Victory for allotment holders as they avoid losing the plot

Published on Monday 1 December 2008 09:06

DIG for Victory allotments, created to feed the Capital during the Second World War, have been saved under revised plans to create a new waterfront park.

The council has approved plans to turn a large part of Leith's industrial heartland into a green corridor stretching from Leith Links to the Firth of Forth.

Scores of warehouses, yards and depots stretching from Salamander Street to the coast will be demolished for the project.

The allotments on Leith Links were originally earmarked to be grassed over, with replacements created nearby, as they will stand in the middle of the newly-extended park.

But protests by allotment holders have persuaded councillors to keep them in their original position established during the war.

The amount of space to be put aside for sports has also been increased.

The Leith Links allotments are some of the last left in the city that were created as part of the Dig for Victory drive.

Some plots will be lost on the western and eastern edges of the site for new paths, but they will be replaced to the north of the site.

No timescale has yet been set for the extension, but the project has been designed to fit in with a wider masterplan for Leith Links, which will see hundreds of new homes and businesses created over the next 20 years.

Developers will be asked to cover the cost of creating the park in return for permission to build on the surrounding land.

Alistair Tibbet, chairman of the Greener Leith Campaign, said: "We are delighted with this as it finally recognises the historical nature of the allotments.

"You can't really just pick up allotments and move them that easily, and it has often felt like the allotments were pieces of a jigsaw trying to fit around the plans for development, so it is good to see the priorities change."

Leith councillor Marjorie Thomas said: "These revisions make sense and are good news for the allotment holders.

"The concept of the extension is sound, but I do think it might be some time before we actually see it come to fruition. In the short term, I would like to see more improvements to the existing Links."

The extension would also provide a route for cyclists and pedestrians to a proposed multi-million-pound coastal walkway from Cramond to Portobello.

WHEN WE DUG FOR VICTORY

ONE of the most memorable slogans to emerge from the Second World War came just one month into the conflict when the Ministry of Agriculture launched the "Dig for Victory" campaign.

It involved Britain's home front being encouraged to transform their private gardens into mini-allotments.

Formal gardens, lawns and even sports pitches were transformed into allotments, with everyone urged to become a vegetable gardener.