In the autumn of 2016, the Lib Dem council finally won their bitter battle to close the Farm Terrace Allotment site located behind Watford General Hospital and the football ground. The allotment site had a total of 128 plots. Back in 2014 Watford Borough Council’s submission to the Government stated that the council would make full reprovision of the Farm Terrace Allotment land if the Government agreed to its request to close the site.

After the court decision in 2016 the council did keep to its commitment to relocate the remaining Farm Terrace plot holders to their preferred sites in west Watford. Alongside this, the council then started phase one of its reprovision of the Farm Terrace plots to Paddock Road in Oxhey. This commitment was successfully completed during 2017 when 22 plots were put out to rent by the council. However, since 2017 the reprovision of the remainder of the Farm Terrace plots has not continued.

Recently I asked Watford Council when it would finally be honouring its commitment to fully provide the allotments at Paddock Road. The response was that it was more expensive than anticipated to bring the new plots in Paddock Road up to standard and the budget put aside to fully reprovide Farm Terrace allotments had been spent.

Most significantly, the council has admitted that the total number of plots in existence in Watford remains well below the figure of those in existence before Farm Terrace was lost. In January 2013 there were 1284 allotment plots in Watford, now in January 2022 there are only 1193, which represents a net loss of 91. This is very similar to the capacity that Farm Terrace had, and it is clear those plots haven’t been replaced. The waiting list for allotments in Watford continues to increase.

Whist I welcome the council’s promise of more money for the actual provision of further plots across Watford, it remains to be seen if these will be where they are needed most or whether they will provided at all.

The original reason the Lib Dems asked to close the allotments was flexibility to deliver new hospital facilities to Watford. Sadly, what has appeared on the former allotment site is a multi-storey car park and some eight years later there is still no sign of the much-needed new hospital facilities, despite many promises along the way.

The Farm Terrace story illustrates a catalogue of failures from the Lib Dem council. By going back on their word they are showing that the court should not have trusted what they said, and that the court decision is therefore now unreliable. The courts (and residents of Watford) should treat their assurances with caution in future, given their track record.

Cllr Sara-Jane Trebar

Vicarage Ward, Watford Borough Council