This talk was delivered at the USING OPEN DATA policy modeling, citizen empowerment, data journalism workshop (19-20 June, 2012), organised by the W3C, hosted by the European Commission. The talk addresses issues of everyday data, related to ‘mundane issues’ that people relate to easily, principally because they feature in their everyday lives. This allows for a rethinking of political participation and civic engagement beyond the rather stale ways in which this is measured traditionally. The paper is interested in ‘really useful’ data, which has the ordinary end user firmly in mind. Specifically it highlights these issues through a case study of allotments in the UK, small plots of land rented from the council to grow fruits and vegetables. This case study highlights larger issues concerning the use and value of open data as well as how data driven journalism can play a role in telling these important stories. It highlight this as an open data case study that could embed open data ideas more firmly in the mainstream and take it outside the world of technology. Having an allotment and growing your own food have become incredibly popular in recent years. Due to a real shortage in allotments, lack of creation of new plots, and ever-growing waiting lists, this research is interested in building on and extending previous work in this area, addressing the following questions: How can allotment data be made really useful?; How can open data go mainstream, securing wide use adoption?

1. Allotment (publics): an open data and data driven
journalism perspective
Farida Vis and Yana Manyukhina
University of Leicester | Open Data Manchester
fv12@le.ac.uk @flygirltwo

2. What is an allotment?
Small piece of land rented from the council for the cultivation of fruit and
vegetables for home consumption. Sign a tenancy agreement every year.
Since the Allotments Act of 1908 a standard allotment is ‘10
rods’. Rods are also called poles or perches. 10 rod = 250 sqm.

3. Allotment data as ‘really useful’ data
People care about growing vegetables

4. Allotments Act of 1908: Clause 23 ensures that councils provide
allotments. It takes six citizens. Responsibility of local government. If
sites sold money can only be spent on allotments.

5. Threat to the Allotments Act
Spring 2011, the Department for Communities and Local Government issued a
public consultation on 1294 Statutory Duties pertaining to local authorities to
possibly reduce their number.
These duties included Section 23 of the 1908 Allotments Act, which ensures
local authorities provide allotments, causing some newspapers to suggest that
‘The Good Life’ was now under threat.
The Act remained unchanged however in the summer the government
announced that of the 6,103 responses received nearly half contained a
comment on the Allotments Act.

6. Standard ways in which allotments and growing your own are
discussed in the mainstream media in the UK:
Dig for Victory (WWII)
The Good Life (1970s sitcom)

7. Waiting lists: huge demand | tiny supply
In 1940s: 1.4 million allotment plots in the UK.
Now: 200,000. Cycles of popularity. What do
you do when everyone wants one again?
Waiting list crisis (our local site): 12 years ago, waiting list was 2 months.
Now: 15 years. Lots of people with children want to grow food with them.
Transition Town West Kirby (TTWK), Margaret Campbell
Grow Your Own | Land Share initiative | guerrilla gardening | alleyway gardens
Recent changes – rent increases, water rates, tenancy agreements

8. Sources of information on allotments in UK
National Society for Allotments and
Leisure Gardeners (NSALG) – official body
Allotment Regeneration Initiative (ARI) – official body,
policy documents, mentors and advice
Transition Town West Kirby (TTWK) – waiting lists
Perennial problem: good allotment data. Difficult to get an
overview of what is going on at local/national level.
Evidenced based policy making on allotments difficult

9. Collecting data = time consuming (mainly not available). Not precise
Location data doesn’t tell you very much

10. Mapping plots in Manchester – AMAS (incomplete) + Trafford
(open data of allotment locations released by the council)

11. Allotment data: focus on unreliable waiting list data (difficult to collect & track)
New maps using TTWK FOI data: http://www.transitiontownwestkirby.org.uk/
Enriching existing data

12. Allotment data: difficult to collect & track (focus on unreliable waiting list data)
New maps using TTWK FOI data: http://www.transitiontownwestkirby.org.uk/

13. New data (through FOI)
Tenancy agreements
Changes | consultations
Cost of hiring a plot
(past, current, future)
Cost of water use
Discounts
Cost of waste of removal

14. New data obtained through FOI: rent, water charges, discounts, tenancy
agreements
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/user/farida_vis_and_yana_manyukhina

15. Data displayed on interactive map – How did your council compare?

16. Mainstream media interest: about growing vegetables, not open data

17. Strong interest from the horticultural and allotment communities

18. Data for 2011 – all from Transition Town West Kirby. But with new maps.
NB! Does not show how many allotments a council has in total –
only data for which the council had information.
Place with longest waiting list (per 100 people, based on available waiting list
data): Wyre BC has 307 people waiting for 26 plots, that is the equivalent of
1181 people waiting for 100 plots, which make it the highest in England)
Place with shortest (per 100 people, based on available waiting list data): North
East Lincolnshire C has 87 people waiting for 1852 plots, that is the equivalent
of 5 people waiting for 100 plots, which makes it the shortest waiting time in
England.
Councils that have closed their waiting lists altogether - Redditch BC,
Wellingborough BC, North Hertfordshire DC, Enfield, Woking BC, Waltham
Forest, Elmbridge BC, South Derbyshire DC, Slough BC, Lambeth, Telford and
Wrekin BC, Barnet BC, Haringey, Preston CC, Melton BC, Brighton & Hove CC,
Stockport BC, Greenwich, Swindon BC, South Tyneside BC, Eastleigh BC, Bury BC,
Hounslow, Barnsley BC, Mid Sussex DC, Merton, Brent, Hinckley and Bosworth
BC, Arun DC, Islington, Camden

19. Responses to the project
OSM community in West Midlands
http://blog.mappa-mercia.org/2012/01/west-midlands-allotments.html

20. Quite a few responses via email. For example (on old measurements):
… The Rod was phased out as a legal unit of measurement as part of a ten-year
metrication process that began in May 1965 but metrication has often been
ignored and, in many instances, imperial measurements prevail: roads are
measured in miles and yards; we measure our height in feet and inches and
weight in stones and pounds; and it is difficult to change football goal posts from
8 yards x 8 feet to their metric equivalent. Some measurements changed from
imperial to metric and back again: farms have reverted from Hectares to Acres
and office rents from £x per square metre to £y per square foot. Sometimes we
use even older measurements: the length of a cricket pitch between stumps is 1
chain (22 yards) horse races are run over furlongs (220 yards); and, one
peculiarity, railway bridges have a metal plaque on the side of their brick or
stone arches stating x miles and y chains from Victoria, Waterloo, etc. Now, I
work in metric units every day but, in some cases, old measurements are not
transferable: 10 square rods means something, 253
Your research into Allotments is not complete: it concentrates on Councils'
charges and waiting lists. It does not include anything about their history; there
is no reference to Rods, Poles and Perches.

21. Now what?
Building national allotment data hub
Working with local councils – Trafford Council
Working with engaged/engaging communities
Finding out what is going on at local/national level
Contribute to evidenced based policy making
Finding solutions: can more growing spaces be created?

22. Who has / will give you the data?
Central Government
Local Government
Allotment Officers
Allotment Associations
Allotment secretaries
Plotholders

24. From September 2012
re-boot of the project
Allotmentdata.org
@allotmentdata
@flygirltwo