The next stage of a two year long row over a large allotment site that’s been set up on the edge of Bristol has begun, after the company behind the project finally submitted two planning applications.
It means local residents – and people from around the country who have joined the campaign against Roots Allotments’ controversial site at Abbots Leigh – will finally be able to formally object, and council planners and councillors will be able to pass a verdict on the project.
But while objections to Roots’ two planning applications have begun to be submitted to North Somerset Council, so to have submissions supporting the scheme, which aims to create 700 allotment plots for people who pay a monthly fee.
Of the 13 comments received on Friday, the first day the planning application was published on the council’s website, nine were opposing the scheme, while four were supportive, including one person who said their mental health had radically improved by being part of Roots’ project.
Both planning applications submitted now by Roots are retrospective – asking permission for work they’ve already done. One is for the sign on the main A369 road past the site at the turning to Leigh Woods’ car park.
But the main application is for the work to create the site – the siting of a storage container, installing two CCTV cameras and four solar panels and the formation of an access and access track, made by gravel hardstanding.
Roots completed that work on the entrance and driveway earlier this month, sparking outrage from local residents who gathered powerless to stop it.
Roots had maintained it didn’t need planning permission to create their ‘no-dig’ allotments site at Abbots Leigh – they said all they were doing was what a farmer would normally do without any fuss in an agricultural field.
But the Bath-based company has been threatened with legal action by North Somerset Council, so have now applied for permission. The applications will not be a judgement on the principle of the field being turned into allotments, council planners have already told Roots they have the right to do that.
But what happens if planning permission is refused for the access and driveway, and the storage container remains to be seen.
Opposition to the Roots project is being co-ordinated by the Save Abbots Leigh Green Belt group. A spokesperson said: “This sorry story illustrates how little protection exists for threatened meadows and heritage landscapes across the country. Commercial companies can wreak damage and destruction – and local councils seem powerless to prevent that until the damage is already done.
“Roots has employed similar tactics to develop green belt land across the country. These applications cover only a fraction of the works that North Somerset has determined require planning permission.
“Local frustration grows as this company continues to play games with stretched resources of the council’s planning team. They have been consistent in their attempts to avoid proper scrutiny of the impact of their development, through the planning process,” she added.
One of the objections to the planning application criticised the way Roots had gone about setting up its allotments site. “This is very, very disappointing. Roots like any business developing a site should follow UK planning law and apply for planning permission when asked to by a council,” said one objector.
“Roots appear to regard UK planning law as an a la carte menu from which they can choose what suits their business model. When in fact it’s a set menu system we all have to abide by,” they added.
But others are supporting the company and the allotments project. One supporter told council planners of the benefits of the allotments, which opened in May this year and has just completed the first summer growing season.
“Roots Allotmens has enabled me, a disabled military veteran and former schoolteacher. to access an outdoor space to grow fruit, vegetables, and flowers,” they said.
“My allotment plot is wheelchair and mobility scooter accessible. The no-dig ethos of the site and the provision of tools in an accessible by ramp, and the now gravel entrance way, all combine to make this site accessible in a way that no other place I’ve found in the area is,” they added.
“The Roots allotment site at Leigh Woods has improved my mental health more than anything provided by the NHS. They are an asset to the community and neighbourhood. Ventures like this should be encouraged and supported, not lambasted by false accusations and online hate campaigns.
“I call on the local council to support this planning application and improve the public footpaths along the main road to ensure pedestrians and public transport users, of which I am one, can access the site with even greater safety and ease than there is now,” they added.
Another supporter mentioned the issue that prompted Roots’ business model in the first place – the shortage of traditional allotment sites in cities like Bath and Bristol.
“This site addresses the huge problem that the Bristol area has with long allotment waiting lists and lack of outdoor space attached to inner city housing,” they said. “The fact that Roots is an eco-company that is installing these sustainable and effective facilities is of huge benefit to the plot holders and has minimal negative impact on the site.
“To deny them these additions to the field is to deny the use of the field as allotments,” they added.
“These features are essential to the use of the land as it is intended. The biodiversity at that site is thriving thanks to Roots and there is a wonderful community of growers who have caused absolutely no harm to anyone. The site is tidy and well maintained. You should consider yourselves lucky to have a company like Roots maintaining land and community in your parish,” they added.
Comments will be received by the council planners for the next six weeks or so, and it is expected that the planning applications will go before councillors in the first few months of 2025.