1 Allotments and allotment gardens: definition

10.23 The Allotments Act 1922 distinguishes between two principal types of allotment, the statutory rights accruing to which vary:

(i)Allotment gardens. These are defined by s 22(1) of the 1922 Act to mean an allotment not exceeding forty poles in extent which is wholly or mainly cultivated by the occupier for the production of vegetable or fruit crops for consumption by himself or his family.

(ii)Allotment simpliciter. An ‘allotment’ simpliciter means any parcel of land, whether attached to a cottage or not, of not more than two acres in extent held by a tenant and cultivated as a farm or garden, or partly as a garden and partly as a farm.³³ Cf Statutory rights accruing to allotment gardens do not apply if the land is let with a cottage.³⁴ Such an allotment may, of course, also qualify as an agricultural holding within the meaning of the Agricultural Holdings Act 1986.

10.24 Section 10 of the 1922 Act gives local authorities power to enter on unoccupied land, and adopt it for letting as allotments or allotment gardens. Borough, urban district and parish councils are, further, under a general statutory duty to provide and let to residents within their area an adequate number of allotments (see s 23 of the Smallholdings and Allotments Act 1908).