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Thanks for that insight. I have made a note that we need to look at Scottish Water, because that issue came up quite early on. You have to pay commercial charges to Scottish Water. Maybe there needs to be a conversation to ease the way for more allotments and community growing spaces. It seems strange to me that you have to pay a commercial charge.

I thank all the witnesses on the first panel. It was a very insightful and helpful conversation. It was good to hear more of your anecdotes, which painted the bigger picture of what you are dealing with. For example, Peter Duncan talked about understanding that a company in Fife going out of business might lead to more people applying for allotments. It was a very useful conversation.

There will now be a short break before we welcome our second panel of witnesses.

Thank you for that thorough overview. Does Amy Alcorn or Sandy Paterson want to come in on barriers?

Thanks very much for your contribution. Scottish Borders Council is very lucky to have somebody who has been working in the third sector in community food growing. I am sure that you have a lot to offer from that perspective.

I will bring in Miles Briggs, who has questions on another theme.

The next item on our agenda is to take evidence on the impact of the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 on allotments and community food growing. This is the second of three evidence sessions that the committee is holding in its inquiry on the issue. Today, we will discuss the topic with two panels of witnesses representing local authorities and the Association for Public Service Excellence, which is known as APSE.

I welcome our first panel of witnesses, who are Peter Duncan, allotments officer with Fife Council; Paul O’Brien, chief executive of the Association for Public Service Excellence; Wayne Priestley, principal adviser with APSE; and Ian Woolard, allotments officer with the City of Edinburgh Council. Paul O’Brien and Wayne Priestley are both joining us remotely.

It would be helpful if members could direct their questions to a specific witness where possible, although I will be happy to bring in others if they wish to contribute. If witnesses wish to comment, please indicate your desire to do so to me or the clerk and I will bring you in at an appropriate point. I would be grateful if Paul O’Brien and Wayne Priestley could indicate that they wish to come in by putting an R in the chat function in BlueJeans.

I will open the session with a question that is directed to Peter Duncan and Paul O’Brien. I am interested to hear how much it costs to provide allotments. How have council budgets for allotments and community growing changed since the act was passed in 2015?

Okay, but we do not have any clarity about the budget for creating new allotments.

Ian, do you want to come in?

You have touched on the main barriers, and we will want to explore that area a bit more. We are beginning to bring out those issues. Clearly, allotments provide a lot of benefits for people. It is not just about food; in our session last week, we touched on the benefits for mental health and wellbeing. The conversation this morning has shown that cost seems to be the main barrier. Is identifying sites also an issue?

Good morning, and welcome to the 18th meeting in 2022 of the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee. We have received apologies from Willie Coffey, Annie Wells and Mark Griffin. I ask all members and witnesses to ensure that their mobile phones are on silent and that all other notifications are turned off during the meeting.

The first item on our agenda is to decide whether to take items 3 and 4 in private. Do members agree to take those items in private?

Members indicated agreement.

I had been thinking, “Okay, there’s a strategy, but what does it look like on the ground?”, but one of the things that I gleaned from your response and which it is great to hear is that you have a food growing strategy implementation group. In other words, the strategy is not just sitting in some digital dusty cupboard but is having an impact on the ground.

Marina, how is your food growing strategy going?

Thank you, Marina. When I visited Hope Kitchen, I was taken to see that fantastic garden. What those people are doing there is absolutely incredible.

Going back to your comment about the need to update the food strategy, I would just mention the Good Food Nation (Scotland) Bill, which is going through Parliament at the moment and will require local authorities to put in place good food nation plans. At some point, some thought will need to be given to how the food growing strategies and the plans work together. Sandy, would you like to talk about your perspective from the allotment side of things and how you got involved with the Glasgow city’s food growing strategy, if there is one?