Dear readers
Today’s piece by James Garrett looks into the continuing problems swirling around a company that was set up to provide allotments as an alternative to those provided by local councils.
This piece is for all our readers.
If you’d like to subscribe and get an extra 48 exclusive, paid subscriber only, pieces a year, you can do so here. It costs £30, which works out at just 58p a week:
Thank you
Andrew Lee - Editor
In the midst of the hottest summer since UK records began, the 500-odd customers at a private allotments company’s flagship site in Somerset are still waiting for a secure source of water to irrigate their plants.
Roots Allotments is trucking water three times a week to the meadow it operates at Abbots Leigh near Bristol, to ensure vegetables don’t shrivel up.
However, the company says it has no idea when it might be able to suspend the tanker-loads, which reportedly cost up to £500 a time.
As if that were not enough of a headache for the company, director Christian Samuel now finds himself alone in the company boardroom, dealing with a mountain of issues across the company’s 20 allotment sites nationwide.
Both Samuel’s fellow directors, Ed Morrison and Will Gay, the latter from a Bath farming family, have resigned their positions with the company, whose official name is Allota Futureland Ltd.
Paperwork uploaded to the Companies House website last Wednesday shows the two founding directors walked away on 18 June. So far they have chosen not to say what prompted their resignations, always assuming they were voluntary. Samuel, the last man standing, failed to respond to our inquiries.
they have chosen not to say what prompted their resignations
In the background, the company’s accounts for the year ending December 2025 are being prepared. They must be published before 30 September.
The company appears to have committed an offence under the Companies Act. This requires details of board changes to be notified to Companies House within 14 days of decisions being made. A failure to do so is punishable by fines of up to £5,000 per offence.
But then, as readers might recall, the company is getting used to defending itself in the courts. It decided to commission the borehole at Abbots Leigh after being fined £1,000 earlier this year for using mains water without the consent of the local utility company.
It then declined to carry out preparatory work demanded by Bristol Water before it would agree to reconnect the mains supply.
The drilling firm, Borehole Solutions Ltd (BSL), told residents of the village that it expected to be on site for just a few days. That was back in April!
The company did strike water, some 200 feet down, but, as we reported previously, the drill bit became jammed in the borehole, causing it to be abandoned.
Later that month a new hole was drilled but last week, more than four months after work began, water was still being supplied by tanker and not an underground aquifer.
Asked why, Samuel said, “I don’t have a full understanding of the situation. It’s incredibly frustrating.”
He also said - in an earlier interview, before we sought an explanation for his colleagues’ resignations - that he had no idea when water troughs around the 25-acre site would finally be filled from the borehole. “How long? I think they (BSL) are close but it’s as long as a piece of string!” he said.
John Rodgman, managing director of Peterborough-based BSL, declined to respond to questions from Somerset Confidential®.
Samuel praised customers, the majority of whom, he said, “have been outstanding. Most people can see I am totally trying to get it to work.“
Most people can see I am totally trying to get it to work
Not everyone remains patient, however. One posted on Facebook, “Water is touch and go, grass is over three feet tall and they still aren’t cutting it around the plot - just fed up with it all.”
Another customer said, “I’ve cancelled my membership. Honestly, I feel so irritated with all the broken promises.”
Samuel sought to play down fears about a lack of water affecting plants on any of the company’s 20 sites, which include Bath and Bathford, as well as Abbots Leigh. He said previously, “Compost retains moisture for much longer so the plots only need watering once a week.”
Water aside, he has had his work cut out over the summer, fighting fires at several of the company’s 20 sites. At Ecclesfield, Sheffield, he promised, “We won’t stop until we’re compost!” as he tried to keep at bay City Council enforcement officers.
The council refused Roots planning permission for a tipi and three shipping containers, used as an office, toilets and a toolshed. The company also lost a subsequent appeal.
The council said, “The application was refused because of concerns about its impact on the Green Belt, highway safety issues, and the applicant’s failure to demonstrate that the development would avoid harm to biodiversity. These reasons were subsequently upheld by the Planning Inspectorate.”
Enforcement action against Roots is currently stayed pending a further appeal, says Sheffield Council. However, none of this has stopped the company advertising vacant plots at the site, which it calls Station Pastures.
Local councillor Susan Davidson noted, “Membership still includes events in the tipi and access to the tools in their toolshed. They’re even advertising the five year ‘best value’ membership option - no mention that they’ve lost their planning appeal.”
Echoing the approach of Sheffield City Council, the South Downs National Park Authority is also seeking the removal of three containers, CCTV, hardstanding, water troughs and other man-made additions to the Roots site at Patching, near Worthing.
The authority said the development “detracts from the rural character of the surrounding landscape. This harm is prominent and unduly visually intrusive, appearing incongruous within the rural context.“
Samuel said, “We are a group of people who are trying to resolve a nationwide problem but, rather than see us in a positive light, they use every power they have to push against us.”
However, he added, “We are going to speak to the authority. I will always work with councils to the best of my ability.”
That statement might raise a smile at various council offices around the country, not least North Somerset’s. It only gave Roots planning permission, with conditions, after insisting that the company either apply retrospectively or face enforcement action.
Bath & North-East Somerset (B&NES) Council did issue an enforcement notice against Roots, for using a shipping container at its Bathford site as Airbnb accommodation - without applying for planning permission!
Last month a planning inspector upheld the council’s decision, requiring Roots to remove the container and decking which had been erected around it, along with “all other non-agriculture infrastructure and domestic paraphernalia - including the hot tub!”
a planning inspector upheld the council’s decision
The inspector also rejected Roots’ claim that the company should be allowed 12 months to remove the container, giving them just four.
That, he said, “strikes a reasonable and proportionate balance between affording time for contractors to remove the development, honouring some existing bookings and cancelling others, and removing the unauthorised development in the public interest.“
Christian Samuel’s brother, Jude, who managed the accommodation, might rue having posted on social media, “Just opened a 40-foot converted container Airbnb. Experiencing remarkable success with over 80 per cent bookings in its first month.”
Abbots Leigh resident Emma Burgh commented, “It doesn’t matter what product Roots allotments are selling they have to follow the planning rules and laws - like every other business in this country.
they have to follow the planning rules and laws
“They could be making a key component for an incubator for intensive care in hospital. But the building it’s produced in would still have to be built within the current planning laws. Their development has to follow the planning rules. End of.”
Was the boardroom turmoil caused by Roots’ cavalier, ‘build first, ask for permission later’ approach now coming back to bite it? As and when the unusually taciturn Christian Samuel responds to our request for clarification, we’ll let you know.
If you found this article interesting, please share it with others so they can read it too:
Why not gift a subscription as a present for a friend or family member? You can do that here:
Somerset Confidential® is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.