Allotment Strategy (TDBC) - Taunton Deane Borough Council

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30 Allotment Strategy Taunton Deane Borough Council 8 Consultation review Conclusions The main issues the Strategy needs to address are: Effective promotion of allotment including availability, location, image of plot holders, how to approach the Parish Council to provide land; Teaching basics about growing to new comers by experienced growers; Control of waiting lists; Location of new sites within walking distance of homes; Provision of toilets and facilities; More coordinated approach to wildlife habitat and impact of maintenance practices on sites; Funding advice; Disability.
Taunton Deane Borough Council Allotment Strategy 31 Why we need a local standard developed for Taunton Deane: The allotment strategy identifies existing shortfalls in provision and sets out how to secure the right amount, type and quality of facilities in relation to the existing need and the anticipated population growth of the Borough as well as prioritisation of efforts to deal with it. It will ensure that facilities are developed and managed in the most appropriate way with associated Policies and form part of the information base for the statutory local planning policy. Whenever there is a new housing development proposed, the developer can be required to provide and layout new allotments for the new residents. Where there are too few houses being built to justify a new allotment site, a financial contribution can be demanded based on the cost of setting out the relevant proportion of an allotment site. The standard will be an aspiration for existing allotment sites and used to prioritise requests for assistance. Quantity Developing a standard 9 There is a short fall in the Borough of Taunton Deane of 1.58 hectares of allotment land against the minimum recommended standard; which is compounded by long waiting lists and unknown latent demand. Currently the borough has 26.08 hectares of allotment land which at 290 square metres per plot is the equivalent of 899 full size plots. With a population of 107,400 people (1) in 47,686 households, (2) this is equivalent to 18.9 full size plots per thousand households in the borough – slightly below the NSALG recommendation which in Taunton Deane would mean 27.66 hectares of land should be provided. There are currently waiting lists at every site with some sites estimating people will be waiting for 3 years. There is considerable latent demand – people who are interested but haven’t joined the waiting list such as the 50 people in Cotford St Luke who have said they would take a plot if a site can be found in the village and 15 at Ruishton and nearly 80 in Wellington. Wellington has been used to calculate the quantity standard for the borough because it is a well defined area of 3 wards with a population profile that is broadly similar to the borough as a whole. Its existing plot holders are largely from within the 3 wards (unlike Taunton where the sites draw from much wider areas) and most site managers hold waiting lists so demand is known. The adopted quantity standard for the borough is 15.4 square metres per dwelling. This amount of land should be provided on- site for all new developments over 376 dwellings and an off-site contribution in lieu of £154 per dwelling collected on smaller developments. 1 Taunton Deane Borough Council Annual Monitoring Report 2006-7, Pg. 8 2 Office of National Statistics Household estimates for 2006
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Allotment Strategy (TDBC) - Taunton Deane Borough Council

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