Metric zealots axe 600-year-old rules on allotments and force holders to stop using traditional terms



The move has been branded 'officiousness for its own sake'

The current system of measurements has been used for six centuries

Gardeners were notified of the switch in an official letter

Central and local government disagree on who ordered the change



Town hall bureaucrats were last night accused of ‘officiousness for its own sake’ in forcing thousands of allotment holders nationwide to scrap imperial measurements and go metric.



For generations, allotment sizes have been defined using a 600-year-old system of ‘rods’, also known as ‘poles’ or ‘perches’, equivalent to 5.5 yards.

In the past few weeks, however, thousands of gardeners have received rent renewal notices informing them of the switch. A typical site of ten poles will now be registered as 253 square metres.

Central and local government cannot agree on who ordered the switch from imperial to metric measurements

Strangely, neither central nor local government officials can agree on who ordered the change or why it is being made now.



Warwick Cairns of the pro-imperial British Weights And Measures Association said: ‘It’s officiousness for its own sake. There is no reason for it. The European Commission gave up on metric Britain in 2007.’

Allotments are still legally defined in poles and mandarins in Whitehall were baffled by the change.



A spokesman for the Department for Communities and Local Government said: ‘There is no central government requirement for town halls to measure up the size of their allotments. This sounds like the work of over-zealous municipal officials.’

