Allotments: Plea for landfill tax to be spent on food

The Local Government Association (LGA) wants some of the cash raised through landfill tax and given to areas close to rubbish tips to be made available to councils to create plots of land for people to grow their own fruit and vegetables.

Currently allotments are excluded from grants handed out under the Landfill Communities Fund because they are used by individuals and not the general public.

The LGA is calling on the Government to change the rules to let town halls meet the spiralling demand for allotments in many towns and cities.

The organisation said an estimated 200,000 allotments, an area for growing food equal to 15 times the size of Hyde Park, had been lost over the past 30 years.