Vauxhall City Farm, which was founded in the 1970s by local residents who reclaimed derelict land to create an outdoor resource, has issued evictions notices to it's allotment holders. Previously VCF locked the tap on the allotments so that elderly gardeners had to carry 10 litre drums through the streets to water their plants.  When I first moved here in 1986 I was recovering from depression after a series of family bereavements.  Over the next 10+ years as I recovered, I volunteered almost every day on the farm, and saw my work as a contribution to this invaluable resource to the mental and physical health of the local community.  The eviction of the allotments holders ends the final link between local people and the farm, which now operates as a regional charity run along strict business principles, requiring significant charitable donations and serving those who come from far and wide to visit. Zoos and public gardens are wonderful things, but the farm was built by people who don’t have their own gardens and wanted more than something nice to look through the fence at.

Despite currently appealing for £600,000 in donations in order to stay open, VCF is taking the allotment holder's land in order to proceed with development plans which no one local has seen and which they don’t have any funding for. They say they will create a "community" garden, but without any local accountability, experience tells us that the local community will not benefit. VCF has been the recipient of considerable public money in the past and will require more in the future, Lambeth Council is in a position to require them withdraw the eviction notices and to involve the local community in their work.

Please sign the petition.  You can see a letter written by me as a local resident and another written by an allotment holder who is too anxious to sign.