About Us

What do NAWG do?

The Newcastle Allotment Working Group (NAWG) was formed in the late 1990s to act as an advisory body upon the management of Newcastle’s allotments. It consists of nine elected area representatives from nine area groupings of the City’s 64 allotments sites together with a Chairman, a Secretary and a Treasurer. From the council are added the Allotment Officer (Mark Todd) and one senior member of the Parks Department. Finally a councillor with portfolio for allotments makes 15 members of NAWG in all. The area representatives are elected at the allotment forum every spring and serve for two years before retiring or being re-elected. Area Representatives are usually serving members of their own site committee and have many years of experience of site management at the committee level.

The Working Group meets once a month at the Civic Centre.

It advises the Council on:-

1. Policies and priorities for Newcastle allotment sites.

2. How to prioritise spend of the allotment budget which comes from your rent.

It helps run:-

3. The annual City Allotment Show

It produces:-

4. ‘Dig This’ a newsletter which can be accessed through the website. Each site has printed copies sent to their secretary for those without e-mail.

It advises allotment sites upon:-

5. Management issues such as how to run a committee.

6. Getting grants for worthwhile projects such as composting toilets, community huts etc.