'It was always the right thing to do' Roots secures planning permission

THE team behind a controversial allotment site on the edge of Bristol said a council decision to award planning permission vindicates their two-year battle to create a ‘revolution’ in gardening across the country.

- Tristan CORK

But residents of the village next door said they will continue to monitor the activities at the Roots Allotments sites, despite councillors backing the project.

North Somerset Council planners voted to finally award retrospective planning permission for three parts of the 600-plot allotment field in Abbots Leigh.

The Bath-based Roots Allotments team were awarded permission for two shipping containers to be sited in the field, CCTV cameras, an access track and gravel hard-standing, and a sign on the main A369 road.

The decisions bring to an end a feisty two-year planning battle between Roots, local residents and North Somerset planners over the creation of a new allotment site in a field next to the entrance road to the Leigh Woods car park, on the other side of the Clifton Suspension Bridge from Bristol.

Roots are now two summers into running the allotment site, and recently expanded to create more plots on the field.

The company said it is expanding rapidly all around the country, launching new Roots sites every ten days somewhere in the UK with a target to have 25 new locations by the end of the year.

Roots first opened on the edge of Bath after the pandemic lockdown with few issues, but when they began setting up on the field in Abbots Leigh, they sparked a furious response from many locals, and the creation of a nationwide ‘Roots Allotments Uncovered’ campaign.