Pilot Projects

60 organisations submitted preliminary bids for these major grants, of which 7 were successful. ARI will be working with these projects, which are pilot schemes to regenerate sites that have fallen into partial disuse and provide examples of good practice in allotment regeneration to be replicated/built upon in other parts of the country. Full details of the pilot projects are available here.

Kate Lampard, a Trustee of Esm?e Fairbairn Foundation, announced the recipients at the launch seminar on 2 April 2003. She said:

"Those of us at EFF involved with the Allotments Regeneration Initiative have been delighted with the number, variety and quality of the projects submitted for funding. We believe that some of the projects that have been chosen will provide examples for allotments regeneration elsewhere. We hope that the initiative as a whole will raise awareness of the threat of dereliction and sale facing many allotment plots, and focus attention on the many environmental as well as social benefits of allotment gardening"

Bethan Stagg, ARI co-ordinator 2003-2005, said:

"We will be working closely with the seven pilot schemes to make ensure the grants are well spent and that the lessons learnt are widely disseminated to all allotment groups and local authorities through further workshops and publications."

David Biss of Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council said:

"The ARI grant of ?26,750 is a tremendous boost to our project and all the partners involved in the scheme are overjoyed that their vision will now become a reality!"

Mike Taylor of Sheffield City Council said:

"This allotment site has been a very successful site in the past but dereliction is now beginning to creep in: we want to recover the site, generate renewed interest and get people signing up to form an association. The ARI grant will enable us to do this, for the benefit of a wide range of people including the allotment tenants, schools and community groups."