• Search tip: for exact phrase use "quotation marks" or for all words use +
  • More search tips here

                  Allotments

                  The Allotments (Scotland) Act 1892 gave local authorities the powers and duty to purchase or rent land for the purposes of providing allotments for the ‘labouring classes’, the costs to be recouped from the rents from allotment users.[1] Subsequent legislation in 1922 and 1950 amended and extended arrangements for managing this facility.[2] In 1894, parish councils were permitted to acquire land on lease for allotments or common pasture.[3] The responsibility was transferred to district and island councils under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 and subsequently to unitary councils in 1996.[4]

                  The Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015, which came into force in April 2018, updated and simplified legislation on allotments.[5] This required local authorities to maintain waiting lists and take reasonable steps to provide allotments if the waiting time or the number of people waiting exceeded defined limits. It protected allotments by requiring local authorities to seek the consent of Scottish Ministers before disposing of sites and protected the rights of allotment tenants. It also required local authorities to produce annual reports.

                  Records relating to local authority responsibilities for allotments may be found in the relevant committees of local authorities.  Significant collections relating to the Scottish Allotments and Garden Society and the Scottish Allotments Scheme for the Unemployed are held by the University of Glasgow Archive Services (Reference UGC 222) and other related collections would be those of horticultural and allotment societies in local and university archives services and the National Library of Scotland.

                  Contributors: Elspeth Reid (2021) and Pam McNicol (Stirling Council Archives, 2021).

                  Bibliography

                  Whyte, W. E., Local Government in Scotland (Hodge & Co, 1936)

                   

                  References

                  [1] Allotments (Scotland) Act 1892 (55 & 56 Vict. c.54).

                  [2] Allotments (Scotland) Act 1922 (12 & 13 Geo. V c.52); Allotments (Scotland) Act 1950 (14 Geo. VI c.38).

                  [3] Local Government (Scotland) Act 1894 (57 & 58 Vict. c.58) s.26.

                  [4] Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 (c.65) s.140; Local Government etc (Scotland) Act 1994 (c.39) Sch.13, s.35.

                  [5] Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 (asp 6).