Can you dig it?

A new report suggests that unused land on private estates should be handed over the 100,000 plus people in the United Kingdom waiting for an allotment. The proposal is that temporary leass should be granted to allow increased food production, reduce carbon emissions and boost public health and the Report’s authors, the New Local Government Network thinktank, are looking for support from some big land owners – the Ministry of Defence, the Church of England and the Royal Family!  The think tank mentions the sterling efforts of councils such as Sheffield and Middlesborough who have taken steps to convert ‘brownfield’ land into allotments for city dwellers and to that can I add Keswick Town Council who (I hope) have found me and nine others new allotments – three cheers to Keswick and three cheers to SusKes who have helped make this happen on a very local level! The Report aims to encourage all local authorities to  promote allotments which have declined in numbers from 1.4 million in the mid 1940’s (during and after the War) to just 200,000 now and will use the wartime phrase ‘Dig For Victory’ as a rallying cry to vegetable and fruit fiends everywhere!