Lead Authority: Brighton & Hove City Council

Proposal theme: Environmental sustainability:To allow allotment holders to sell their surplus product to local shops.

The main element of the proposal is to allow allotment holders to sell their surplus product to local shops.

This proposal addresses the current, iniquitous situation whereby allotment holders are only able to sell surplus produce for charitable purposes.

It will promote the sustainability of the local community by enabling local people to purchase locally grown food at reasonable prices. This will offer the community an opportunity to support their neighbourhood and encourage healthier lifestyles. It will provide an opportunity to develop and enhance local macro-business initiatives. It will support the positive use of excess food.

It supports the Government’s national imperative to reduce food waste (currently 35% of Brighton & Hove’s residual household waste stream is made up of food waste.)

Persons affected by the proposal would be the allotment holder (and their representative association, if any) and the immediate local community. In the broader context, should the initiative prove popular, there would be a positive impact on local food wholesalers and local shops and cafes seeking to buy locally.

Affected public bodies might include the Local Authority representatives from Trading Standards, Health & Safety and, potentially Community Development.

The main actions required from Government would be a minor change to legalisation enabling the sale of grown produce. (cf. Allotment Act 1950).

This proposal should encourage local communities to broaden their choice of food suppliers. It might encourage communities to ‘think global and buy local’, it could positively challenge consumers perceptions of food availability. The proposal may have secondary benefits in increasing the popularity of home-grown produce and associated interest in self-sufficiency and sustainability.

This proposal promotes local food providers and businesses throughout the food chain. The adoption of the proposal would increase the availability of locally grown and sold food. Surplus food from allotment holders could be sold locally, thereby increasing opportunities to buy and offering additional choice to local consumers.

An increase in the growth and marketing of organic forms of food production and the local economy would be dependent on individual growers (whether they choose to grow organically or not). However it would offer an opportunity for the council to promote alternative food production and a more diverse local economy.

There would be a positive impact on opportunities for volunteering and, should the proposal be sustainable in the longer term, beneficial impact on job creation locally.

Locally grown and traded food requires less transportation, supporting measures to conserve energy and increase the quantity of energy supplies which are produced from sustainable sources within a 30 mile radius of the region in which they are consumed. It would also help contribute to a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

The proposal, should it prove popular, might have an additional benefit in encouraging the formation of local growing clubs or allotment societies. Small civic societies play an important part in bolstering and encouraging participation in local democracy and increasing social inclusion.

A proliferation of gardening / community or allotment clubs, or even just an increase in the awareness of allotment ownership and its benefits would support measures to increase mutual aid and other community projects. Local growers selling surplus food to local consumers is a mutually beneficial operation.