Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Landscape and Urban Planning journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/landurbplan Research Paper Places of urban disorder? Exposing the hidden nature and values of an English private urban allotment landscape Alister Scott a, ⁎ , Andrew Dean b , Veronica Barry c , Richard Kotter a a Department of Geography & Environmental Sciences Northumbria University, United Kingdom b Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council, United Kingdom c School of Engineering and the Built Environment Birmingham City University, United Kingdom ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Private allotments Urban agriculture Spatial planning Urban space Order/Disorder ABSTRACT Increasing urbanisation is placing significant development pressure upon our urban spaces and green infra- structure. Allotments have strong cultural roots in the urban domain with emerging evidence of multiple health and quality of life benefits associated with their existence, use and management. However, they represent a remnant landscape; out of order and unproductive according to conventional economic and market assessments of urban land use. Consequently, allotments represent highly contested spaces; as opportunity spaces for re- development to meet housing demands or as growing spaces for escape and socialisation. This paper employs a phenomenological approach to explore the values and perceptions of plotholders, residents, planning managers and allotment bodies relating to one privately owned allotment site in Dudley, West Midlands, UK. Our focus on private allotments fills an important research (lack of information on ownership and spatial extent) and policy (treated differently to public allotments as open space in planning policy) gap. Semi-structured interviews reveal that the allotment site is valued by plotholders and nearby residents on a wide range of ecosystem services and community benefits with only minor concerns evident about modern allotment infrastructure and bonfires. This positive picture reflected strong local governance and community relationships. However, there was a mis- understanding among residents that this private allotment had the same level of protection as a municipal site. It is recommended that planning policy treats both municipal and private sites equally and that more research is conducted on the ownership, distribution and governance of private allotment sites given their importance a in urban planning and placemaking. 1. Introduction There are now estimated to be some three million allotments across Europe which collectively constitute a valued social and environmental resource (Van den Berg, Van Winsum-Westra, de Vries, & Van Dillen, 2010). Allotments are defined “as a parcel of land being allotted to someone for their own use” (Bell, 2016:1). Allotments form part of the wider global urban agriculture movement as citizens take advantage of the multiple benefits generated by growing their own food (Bendt, Barthel, & Colding, 2013; Gorgolewski, Komisar, & Nasr, 2011; Hardman & Larkham, 2014; Jerme & Wakefield, 2013). Allotments differ from other forms of urban agriculture due to their bespoke leg- islation and the formality and structure in the way they involve people (Bell, 2016). Allotment sites set aside individual plots, whereas new forms of urban agriculture, such as ‘community gardens’ favour more collective aspects of cultivation (Adams, Scott, & Hardman, 2014; Beitin, 2011; Bell, 2016; Firth, Maye, & Pearson, 2011; Holland, 2004; Glover, 2004). Originally allotments in the UK were introduced to relieve rural poverty during the 18th century and were then adapted for leisure purposes in the densely populated towns and cities where green space was at a premium (Acton, 2011; Barclay, 2012; Cooper, 2011; Crouch and Ward, 1997). Across the rest of Europe as a whole, varied mani- festations of allotments arose as a response to similar drivers from the 19th century to post Second World War (Keshvarz & Bell, 2016; Bell et al., 2016). Allotment sites have a number of complex environmental, social, cultural and economic linkages and benefits across the participants, communities and environment in which they are located (Acton, 2011; Crouch & Wiltshire, 2012; Irvine et al., 1999; Preston & Wilson, 2014). These include increased sense of community, place identity, health, quality of life and local food production (e.g. Acton, 2011; http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2017.09.004 Received 25 July 2016; Received in revised form 29 August 2017; Accepted 7 September 2017 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: Alister.scott@northumbria.ac.uk (A. Scott), Andrew.dean@dudley.gov.uk (A. Dean), Veronica.barry@mail.bcu.ac.uk (V. Barry), Richard.kotter@northumbria.ac.uk (R. Kotter). Landscape and Urban Planning 169 (2018) 185–198 0169-2046/ © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. MARK