After the adjournment of the planning appeal there has been interest from the press with regards to the site and the proposals for the remaining undeveloped garden area, Harrisons Plantation and Martins Pond.
As said in the previous post, thirty to forty years of uncertainty has stopped the association from operating as it should. A number of the gardens have been left fallow or overgrown as renters and shareholders stopped gardening in the areas of the site which in previous planning applications were either to be developed for housing, needed for drainage or given over for the use of the local community (next to Harrisons Plantation).
As said in the previous post, thirty to forty years of uncertainty has stopped the association from operating as it should. A number of the gardens have been left fallow or overgrown as renters and shareholders stopped gardening in the areas of the site which in previous planning applications were either to be developed for housing, needed for drainage or given over for the use of the local community (next to Harrisons Plantation).
The latest planning application proposes that more of the existing worked gardens be developed for housing and some of the areas currently fallow and overgrown be returned to gardens. This has led to further uncertainty for gardeners previously unaffected and an increase in the number of uncultivated gardens while we await the outcome of the planning appeal.
Until planning permission is granted to develop our site, the growth of the association is impeded. We are unable to guarantee a secure future to new gardeners until we have the resource to redevelop the site, it would not have been fair to let very overgrown plots to new gardeners with the spectre of redevelopment hanging over them.
CEG Statement
BACKGROUND
There is an urgent need to deliver more family housing in
Nottingham and CEG’s proposals seek to provide up to 110 homes including 30%
affordable housing plus education contributions, highway improvements to
Russell Drive, ecological, water quality and recreation benefits. Currently,
only two thirds of the allotment site is cultivatable, providing 68 plots. The
rest is blighted by lack of use, poor drainage, access and is so overgrown
substantial investment beyond the Association’s reach will be needed to clear
the site and secure it for future generations.
The development will clear and improve the site, delivering 180
new, quality allotments of sizes similar to those provided by Nottingham City
Council. The scheme will also fund an extension to Harrison’s Plantation and improvements to Martin’s Pond
to safeguard its future, as its species-rich fen has been in decline since the
1990s and suffers from pollution.
PRESS STATEMENT
Rob Gill from CEG said: “In addition to providing much-needed new
homes for families in Nottingham, the
proposals will bring land back into beneficial use more than doubling the
amount of allotment plots.
“Harrison’s Plantation
would be extended to provide more open space and walkways, and an ecology
strategy has been created, in consultation with Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust,
to deliver improvements to Martin’s Pond in order to safeguard the future of
this important ecological site.”
