Local Government Committee, 12 Dec 2000
Meeting date: Tuesday, December 12, 2000
Official Report
222KB pdf
Petition
We move now to agenda item 4. Members will recall that we considered the petition on allotments from Judy Wilkinson last week. We decided to take that further, so we have proposals for an inquiry. The terms of reference are on the second page of the committee paper. They are:
"??To examine the current legislative framework governing allotments and its effectiveness.
??To investigate current local authority practice in providing and maintaining allotments.
??To examine the extent of interest in allotment cultivation.
??To determine the need for reviewing legislative, or other arrangements, for the protection, provision and promotion of allotments."
I propose that they should be the terms of reference. As members have no comments on them, we will move on.
There are suggestions that we take evidence on the legislative framework from Scottish Executive officials, and that we hear from appropriate officials from some of the larger city councils that operate allotments. We could also hear from the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, the Local Government Association and the Food Trust of Scotland, which conducted a survey in 1999 on the state of Scotland's allotments and future options and prospects. It might be interesting to hear what that group has to say. We could also invite representatives from a sample of allotment federations, such as the Federation of Edinburgh and District Allotments and Gardens Association and the Scottish Allotments and Gardens Society. Does anyone wish to remove names from that list or add to it?
It would be sensible to invite users' organisations and the petitioner.
Yes, of course. Eugene Windsor suggested that members might go to look at allotments in the summer, but I do not know whether they would like to. We can think about that. We are agreed about the terms of reference and about the people we will invite to the committee. I think that we shall use just one meeting for that—it is the first time that we have considered a petition and it will be difficult to add anything else on to that agenda.