Jeremy Corbyn has attacked his former Labour colleague Angela Rayner for signing off the sale of land at eight allotment sites since the general election.Allotments are small, rented plots of land where residents can grow their own fruit and vegetables, and are protected from development or sale under the Allotment Act 1925, except with ministerial sign-off.A government spokesperson said strict criteria were in place for allotment sales, which should only be made where they are “clearly necessary”.Writing in the Telegraph, keen allotmenteer Corbyn extolled the “joy of digging ground for potatoes” and warned that sales made “the future of these precious spaces even more perilous”.The former Labour party leader, who has recently launched an as-yet-unnamed rival party, has regularly talked about his love of growing crops at his north London plot, where his favourite vegetable is the marrow.In his letter to the Telegraph, the Islington North MP sets out the history behind the allotment, which started when landowners enclosed common land in the Middle Ages.The right to access common land for growing and grazing was a key demand of the Diggers during the English Civil War, Corbyn says, claiming the Enclosure Acts were “one of the most grotesque abuses of power by Parliament”.Losing access to land led to the rural poor “facing starvation” and being “forced to migrate to industrial cities” like Birmingham, he writes, adding “allotments, then, grew out of opposition to enclosures and the privatisation of common land”.Figures from the National Allotment Association suggests allotments are still vital for many people today, with one-in-eight of the UK population having no access to a garden, rising to one-in-five in London.About 100,000 are currently on waiting lists for allotments, some waiting decades for a plot.Rayner’s decis …
Article Attribution | Read More at Article Source
[mwai_chat context=”Let’s have a discussion about this article:nnJeremy Corbyn has attacked his former Labour colleague Angela Rayner for signing off the sale of land at eight allotment sites since the general election.Allotments are small, rented plots of land where residents can grow their own fruit and vegetables, and are protected from development or sale under the Allotment Act 1925, except with ministerial sign-off.A government spokesperson said strict criteria were in place for allotment sales, which should only be made where they are “clearly necessary”.Writing in the Telegraph, keen allotmenteer Corbyn extolled the “joy of digging ground for potatoes” and warned that sales made “the future of these precious spaces even more perilous”.The former Labour party leader, who has recently launched an as-yet-unnamed rival party, has regularly talked about his love of growing crops at his north London plot, where his favourite vegetable is the marrow.In his letter to the Telegraph, the Islington North MP sets out the history behind the allotment, which started when landowners enclosed common land in the Middle Ages.The right to access common land for growing and grazing was a key demand of the Diggers during the English Civil War, Corbyn says, claiming the Enclosure Acts were “one of the most grotesque abuses of power by Parliament”.Losing access to land led to the rural poor “facing starvation” and being “forced to migrate to industrial cities” like Birmingham, he writes, adding “allotments, then, grew out of opposition to enclosures and the privatisation of common land”.Figures from the National Allotment Association suggests allotments are still vital for many people today, with one-in-eight of the UK population having no access to a garden, rising to one-in-five in London.About 100,000 are currently on waiting lists for allotments, some waiting decades for a plot.Rayner’s decis …nnDiscussion:nn” ai_name=”RocketNews AI: ” start_sentence=”Can I tell you more about this article?” text_input_placeholder=”Type ‘Yes'”]
