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| The '''Royal Paddocks Allotments''' are adjacent to ] and ] in ], ], ]. Initially chartered in 1921 by ], they are used for gardening. Rent is quite low and there are 200 plots to be used. An annual competition is held to award a silver cup for 'best gardener'. The Royal Paddocks Allotments are run by ]. That body is probably typical of it's kind. The normal purpose of an allotment committee is to allocate tenancies, collect rents and carry out day-to-day administration. Allotments are intended for "poor working men" - to grow vegetables for consumption by themselves, their family and friends, and keep them out of the pub. The purpose of the Royal Paddocks Allotments Plotholders' Committee seems to be to gentrify the allotment system. Allotments are supposed to be allocated on a fair, first-come-first-served basis, without preference, yet several committee members have two plots and one has four plots - three of them adjacent. An allotment tenant can be expected to keep his plot tidy, meaning that it should not spill over to adjacent plots. The Royal Paddocks Allotments Plotholders' Committee has extended this by operating a "scorched-earth" policy, whereby all ground should be rendered bare and any grass should be attacked using noisy, smelly, petrol-driven strimmers. This is against Government policy. The National Society of Allotment and Leisure Gardeners has indicated that there are 30% more species on allotments than in public parks - this diversity afforded by variation in usage. Traditionally "poor working men" have exercised ingenuity in re-using materials on allotments. Old sash windows and floor boards have been made into seed beds, the boards held in place by driving wooden pegs into the ground. At The Royal Paddocks Allotments, this traditional improvisation seems to be deplored, and the use of modern materials is advocated, especially plastics. Some of this plastic is coloured green, perhaps to persuade us that it is environmentally friendly. This is not the case - plastics are made from oil, - a product in limited supply. It may be expected that plastic items will be flown in from the far-east or may arrive on container ships. Whatever the method, we are seeing increased and unnecessary use of the earth's finite resources and increasing pressure put on the environment, disturbing man's comfort. Plastic materials have a limited useability - they are destroyed by ultra-violet light in the very environment they were designed to be used in. They can then only be discarded - to be incinerated, causing pungent black smoke, accompanied by the release of cyanide. Natural materials are broken down by fungi and insects, the whole returning to the food-chain. Committees are, indeed, responsible for more than the invention of the camel. | |||
| A feature of the Royal Paddocks Allotments is the yuppie plotholder. Distinguished by their arrival in a four-wheel drive, they show off noisy, smelly, power implements when the greatest number of plotholders are present on site, then finish the job by starting a huge, smoky, fire - just when people are likely to have their windows open and their washing out. In previous decades, a common site on allotments was a thin plume of smoke rising straight up and continuing for some time. This was where the "poor working man" reduced allotment waste to potash, suitable for use on the soil. The slow combustion was essential to this process, but does not appeal to the new generation of plotholders. | |||
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