) allotments. The difference between them is explained at page 9 of this document:
“The legal designation of allotments sites is either “temporary” or “statutory”. Statutory sites are those sites that when the local authority acquired the land it specifically bought the land for the intention of allotment use. Such sites receive protection under Section 8 of the Allotment Act and any disposal or change of use would need to fulfil the requirements from the Minister of the Environment, Transport and the Regions.
“Temporary sites are those sites obtained by the authority for other purposes but are used as allotments until such time as that purpose is required. This usage may go on for many years before the requirement is needed for alternative use. These sites do not afford the same protection as statutory sites but are subject to Planning Policy in PPG 17 and may be required for review under that policy from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.”
So the allotments on Woodhouse Moor are temporary allotments. They’re temporary not just because the Parks Committee said in 1951 that they would be temporary, but because they’re not covered by the Allotments Act 1925. Temporary allotments have no statutory protection. Temporary allotment holders can be given notice to quit at any time.
AN EFFECTIVE USE OF LIMITED PUBLIC OPEN SPACE?
According to Leeds City Council’s Site Allocations Plan Publication Draft the main Moor covers 22.12 hectares and the allotments occupy 2.32 hectares of this. However, the Site Allocations Publication Draft overstates the size of the main Moor by mistakenly including land fenced off and owned by Yorkshire Water. This map of the park clearly shows the area owned by Yorkshire Water that has mistakenly been included in the total of 22.12 hectares. Blackwell’s Online Mapping Service gives the area of the main Moor as 20.95 hectares, including the allotments. This figure is very close to the figure given by the Woodhouse Moor Management Plan 2004. Paragraph 5.1 of the Management Plan states that the main Moor (including the allotments) covers 21.39 hectares. Paragraph 5.8 states that the allotments cover 2.32 hectares (the same figure given by the Site Allocations Plan). If we accept the Management Plan figures as correct, the allotments cover 11% of the Moor. Whilst the allotments may physically cover 11% of the main Moor, this map of the park shows they dominate at least 25% of the main Moor.
According to the 2011 census, Hyde Park and Woodhouse has 25,914 residents. There are currently 99 allotments on Woodhouse Moor. If each allotment has one user, it would mean that the allotments cater for 0.38% of the local population. And yet the allotments occupy 11% of the main Moor and dominate 25% of it.
As far back as 1962, it was recognised that allotments cater to the needs of a small minority. Councillor Dovener, the shadow chairman of the Leeds Corporation Allotments Committee said that in Leeds, with over 500,000 people, there were about 3,000 allotments “and therefore our work is catering for a very small percentage of the people of the city.” (Yorkshire Evening News, 25 July 1962)
When errors in the Site Allocations Plan are corrected, Hyde Park and Woodhouse is shown to have a deficit in all categories of open space (see the table on page 15 of Bill McKinnon’s Site Allocations Plan Recommendations). Neighbouring Headingley is also deficient in all categories of open space (see the table at paragraph 4.12 of the Site Allocations Plan Publication Draft). Hyde Park and Woodhouse has the lowest car ownership in the city (see the figure for University ward in Table 5.2 of Steer Davies Gleave’s Socio-Economic Baseline Report). Even though the residents of Hyde Park and Woodhouse are more dependant on Woodhouse Moor for their green space needs than residents anywhere else in the city, they are denied access to the 11% of the main Moor occupied by the allotments and prevented by the allotments from enjoying a “country estate” experience over 25% of the main Moor, which is ironic when you consider that the park was purchased to give local people precisely this experience.
Woodhouse Moor is the most intensively used park in Leeds and yet 11% of it is inaccessible.
Because some allotment holders complained about footballs landing in their allotments as a result of football being played in the park, in 2011, the parks department created an “exclusion zone” in the park to prevent park users playing football in that area. The exclusion zone consisted of a wide band of wild flowers. When this area became choked with weeds, the parks department replaced it with bushes. And so even more of Woodhouse Moor became inaccessible to the general public.
PRIVATISATION OF THE MOOR
There are 99 allotments in three plot sizes:
Plot size 0-124 (sq m) – 9 people
Plot Size 125-249 (sq m) – 52 people
Plot Size 250 (sq m) – 38 people
These are the charges for allotment plots from October 2015:
Quarter plot (62 sq m) – £14.50 per annum
Half plot (125 sq m) – £29 per annum
Full plot (250 sq m) – £58 per annum
The above figures reveal that 99 individuals pay a total of £3,842.50 so they can have exclusive use of 11% of Woodhouse Moor.
THE PROVISION OF ALLOTMENTS – DUMPING A COUNCIL PROBLEM ON WOODLOUSE MOOR
Section 23 of the Small Holdings and Allotments Act 1908 states that if a council believes that there is a demand for allotments; they have a statutory duty to provide a sufficient number of plots. But there is no legal national minimum provision standard. The National Society of Allotment and Leisure Gardeners suggests 0.125 hectares of allotment per 1,000 population. The 1970 Thorpe Report suggested 0.2 hectares per 1000 population (see paragraph 1.3 of Waveney District Council’s “Allotments, Cemeteries and Churchyards Needs Assessment.” July 2007)
Planning Policy Guidance 17 (PPG17) required councils to audit allotments, set standards of provision, and assess their actual provision against these standards, but PPG17 was scrapped in 2012 by the Coalition Government. PPG17 was replaced by section 73 of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) published in March 2012, which also requires councils to conduct open space assessments. Both PPG17 and section 73 of the NPPF deal with open space requirements. So it’s ironic that they should require local authorities to set standards for the provision of allotments, which are not open space.
The table at paragraph 2.2 of Leeds City Council’s Site Allocations Publication Draft sets a minimum requirement for allotments of 0.24 hectares per 1,000 population. The table at paragraph 4.11 shows that even with over 10% of Woodhouse Moor given over to allotments, the minimum requirement for the ward is still not being met. Given that the 2011 Census shows that the population of Hyde Park and Woodhouse is 25,914, in order to meet the (supposed) need, the area of allotments on the Moor would have to be tripled from the existing 2.32 hectares, to a staggering 6.22 hectares.
Presumably, prior to the establishment of allotments on Woodhouse Moor during the Second World War, the requirement for allotments was met elsewhere in the ward on other land owned by the council, perhaps the land at Bedford Fields (the Bedford Fields site used to be covered in allotments but is now occupied by City of Leeds Academy). The presence of allotments on the Moor allows the council to use other council land for more lucrative purposes. Is it right that the council can create allotments on a public park to save it the expense of having to acquire land elsewhere for use as allotments?
ARE THE ALLOTMENTS BEING USED FOR THEIR INTENDED PURPOSE?
A walk around the edge of the allotments reveals that possibly more than half are disused. Photos taken recently reveal large swathes of brambles, ragwort, couch grass, ramshackle structures, carpets and old tyres. Contrast these photos with this one of Flowery Fields Allotments in Stockport which shows what well-used allotments should look like.
The Woodhouse Moor allotment regulations state that the allotments are for “personal use.” This is in line with section 22 of the Allotments Act 1922 which defines “allotment gardens” as “an allotment not exceeding forty poles in extent which is mainly cultivated by the occupier for the production of vegetables and fruit crops for consumption by himself or his family.” And yet there are organisations which advertise allotments on Woodhouse Moor. These include the Student Union Green Action Society, the Permaculture Association and Leeds Beckett Student Union. Their websites make it clear that they are operating their allotments as “community gardens.” This usage seems to be condoned by the parks department which states at page 109 of the Woodhouse Moor Management Plan 2004 that the allotments are popular with students. So, even though there is a waiting list for allotments on the Moor, students can arrive in Leeds and begin immediately to use allotments on the Moor. This is not what the allotments were intended for.
Although fires are prohibited both by the park byelaws and by the allotment regulations, the Leeds University Student Union Green Action Society organises meals around a fire, bonfires, and barbecues on its allotments. And the Leeds Beckett University organises barbecue events with drinks on its allotment. There are frequent bonfires on the allotments and the smoke from them drifts across the rest of the park. According to page 109 of the Management Plan, the various structures on the allotments are used for drug taking.
OTHER PROBLEMS
Page 109 of the Management Plan states:
There are a few endemic problems on the allotments that include theft of produce, use of sheds for drug dealing, dumping of allotment and local residential refuse on disused plots and illegal access through the hedge to retrieve footballs. Additional difficulties encountered include plots allowed to grow wild for environmental reasons but leading to the spread of weed seeds in adjacent plots and plot holders vacating their sites and leaving dilapidated sheds and nylon carpets.
Page 63 of the Management Plan states:
In spite of a waiting list for allotments there is concern over the management of individual plots by allotment holders. In a number of cases weed control is lax or only a part of a plot may be used. Other issues revolve round the disposal of green waste, residential refuse dumping and the discarding of equipment and materials brought in to facilitate crop production.
WAITING LIST
The Woodhouse Moor Management Plan states that there is a waiting list for allotments on the Moor. And yet a large percentage of the allotments are derelict. Page 109 of the Woodhouse Moor Management Plan 2004 states:
“Although there appears to be a trend in Leeds of declining allotments use, the popularity of the Woodhouse Moor Allotments remains high and much of this
can be attributed to student interest offsetting reducing local community usage.”
The statement that the popularity of the Woodhouse Moor Allotments remains high is presumably based on the fact that there’s a waiting list. If there’s a waiting list, why are so many allotments derelict? Possible explanations are:
- The rents for the allotments are too low. So people take on an allotment, don’t value it, and have no incentive to give it up. When Leeds City Council tried to increase allotment rents in 2013, the Leeds and District Allotment Gardeners’ Association took them to court and won.
- The waiting list is years out of date, and names remain on it long after an applicant has lost interest, moved away or died.
- People apply for plots at several sites and don’t bother to withdraw their surplus applications once they’ve been allocated a site.
- “Six-week wonders” – people who take on allotments not realising the amount of hard work involved in tending them, but who then hold on to them instead of giving them up.
And if there’s a long waiting list, how are students, who are generally in Leeds for just three years, able to acquire an allotment? When the Management Plan refers to the popularity of allotments on the Moor remaining high due to “student interest” is it referring to the allotments that are being run by the student unions as community gardens, or is it referring to allotments rented by individual students? If it’s referring to allotments rented by individual students, are these students holding on to the allotments after they’ve left Leeds?
The fact that there are so many derelict allotments shows that other allotment holders don’t care enough to do anything about problem, either by tending to the derelict allotments themselves, or getting the council to take action against the absentee allotment holders.
FACTS AND FIGURES
Page 63 of the Woodhouse Moor Management Plan 2004 states that at that time, there were 92 allotments on Woodhouse Moor. The Management Plan also provides a map showing the location of the allotments, and a table showing the size of the individual allotments.
THE LAW ON ALLOTMENTS
HOW THE AREA OCCUPIED BY THE ALLOTMENTS LOOKED BEFORE THE ALLOTMENTS
A photo showing artillery practice taking place on the area that became the site of the allotments.
