Fears for future of South Downs allotments - 'It's my little haven'

A large parcel of land in the countryside between Patching and Clapham, off Long Furlong, became home to no-dig allotments in the summer of 2025.

Known as Patching Meadows, the site is used by more than 160 households – averaging about 560 members – but many of them now fear for its future.

Roots has been ordered to remove 14 structures and features from the site by the South Downs National Park Authority (SDNPA).

The list includes three shipping containers, a CCTV post, vehicle access matting, bicycle stands, water troughs and standpipes, a sink, arbours, pergolas, sheds, storage boxes and drainage foundations.

SDNPA has clarified it is not seeking to stop the allotments operating, but said the items placed on the site are ‘visually intrusive’ and ‘cause unacceptable landscape harm’ within the National Park.

The authority said: "An allotment use is an established agricultural use however, the unauthorised development (the 14 items) is not acceptable because, by reason of their cumulative impact, it has resulted in a cluttered, urbanising effect that gives an appearance of domestic formality that detracts from the rural character of the surrounding landscape.

“The development fails to conserve and enhance the established landscape character and would adversely impact views from the public rights of way and the amenity of users."

Roots co-founder Christian Samuel said he believes the structures are ‘required for the use of agriculture’ and worries removing them will put the allotments’ future at risk.

He said: “You’re telling us to get rid of everything else. You’re basically saying get rid of the allotments.

"It is an open field with less than one per cent of it covered by shipping containers, which prevents hundreds of sheds. This is not a nuclear power plant. There is no form of development here.”

SDNPA refused a retrospective planning application in March 2026 and issued an enforcement notice in June 2026.

The application received 86 written objections, including one from Patching Parish Council (PPC). PPC said, following a consultation, residents had raised concerns over ‘environmental harm, lack of transparency, and fears of future housing development’.

Mr Samuel has categorically denied any ambitions to build houses on the land.

He added: “It’d be the worst strategy to build houses: to fill [the allotments] with local people and then try to remove those local people.”

Roots was co-founded by Mr Samuel, Ed Morrison and William Gay in 2021 in response to being placed on a 28-year waiting list for an allotment plot in London.

The company now oversees 20 sites, from West Sussex to Newcastle, with more than 10,000 members. It aims to make gardening ‘accessible and enjoyable for everyone’, providing members with a pre-prepared plot, equipment, seeds and plug plants, alongside support from a site manager.

Mr Samuel said: “I think it's a sad state of affairs when the world can't agree that growing fresh organic produce in a field is good for a local community.

"Community venues have shut down due to lack of funding. People come here to find their neighbours.

“We make it extremely affordable, everything's included. The council should almost be in full support and trying to offer us fields elsewhere, to be quite honest.”

Mr Samuel said he will ‘fight tooth and nail’ for the members at Patching Meadows.

He added: “I will stand up to any council because I don’t believe I’m in the wrong.”

For member Roy Stenning, his allotment isn’t just a place to grow vegetables – although he has now stopped buying produce from supermarkets – it has helped him find friendship and a sense of belonging.

Mr Stenning said: “Basically, my whole life changed up here. The growing is, being generous, probably 70 per cent of it - the rest of it is the community. There are friendships being made that would never have happened if it weren’t for the allotments.

“It’s my little haven now.”

Mr Stenning, whose wife sadly died in 2024, said he was ‘totally lost’ before discovering Roots.

He added: “You walk through that gate and all the stress goes. It’d be scary to lose this.”

Mark Crosby, another member at Roots, said the allotments are ‘a wonderful place’.

He said: “There’s a great community up here. It’s hugely beneficial in terms of physical and mental wellbeing for people. I would hate to lose this now.”

SDNPA said it recognises that ‘community initiatives may deliver a range of benefits, including opportunities for food growing, recreation and wellbeing’.

However, the authority’s ‘first purpose’ is to ‘conserve and enhance the natural beauty, wildlife and cultural heritage of the area’.

Objecting to the plans, Patching resident Anna Bingham said the allotments had been ‘catastrophic to the local wildlife’.

Mr Crosby said ‘there’s still loads of wildlife here’, including rabbits, mice and a pair of kestrels.

"We feed the wildlife,” he added. “They love us.”

Roots said it has a strict ban on chemicals, while ‘up to a fifth of every site’ is set aside for rewilding by conserving wildflower meadows, adding ponds and introducing bug hotels and bat boxes.

Compliance of the enforcement notice is required by October 17, 2026.

The planning committee report and decision notice can be read in full on the SDNPA website, using reference SDNP/25/04375/FUL.