Dragons' Den star slams 'devastating' new Somerset allotment site

A new allotment site on the outskirts of Bristol has sparked outrage among local residents and eco-conscious celebrities, including entrepreneur Deborah Meaden, immediately after its official opening. The Dragons' Den star labelled the Roots Allotment launch party as 'devastating' and 'very sad', following the conclusion of the site's first summer in Abbots Leigh with an 'official opening ceremony'.

The event, which took place last weekend, featured a ribbon-cutting, expert talks, and cooking classes at the Roots site near the entrance to the Leigh Woods nature reserve, close to the North Somerset side of the Clifton Suspension Bridge. Founders of Roots were present, along with numerous individuals who have paid to join the Roots movement and secure their own allotment plot on what was once a grass field on the side of the main A369 on the edge of Abbots Leigh village, as BristolLive reports.

Ed Morrison, one of the founders, performed a live 'No Dig' demonstration - the Roots model involves bringing in topsoil to place on top of the ground, with growers then planting into that - while fellow Roots founder Christian Samuel described the opening and the first few months with the allotments up and running as 'amazing'.

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The first cultivation period this spring and summer saw 420 allotment plots on the field, with Roots' long-term vision to increase that number to 700. The company, which originated in Bath a few years back and is now developing Roots Allotment sites nationwide, has been embroiled in disputes with local inhabitants and North Somerset planners over the transformation, causing a delay of approximately a year to the launch

The event on Sunday saw fundraising and a raffle for the firm’s charity partner Migrateful, which helps refugees and migrants to integrate into society by teaching cookery classes, and there were cookery demonstrations and other talks in the giant tipi hub erected at the Roots site.

But when pictures of the launch were shared by local residents and campaigners who have been trying to stop the Roots development, Dragon’s Den star Deborah Meaden - who has criticised the Roots scheme before - expressed her anger over it.

“This is devastating,” she wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “Butterfly numbers have crashed in the UK and Roots Allotments have taken 25 acres of precious meadow habitat, and celebrate with a party.

“They could go (and) do much good in the right area but we can’t keep taking from a Nature who can’t defend herself. Very sad,” she added.

Roots allotment plots cost around three- to five-times more than traditional allotment plots on community or council-run allotments in Bristol, which have fairly long waiting lists as demand for space from residents of the city outstrips supply.

The Roots model goes further than a regular allotment, with talks, training and demonstrations, tool hire and other extras, and Christian Samuel, one of the Bath-based founders of the company, said the first season at Abbots Leigh had been a great success.

“It’s been amazing - there’s obviously hundreds of people growing food here now and it’s one of the most relieving and inspiring feelings, to have people growing their own food here now, organically,” he said.

Mr Samuel shied away from directly addressing the controversy that has dogged the set up of the Abbots Leigh site when asked. “I feel overall the message that we were receiving throughout the whole time was that there were thousands of people out there that want to grow their own food and especially learn to grow their own food, which is what we specifically do here.

"We feel amazing about it,” he said. “We’ve signed the lease for 25 years but hopefully we'll be here a lot longer, hopefully way past my own lifetime,” he added.

The Roots set up has seen blockades by local residents, scores of complaints to council planners and a still unresolved planning row with North Somerset Council.

The council recently amended its stance on the development by saying that it no longer viewed the Roots development as an agricultural use in planning terms, and told the firm it had to apply for planning permission for a range of changes it’s made to the field, including installing matting to create a vehicle access and installing a water supply to the field.