Get more land (Big Society method)

In the UK, planning policy over the past decade or so has meant that houses are being built at high density with tiny so called 'gardens'. As discussed in The Free Lunch - Fairness with Freedom  this does not necessarily help to promote a more ecologically favourable outcome. For more on this read the book. Look at the arguments for lower densities. 

But there is one measure that local people can use to give themselves more space. If 6 residents in an area wish to have land to grow food they are empowered by the  Small Holdings and Allotments Act 1908  to ask their Local Council to set allotments up and the Council must make efforts to acquire land. Many people, for £20 or less for a year's rent for a part-plot, would welcome the opportunity to have a bit of land to tend. Most District & City Councils will already have allotments but many small Parish Councils do not.  It is a simple procedure for the Parish Council, once having received a petition from at least 6 residents to budget up to, say £10,000, to set up allotments. If they need to raise their council tax amount next year there should be time to set that in motion because the most difficult factor is usually finding suitable land which may incur delay. 

Land can be rented, say on a three year extendable lease, or bought. Parish Councils can borrow money over a long period which makes a land purchase affordable even to a few hundred council tax payers in a small Parish Council's area.

Council allotments are a longstanding and proven example of what David Cameron says about his Coalition Government's  'Big Society' idea: a 'big advance for people power'.  Perhaps the legal model of popular local demand for allotments could be the way forward for all sorts of new local initiatives, although to have to act after the request of 6 residents to keep the local pub open might be pushing it a bit... 
posted by Charles Bazlinton

Food miles

The BBC is currently highlighting the travel involved in our food and the resulting additional atmospheric carbon. There is the trip from abroad before it gets to the shops, and what we travel to buy it - up to 135 miles per adult per year. Waste food and packaging add to the problems. We are all struggling to find the real facts and effects, and an article by Hattie Ellis on www.bbc.co.uk/food puts as many questions as answers.

Ideas in The Free Lunch – Fairness with Freedom put the issue in another frame. The current planning laws are directly opposed to food production at the level of the household since the permitted new housing densities make this virtually impossible. At 40+ dwellings per hectare the resulting ‘gardens’ are minute. The owners will never be able to eat much food without a lot of travel having been involved.

We need planning law options that allow houses to have a good sized, unshaded food-growing plot. Food grown at home is not only low cost and wholesome but reduces waste food, travel costs, fuel consumption and carbon emissions; it also eliminates the need for packaging and its disposal. The use of geo-thermal heat for a house on such a plot would be more cost effective if also used to heat a poly-tunnel for growing food over a longer season.

The Free Lunch is a book for anyone who wants to increase choice for ordinary people. It addresses other issues that need to be considered along with such topics of the day as food miles.

www.the-free-lunch.com , or www.amazon.co.uk , or order from your local bookshop