Chamber and committees

I will bring in Paul McLennan on the theme of community organisations, volunteering and planning. The time is 11:33, so we will probably go on for another 10 or 15 minutes before concluding.

Richard Crawford is keen to come in. It is hard for witnesses in the virtual space to come in, so I will let him get his wedge in. Come on in, Richard.

Good morning and welcome to the 17th meeting in 2022 of the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee. I ask all members and witnesses to ensure that their mobile phones are on silent and that all other notifications are turned off during the meeting.

The first item on our agenda today is to decide whether to take items 3 and 4 in private. Is that agreed?

Members indicated agreement.

Let us move on, because we have quite a lot to get through. I am sure that we will be asking a question where you can bring in all those bits and pieces. I want to get to what we are here to talk about today, which is part 9 of the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015. A key aim of part 9 is to help address the demand for allotments, which Richard Crawford touched on. I am interested to hear whether you think that that legislation has made a difference in addressing the demand. That is for whoever wants to pick it up.

Of course, sitting and listening to the birds has value in the benefits that it brings to mental health and wellbeing .

At this point, I am going to set out what we will do for the next half an hour or so. We have about seven or eight questions left, and we will try to cover three themes. You may have already covered some of them, because you are doing such brilliant work here. What you are sharing with us is great.

The next theme is the implementation of the 2015 act and the assumptions about the size of allotments. Then we will bring in a bit more of the local food strategies, which Lou Evans started to touch on. We then want to talk about, and get a greater understanding from you about, volunteering and planning, which we have also touched on.

We still have quite a lot to cover, but we have touched on a lot of those things already. I will bring in Marie McNair with a couple of questions about the size of the plots.

That is very true. This has been a rich conversation. Paul McLennan and the rest of us have gained a lot from it.

Lou Evans referred to “our sector”. I think that you said what that is, but I would love it if you could encapsulate what you are imagining when you say “our sector”.

The next item is to take evidence on the impact of the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 on allotments and community food growing. This is the first of three evidence sessions that the committee is holding as part of its inquiry. We will be discussing the topic today with a panel of witnesses representing allotment and food growing organisations.

I welcome Lou Evans from the Community Growing Forum Scotland; Jenny Reeves, who is the chair of the Glasgow Allotments Forum; Stuart McKenzie, who is the president of the Federation of Edinburgh and District Allotments and Gardens Associations; and Richard Crawford, who is the vice-president of the Scottish Allotments and Gardens Society, who is joining us online.

It would be helpful if members could direct their questions to a specific witness where possible, although I will be happy to bring in others who wish to contribute. If other witnesses wish to comment, please indicate your desire to do so to me or to the clerk and I will bring you in at an appropriate point. Richard, I would be grateful if you could indicate when you wish to come in by typing R in the chat function in BlueJeans. I will begin by asking a few questions and then open up the session to questions from other members.

This is about the big picture of allotments. I am keen to hear your views on the broader, positive impacts of allotments, particularly the social, environmental and food security benefits that allotments bring. Do you have any sense of how those benefits are being measured. Do you think that allotments have an impact in other areas of public policy in Scotland? There is quite a bit there. I will start with Stuart McKenzie and then go to everybody else.

Indeed. Thank you very much for your response to that. Yesterday, we visited Stuart McKenzie’s allotment and I told him that I came across that allotment site in Inverleith park when I was a child, and I remember it being a magical discovery experience. You are right that allotments are tucked away. We visited others yesterday as well. Inverleith allotments seem to be more visible now and there are 180 people growing food there. We visited others that are visible and we saw a community plot that involves new Scots, which you spoke of. It was incredible to see that coming to life.

I will bring in Richard Crawford to answer the same question. In general, what are the social, environmental and food security benefits of allotments and community growing and do you have a sense, from the work that you have been doing, of whether the benefits are being measured or assessed in any way?

Thank you for that clear response and those useful figures.