A Potted History

No expertise in allotment law is professed and some more obscure piece of legislation may have been missed but based on the UK Statute Law Databasewhat is contained here is believed to be reasonably accurate.

The usual definition an allotment in Scottish law is a plot of land one acre or smaller provided for rental for agricultural or horticultural use.  Originally an allotment was intended as much for grazing animals as it was for growing fruit and vegetables; the idea of an allotment garden appeared later. Usually a smaller piece of land but still intended also for animal husbandry.

The earliest allotment law appeared in 1892, largely still in force but partially amended and replaced by further legislation in 1919, 1922and 1950.  Other legislation does affect allotments in similar ways to other land and property particularly in respect to the duty of care owed by landlord and tenant.

The legislation places a clear duty to provide allotments and provides the necessary powers to local authorities to develop allotments.  Some power was reserved to central government and that along with the duty to amend legislation on allotments remains with the Scottish government having not been reserved to Westminster.
The first sign of Scottish government interest in continuing allotment provision came in a planning document in 2008 which recognised the part they have to play in an open spaces policy. This continued with a brief mention within the national food policythe following year. More recently the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 has, in part nine, been designed to bring together the various pieces of legislation and replace them with regulations fit for the future. In 2017 Scottish government consulted on the form these regulations will take with particular emphasis on how local authorities lease allotments have a duty to provide them and maintain a list of those wishing to lease allotments, all of which refers to the improvement of existing legislation. Similarly the drier parts of the consultation dealt with access to allotment sites, site regulation and the delegation of management to local bodies.
More interestingly, however, the consultation focused on the promotion of allotments and placing a duty on local authorities to develop a food-growing strategy.

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