Resistance! Plot holders rebel
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Not all plot holders in Birmingham were keen on the council’s plans or Thorpe’s vision. In this article published in the Birmingham Post on 7 November 1969, allotment tenants objected to their plots being called ‘agricultural slums’. People valued their autonomy particularly in terms of what they wanted to grow, what they wanted to use or recycle on their plot and indeed how they wanted it to look. The homely allotment may not have been modern but it was homely and that’s what people wanted.
Transcription:
Plot-holders intend to resist allotment schemeBirmingham Post Reporter
Plans by Birmingham Corporation to "landscape" city allotments will meet opposition when the project is outlined to plot-holders at a series of meetings during the next three weeks.
The Allotments sub-committee intends to convert about 600 plots in six areas of the city into leisure gardens. Some of the allotments are at present regarded as "agricultural slums."
Mr. Geoffrey Holton, tenant of two plots at the Corporation allotments in Bordesley Green, said he thought that plots would lose their individuality under the new proposals.
"From what I have heard of the proposals the idea seems to be to have a communal shed for all the tenants. I believe the majority of plot-holders will oppose this. One of the attractions is having a place we can work on our own."
He added that he used his own plots, like many others, to grow vegetables. Yet the new proposals appeared to put accent on the growing of flowers.
"You can grow flowers anywhere. We want our allotments as places where we can grow what we please." he said.
A spokesman for Birmingham Parks Committee said yesterday that meetings with plot-holders at a number of Corporation allotments would be held during the next few weeks to explain the new proposals.
"The meeting with the tenants of Bordesley Green plots will be held next Thursday. Over 200 people gave been invited to the meeting at the Council House.
Most of the tenants are not aware of the full plan and we want this opportunity to tell them before anyone else."
He added that the Corporation's plans incorporated some of the suggestions of the recent Thorpe Report on Allotments, which was carried out on behalf of the Government under the chairmanship of Professor Harry Thorpe of the Department of Geography at Birmingham University.
The report calls for a complete facelift for the allotment movement with the emphasis on flowers and shrubbery on a landscape site adjoining recreational land.
