Roots Drying Up

James Garrett continues to follow the story of Roots Allotments as they try to build a business from selling allotments to the good folks of Abbots Leigh in Somerset

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Back in April we reported how the private allotments company, Roots, had hired a contractor to dig a borehole, so as to provide an uninterrupted water supply at one of its flagship sites in Somerset and by-pass the local utility company (you can read that report here).

At the time Roots’ directors were likely smarting, having being fined £1,000 - the maximum penalty that could be imposed on them at North Somerset magistrates court - where they were convicted of “using an illegal water supply without consent.”

None of the directors, who were also ordered to pay a £400 victim surcharge and Bristol Water’s costs, showed up in court. The utility warned that any future connection to mains water of the site at Abbots Leigh, near Bristol, would only take place “once all required works are completed to the appropriate standards.”

Roots’ riposte was to contract a specialist firm, Borehole Solutions Ltd (BSL), to find its own source of water. In mid-April the Peterborough-based firm’s staff told villagers they expected to be on-site, drilling into the bedrock, for just a few days.

In what was, back then, intended to be a short-term irrigation fix at the start of the growing season, water was trucked on to the site, which lies between Bristol and Portishead.

However, the tanker has had to return again and again over the past two months to refill the large tank which feeds water troughs situated around the site. That is because, eight weeks after digging began, the borehole remains unfinished.

Borehole Solutions’ managing director, John Rodgman, told us simply, “I’m unsure what there is to report other than a machine broken down. It happens unfortunately.”

Simon Talbot-Ponsonby, chair of Abbots Leigh parish council, elaborated. “The drill rig is still there and they’ve obviously had problems. Apparently, they found water 65 metres down (over 200 feet) but the rock in the shaft fractured and collapsed.”

As a consequence, he said, “The auger is apparently jammed and they can’t get it out.” He understood that the first hole had been abandoned and that the contractor would try to create another, once a replacement drill bit had arrived.

Rodgman added, “We are a family business. I’ve been drilling water wells 30 years nearly and we are third generation well-drillers.” However, he conceded, “We are paid per metre so, as you can imagine, we are not exactly happy.”

It was, perhaps, not the ideal time for Roots director Christian Samuel to be posting on Instagram that the company had created a further 40 plots at Abbots Leigh. Thanks to the recent hot and dry spell, they all need watering, increasing demand at a time when supply is sporadic.

Samuel assured us, however, that ‘no dig’ allotments, like those provided by Roots, in which compost is spread over a meadow, needed much less water than conventional gardens. “Compost retains moisture for much longer so the plots only need watering once a week,” he said.

That message is not always getting through, it seems. Pip A’Ness, an Abbots Leigh resident who also acts as admin for the Roots Allotments Uncovered Facebook page, said, “The other evening my husband and I watched a young woman carrying two watering cans from trough to trough.

“I asked if they were all empty. She said ‘Yes, all of them,’ and they had been for several weeks.“

A’Ness says she explained to the customer that she could fill her watering cans from the troughs in the upper meadow, which had been just replenished by a tanker. It seemed the troughs in the lower meadow remained empty as there was insufficient water pressure to push the water round the large site.

“She thanked us for the intel and off she went to fill up her watering cans to bring back to her allotment patch,” said A’Ness. She wondered, however, “Why is this information not being shared on the site?”

She also wondered if it was necessary to create 40 new plots at Abbots Leigh, just at a time when ground-nesting birds, like skylarks, were trying to hatch young.

This was because, Samuel explained, “The Bristol site is very, very popular, one of the most popular in the UK.” All of the plots, which now number nearly 600, were occupied he said. Which said, neighbours report that only about half a dozen of the new plots seem to be under cultivation.

As for the site’s water supply, Samuel said he was confident the new borehole would be dug and water would be flowing around the site within a fortnight.

Back in April we also reported that Yorkshire Water had connected the Roots site at Ecclesfield to the mains, despite Sheffield City Council turning down the company’s retrospective application for planning permission.

Roots has appealed but it could be a year before the case is heard by a planning inspector. So far no appeal has not been lodged against the decision by the South Downs National Park Authority to refuse Roots permission for its Patching Meadow allotment site.

The water has not been turned on at Ecclesfield because, Samuel acknowledged, Roots had yet to pay the utility. “We just need to connect the trough system to the mains. This will happen in the next week or so.”

The reason the process had not yet happened was because Roots was awaiting the next tranche of money from one of its venture capital backers. These have included former Tesco boss Terry Leahy and JamJar Investments.

Abbots Leigh villagers wrote to the latter in 2024, observing, “Your website states that you aim to make people happier, their lives easier, or help save them time, and that you value honesty, openness and the highest integrity. It is our experience that Roots have totally failed to demonstrate those values.”

The investors’ reply, recalled A’Ness, was “very dismissive.”

The hold-up in the arrival of the expected funds also meant that Roots was not yet in a position to hire a head of legal and compliance. This would also happen soon, said Samuel, claiming that, despite recent hiccups, his company is “the biggest back-to-the-land movement since (the) Dig for Victory (campaign) in World War Two.”

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