Railway embankment potential allotment site by 5-ways

[George Latham]

There was a lot of interest at tonight's food group meeting in trying to make this potential community allotment site a reality...

[Sanchia Dunn]

It was good to meet everyone this evening. I'm excited to start getting involved and see what we can get happening with this site.

[Ali Moore]

I wasn't able to be there tonight unfortunately - do you know if there will be any notes/ minutes from the group that could get me up to speed? - would love to get involved in creating a community allotment.

[marjory fraser]

Hi Ali
Sorry you couldnt make the meeting. We had a wonderful presentation from a couple of Foragers. I have posted their links on the site. We had feedback from the bike ride and discussed potential sites for allotment/food growing. Looks like the railway embankment has possibilties. The next meeting is on 12 January at the 5-Ways Residents Hall on Winchester Ave, NW6.
Best wishes
Marjory

[Molly Fletcher]

Molly and I are very interested in the getting the community allotment established. We know a nice Brent council person who helped us get trees planted on our street through the Kensal Triangle Residents Association (KTRA), who might be a way in. George has asked me to post photos of this and other potential sites we saw on the cycle around that Ash and Paulette organised. Will do v soon

[Julie Thomas]

Great stuff. Will there be some minutes of the meeting posted up? How did the bike ride go?

[Sanchia Dunn]

Just a quick update of what I've found so far:
This land used to be under management of Network Rail, but has recently changed in functioning to London Overground. So we're a bit unsure of ownership, and this can't be confirmed just yet, not without going through the Land Registry (and paying for title deeds...). I've been in touch with NR and am waiting to hear back. (I was told to give it 20 days!) I'm hoping they can confirm one way or another.

I was also in touch with Capital Growth as I hear they'll support a community group when negotiating with landowners. They've said we need to first confirm ownership and then fill in a form in order to apply for this support. They weren't encouraging about Network Rail, however. They've been working with similar organisations, including TfL, and with TfL have somehow got as far as developing a template lease agreement that groups can download from their website! Maybe we should keep our fingers crossed that it's TfL and not NR.

Regarding precedent - I received less than encouraging feedback from Jane Howard (Islington fruit harvesting contact) saying that they were told NR don't agree leases for food growing out of principle, but their contact who'd agreed something verbally on site then went on long term sick leave! They're still waiting a few months down the line. However she did tell me about another allotment site near Drayton Park Station (near Emirates stadium) along NR land.

I spoke with Hannah Greenaway who helps with the Princess Frederica food growing and gardening. This sounds like it started over 4 years ago, but she was more positive. They also have a pond and a compost heap here which may help the environmental/biodiversity credentials. (I would quite like to see this garden, so that I can talk with confidence about it's location and activity when I do finally speak to someone useful in NR. - if anyone can organise something that would be quite helpful. In fact a visit to this one and possibly the Drayton park one would be nice. I might try and organise something soon.)

I've spoken with other people and still awaiting responses, but will update you as it all comes in. (including Clr Purney who I need to chase as I've not heard anything, and we'll need his support)
Oh yes, one last thing - I found out that just behind Weston House is a substation (between the block and the railway line). There may well be some limit on access within a certain radius of this substation, but hopefully I can get more site specific information and how this will affect the site once "proper" contact is made.

If anyone has any contacts they think could help (someone below mentioned a contact in Brent re an allotment), pls you could try to contact them and see if they have any helpful information? I would hate for us to get an anonymous response from NR Community Relations turning us down straight off the bat.

[Molly Fletcher]

Great work Sanchia, you've been so busy on this one. The name of the Brent contact who helped us get trees planted in our street is Clr Simon Green and he's part of our residents group Kensal Triangle Residents Assoc. that Michael visited about fruit picking a while back.
Keep us posted
Molly and Tom



Sanchia Holmes said:

Just a quick update of what I've found so far:
This land used to be under management of Network Rail, but has recently changed in functioning to London Overground. So we're a bit unsure of ownership, and this can't be confirmed just yet, not without going through the Land Registry (and paying for title deeds...). I've been in touch with NR and am waiting to hear back. (I was told to give it 20 days!) I'm hoping they can confirm one way or another.

I was also in touch with Capital Growth as I hear they'll support a community group when negotiating with landowners. They've said we need to first confirm ownership and then fill in a form in order to apply for this support. They weren't encouraging about Network Rail, however. They've been working with similar organisations, including TfL, and with TfL have somehow got as far as developing a template lease agreement that groups can download from their website! Maybe we should keep our fingers crossed that it's TfL and not NR.

Regarding precedent - I received less than encouraging feedback from Jane Howard (Islington fruit harvesting contact) saying that they were told NR don't agree leases for food growing out of principle, but their contact who'd agreed something verbally on site then went on long term sick leave! They're still waiting a few months down the line. However she did tell me about another allotment site near Drayton Park Station (near Emirates stadium) along NR land.

I spoke with Hannah Greenaway who helps with the Princess Frederica food growing and gardening. This sounds like it started over 4 years ago, but she was more positive. They also have a pond and a compost heap here which may help the environmental/biodiversity credentials. (I would quite like to see this garden, so that I can talk with confidence about it's location and activity when I do finally speak to someone useful in NR. - if anyone can organise something that would be quite helpful. In fact a visit to this one and possibly the Drayton park one would be nice. I might try and organise something soon.)

I've spoken with other people and still awaiting responses, but will update you as it all comes in. (including Clr Purney who I need to chase as I've not heard anything, and we'll need his support)
Oh yes, one last thing - I found out that just behind Weston House is a substation (between the block and the railway line). There may well be some limit on access within a certain radius of this substation, but hopefully I can get more site specific information and how this will affect the site once "proper" contact is made.

If anyone has any contacts they think could help (someone below mentioned a contact in Brent re an allotment), pls you could try to contact them and see if they have any helpful information? I would hate for us to get an anonymous response from NR Community Relations turning us down straight off the bat.

[George Latham]

Great to see your message and the progress you've made on this, Sanchia
Following up on Mollys posting - you should be able to contact Simon Green through this website - he is a member...

[Sanchia Dunn]

Through a contact at TfL I've managed to get hold of a map that seems to show that TfL are considered a "franchise operator" on this bit of rail, and it is still owned by Network Rail. So with that cleared up I'll just keep trying to chisel away at the red tape there. And I shall get in touch with Clr Simon Green via this website and see if he can offer any support, practical or otherwise.
Thanks all for the encouragement and info. S

[Michael Stuart]

I have another contact for railway allotments at Gospel Oak and can email that to Sanchia.

[Sanchia Dunn]

Latest news on this site:

No luck finding any info on the historic use of this site for food growing, although Maureen spoke to a resident of Fiveways who remembers it being used into the early 70's as an allotment site. (still digging through the archives)

I chased up Mike Franklin, the contact so far at Network Rail, who has sounded very supportive. He's going to try and arrange a meet up with the local London NR contact for that site. He's on leave now for a week, but suggested two things:

1) that we contact the NR Helpline with detail of the site and our proposals which they could pass on to the relevant person in the meantime. (I tried that last year and I imagine my query is still floating around somewhere as I've hear nothing.)

2) that we abandon the food growing idea because he thinks it'll be rejected out of hand. I disagree and I don't think we should abandon it just yet - we can instead propose an approach which includes fruit trees and bushes (as opposed to tomates and lettuce, for example), and possibly a beehive? I think a wildlife centred approach, but still with a focus on a productive landscape (for us humans!) will be ideal, and may meet a few NR objectives at the same time.