“I can’t see where I’ve gone wrong”
A man who has been barred from a community allotment he spent 30 years tending to said he only wanted to make the site a better place. When David Hamlet, 57, arrived at his plot at Clubmoor Allotments and Community Clubhouse, he was shocked to find the gate to his section had been bolted shut and locked with a chain.
The land, which is owned by Liverpool Council, is run by a committee on site. Mr Hamlet said despite warning notices being issued to him about the management of his plot, he had acted correctly and had tried to keep the site tidy to help others. He has now been prevented from accessing the land he has tended to for three decades.
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The courier driver said having suffered with ill health, he made a return to full-time employment earlier this year meaning his plot was left untidy owing to time constraints. This led to a first warning notice being issued to him in March in writing.
A second was issued to Mr Hamlet by the committee regarding overgrowth of trees and bushes. He said how in a bid to make things right, he took time off to tidy his plot.
Mr Hamlet said he then received a notice to quit letter in September with accusations that his mum had swore in the car park, he had fly-tipped on the plot and removed trees and bushes from another plot. He said: “I’ve known my mother all my life and I’ve never heard her swear.
“I was trying to clear up the vacant plot next to mine to make it usable. I arrived at the site today and it’s padlocked.
“I’ve been on here for 30 years and all I’ve done is try and make it better, I can’t see where I’ve gone wrong.” Mr Hamlet said he was given 14 days to respond to the initial notice to quit letter and had done so within four days but had not been permitted to return.
He said: “I thought I’d put a good case across, I suffer with dyslexia so I had my nephew help put a letter together.” The keen gardener, who was an active member in the club’s events in the past, also set out how being banned from the site had impacted his health.
Mr Hamlet added: “I have a skin condition that gets worse through stress and it’s come back with a vengeance. I don’t want to go back to work because of all this at the moment.”
A spokesperson for the committee told the ECHO: “If any plot holder has been told they cannot enter the site, then they will have been told this by Liverpool Council.” A spokesperson for Liverpool Council said the authority does not get involved with membership issues and has an oversight role to ensure any decisions taken by allotment committees are done through fair and due process.
