Latest news with #VictorThomas
Telegraph
07-08-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
‘They're taking land off hard-working people': The victims of Labour's war on allotments
Three or four mornings a week, Victor Thomas, 77, a retired watchmaker from Storrington, Sussex, walks 20 minutes down the road and spends the day tending to his allotment. 'It keeps me fit, it keeps me active, it keeps the veg coming,' he says. 'It's what keeps me going.' The warm, clear August morning I visit is no exception, with Victor digging his patch as we speak. He enjoys the benefits not only of his homegrown rhubarb and runner beans, but of the hours spent outside, in the fresh air, and the social structure it brings to his life as a retiree. All that, however, is under threat. Last weekend, it emerged that cash-strapped councils have been given the green light by Angela Rayner, the Housing Secretary, to sell off allotments to raise funds for day-to-day spending. And Victor's allotment is one of eight sites across the country that Rayner has personally rubber-stamped for 'disposal' since last year's general election. The Storrington site has been sold to a housing association, A2Dominion, which has for years been seeking to build 78 new homes on top of what is currently a field, partitioned into 60 allotments, on the edge of an existing housing estate. A necessary decision, perhaps, given that Horsham district council said it had an increased budget deficit of £1.24m for 2025-26. But it is one that comes at great personal cost to those who have tended to the land for years, or even decades. 'To use a cliché, it's like the sword of Damocles over us,' Victor says. 'We knew sooner or later we were going to move [as a planning application was lodged in 2021]. But everyone looked to the future with enthusiasm – we would put new plants in where the old ones had died.' However, as a protracted planning battle wore on, some allotment holders left and others abandoned their plots. As councils cannot sell or dispose of allotments for development purposes without approval from the Government under the Allotments Act of 1925, the plans for Storrington required a final go-ahead from Rayner. The list of sites she has approved for sale was revealed in Parliament last month, and also includes allotments in Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Oxfordshire and Somerset. Now, the Storrington allotment is a shadow of its former self. Victor is one of only a few left on the site – it is two-thirds empty. 'There aren't many of us left here simply because of the indecision,' he says, ploughing a lonely furrow. Those who do remain have been told they will be offered a patch in a nearby field, where new allotments will be created, but they are yet to be served formal notice of their relocation. Some feel that all hard work they have put into their existing allotment will have been wasted. 'I'm not sure I want to start again, now,' says Denise Diston, who has had a patch here for the past six years. 'I've just got my pension this year, and the idea of doing hard digging again…' Victor says the proposed relocation site – about half a mile away – looks to be 'roughly the same size', but he suspects it could be made smaller before any move is completed. 'There's so many people who have left, [so] they're going to say, 'oh, do you need it that size?'' he says. 'Yes, because they wouldn't have left if the [council] hadn't made us despondent.' Victor says he ultimately has 'no problem' with the move provided all existing allotment holders are catered for at the new site. Perhaps this is because he has had plenty of time to come to terms with the decision, even if Rayner's go-ahead came as a shock. That is not the case, however, at the Churchfield Allotments in Wye, Kent – another of the sites on the Government's list. There, three allotment holders are digging and harvesting against the backdrop of the rolling Kent Downs. Gerry Thomas, who only took on an allotment last year with his partner, is dismayed to hear there may be plans to sell off or develop the site. He has heard nothing from Wye with Hinxhill parish council, which owns and manages the site, to that effect. Indeed, The Telegraph found no public record of any sale or proposals for development of the site. Wye with Hinxhill parish council and Rayner's Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government were contacted for comment, but had not responded at the time of publication. 'It's very disappointing,' says Gerry. 'What are Labour doing, taking land to grow off hard-working people?' A lifelong Labour voter himself, Gerry points out the irony of 'a Labour government going against allotments, which are supposed to be for the working classes – their raison d'être'. Allotments, of course, were introduced by philanthropic Victorians to provide healthy produce for factory workers, even if they have since grown in popularity among a more diverse range of people. About 100,000 people are currently on waiting lists for allotments, with some forced to wait decades for a plot. Figures from the National Allotment Society suggest that allotments are still vital for the health and wellbeing of hundreds of thousands of Britons, with one in eight of the UK population having no access to a garden, rising to one in five people in London. Despite Rayner's department having recently announced that it would 'extend the freedom' of councils to sell off assets, a spokesman said the specific rules governing the sale of sites such as allotments had not changed since 2016. The department spokesman added that councils should only make such sales 'where it is clearly necessary and offers value for money'. 'We know how important allotments are for communities, and that is why strict criteria is in place to protect them,' they said, noting that the eight consents granted by the Secretary of State represented a slight decrease in allotment disposals in recent years. But many have been quick to criticise Rayner's decision to sign off on the sale of eight sites since last July, including her former labour colleague and leader, Jeremy Corbyn. A keen gardener and allotmenteer, the Islington North MP described the decision as a final 'nail in the coffin' for community allotments. 'Allotments have always been under threat from developers,' Corbyn wrote in this newspaper. 'Now, that threat seems to have government backing, which makes the future of these precious spaces even more perilous.' The Conservatives also took aim at the Housing Secretary, calling the move 'a kick in the teeth to local people who don't have access to their own gardens'. The National Allotment Society, meanwhile, has offered reassurance to allotment holders, saying in a statement: 'There has been no change to the legal protections that apply to statutory allotments. These protections remain robust, and no statutory site can be sold or developed without going through a clearly defined legal process – one in which the National Allotment Society plays an active and formal role.' 'We are aware of the sites mentioned in recent reporting, and in each case, due process has been followed,' the group added. However, it continued: 'The recent coverage highlights a broader issue: many allotment sites in the UK do not enjoy statutory status. These privately owned sites are not protected by the same legal processes and, as a result, may be more vulnerable to sale or redevelopment. This is a long-standing concern, and we believe it presents an opportunity for constructive discussion on how we can extend protections to more sites.' Back in Wye, the afternoon's work is nearly done. One thing is for sure: if the future of Churchfield Allotments is at threat, the green-fingered residents will not go quietly. 'Gerry's just put up a new shed!' exclaims Hilary, who tends to a neighbouring plot. 'They simply can't sell it. They'll have a heck of a fight on their hands.'
Yahoo
20-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Was the Louisiana ICE raid related to a pending tax vote?
HOSSTON, La. (KTAL/KMSS)—ICE detained seven employees at the TA Truckstop in Hosston, and some wonder if the incident is linked to the Caddo Parish Commission's proposed TIF tax on the truckstop. Regarding the ICE raid, Caddo Commissioner Victor Thomas said, 'This information is a distraction from what we're really doing, and what it really is a distraction is against the further development of Caddo Parish.' The truck stop is in Caddo Commissioner Chris Kracman's district. While some commissioners support the tax, saying it will help spur more economic development in the Hosston area, Kracman does not. Proposed tax in Caddo Parish sparks controversy He said, 'I'm standing by what I ran on, and making taxes higher is definitely not one of those things.' Some at a recent Hosston Council meeting questioned the timing of the illegals' detention while the Caddo Commission is debating the tax and voting on it soon. Jimmy Silvo, the developer and owner of the truck stop, says they were targeted. He said he spoke to ICE, and they told him they were tipped off by someone calling and reporting the truck stop. Attorney: Trump's mass deportation to costs billions Kracman said he knew nothing of the raid and only found out after his constituents asked him about it. If the tax passes, the developer has already drawn up a master plan for the area around the truck stop and plans to expand. He said, 'I got guys calling about an RV park and repair shop and things like that.' The proposed tax will be an additional 2% on top of the state's taxes on merchandise in the truck stop only, excluding gas. The Caddo Parish Commission is expected to vote on the truck stop tax on Thursday, March 20th. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
