Bonfires on Allotments are a contentious issue, what with smoke and
global warming, and residential neighbours that will blame allotments for the
smoke even when it’s actually coming from a fire in their neighbours back
garden four doors away, however they are a necessary evil on an allotment plot.
Some weeds can be composted, however fire is the main way of dealing
with Perennial weeds, like couch, dock and hogweed or spiky thorny stuff like
holly, hawthorn and brambles, and tree branches that too thick for the
shredder. There are no Allotment Sites in the borough that I’m aware of that are
lucky enough to have electricity to power a shredder.
The traditional advice for the control
of infected or diseased material like Potatoes or Tomato when blight hits is
that it should be burnt burned rather than composted.
Having allotment fires produce a valuable by-product a natural
fertiliser, wood ash which is an
excellent source of lime substitute and potassium or potash (they’re not identical but -
scientists look away now - the terms are often used interchangeably), and
potassium is a vital nutrient for crops, and also provides many of the trace
elements that plants need to thrive.Wood ash fertilizer is best used
either lightly scattered or by first being composted along with the rest of
your compost.
The biggest problem with Allotment
Bonfires especially with new owner who take over late in the year is that they
don’t allow the material they have cleared from the site to dry out before
attempting to burn it.
This is a photo from 2012 when I
first took over my plot at Mill Green and I built pallet boxes to lift the
material off the ground and allow the air to dry out the weeds, timber and
branches of the trees that I had removed, and It took a great many nights to
burn and get rid of it all but the fires took place a couple of hours before
dusk in two incinerators and we stayed until the fires went out
With my second plot in 2015 the
amount of clearance required that needed burning was much less and this time I
built a fire on top of pallets and covered with a tarp to keep dry when I was
not on site and removed the covering to allow the material to dry when I was on
site and I managed to burn and get rid of everything in one go.
On Mill Green I have a couple who
took over their plot that had not been worked by the previous owner and was
left a terrible state. Neither of them drive or own a car and they got a friend
with a van to assist them only to find out that the rules had changed and that
they needed to book a van in at the local dump and only managed to get one load
to the dump. Burning was their alternative but again they heeded advice and
ensured that what they were burning was dry. Lack of resources to get rid of
rubbish off a plot is another reason for allowing fires.
So with the impending total ban on
fires on allotments that is already drafted in the and a decision appears to
have been made without consultation with the draft strategy document without
directly consulting the 2500 London Borough of Sutton plot holders I decided to
undertake a survey of my own and simply asked the 55,000 members of four of the
most popular Allotment and gardening forums on the internet what were the rules
with regards having Bonfires on their allotments and here is the range of
results I have received from 225 comments over a three day period.
I have listed them in semi order of
restriction with Fires Allowed at any time at the top and a Total Ban at the
bottom of the list.
Fires allowed anytime all year
Burn any day as long as there is no
Pigeon Racing
Fires allowed anytime all year but
not more than 3 on the site at any one time
All year as long as early in the
morning or late at night
Open fires not allowed only using an
incinerator all year round
Communal Area for Fire Committee
light the fire on a Thursday Night after 6pm
Fires allowed on one day every month
Site size Incinerator with flue
controlled by committee
Sundays Only
Fires only from 1st
October to the end of March -A Sensible
Compromise common and what has been in place within the London Borough of
Sutton for some time
Fires Only from 1st
November to the end of March after 6pm
Fires Only from 1st
November to the end of March after 6pm on a Wednesday or a Saturday
Fires only from 1st
October to the end of March but only using an incinerator
Bonfires only allowed in November
& March (The end and the start of the growing season)
Bonfires only allowed from the 1st
November until the end of February after 6pm
Bonfires only allowed one weekend in
November and One weekend in March after 6pm
Two weeks, one either side of the 5th
November
Bonfire Night Week in November
Bonfire Night or the nearest Saturday
Bonfire Night only
2 Specific Burn Days a year in
November & March
Banned on the site but Owner now
provides a skip for green waste only
Fires Banned on the site
Where fires are allowed here are some of the restrictions
Incinerators Only No Open Fires
Dry materials Only
Open Fires only between 1st
November – end of March / Incinerator only between 1st April and End
of October
Have to be attended
A communal fire once a month
Allowed from an Hour before dusk
Allowed 2 hours before dusk
No fires on a Sunday
Not allowed at weekends and Bank Holidays
We have to ring the local fire
service to inform them we are having a fire on the site
After 6pm
Wind Sock on site and not allowed
when active or pointing towards housing
No more than 3 fires on the site at
any one time
Fire Pit Area Only no individual
fires
Source of the list above was from 255
comments during a 3 day period to a survey question on
My hope is that the Gardening group and all the Site Reps will be able to meet with the Suttons Parks team and find a solution that allows for fires to continue to take place on allotments and also reduce the amount of complaints from neighbouringdomestic property owners.
That being said it is a pain when you are on a plot and are having problems with smoke from fires from their back gardens during the period between 1st April and the end of September when you are not allowed them on the other side of the fence!. #justsaying
Allotment Growers UK – 30,545 members
The Allotment Shed – 20,089 members
Allotment & Garden Club Mind Your
Peas and Cues – 4,109 members
Grow Your Own Magazine – Grapevine –
membership numbers unknown.
No comments:
Post a Comment