halton council to raise allotment rent by 300%- halton tenants pls join grp

[Poet]

if you have or know anyone who has an allotment in halton PLEASE get them to join this group

http://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/228338170583682/

[Unwashed]

Can you post any more background to this Poet?

[Poet]

it's about this...

http://www.runcornandwidnesworld.co.uk/news/9491097.Allotment_holders_protest_over_proposed_300__rise/

I am trying to stop the council doing this but I need to get all the allotment people talking and the best plce seems to be facebook.  So, i set up the group but need people to join it!  i can't fight them on my own, but I'm trying!

[digmore]

Hello Poet,

Lots of details missing. Is this increase on all the sites in Halton or just yours?

What was the previous rent and what will it be next?

300% seems outside what would be deemed exceptable, considering what other boroughs are charging.

Different sites in St. Helens have had minimum increases, we have put ours up to £27.00 per annum and half that for concessionaires.

Give us some more to play with.

Digmore.

[Unwashed]

The linked article says the council are proposing to increase the rent of a full plot (which I'm assuming to be 10 pole) from £31 to £100.  That's actually a 223% increase, but the significant point is that it goes up to £100 and that's very expensive for an allotment, top 3% by the latest University of Leiscester national analysis.  At this cost it will surely exclude some of the least able from having an allotment - the very demographic that the movement is supposed to serve.

Will the council discuss the option of self-management with you Poet?  It typically costs tax-payers quite a bit to subsidise their council's allotment service and I can't agree this is right when allotmenteers can quite happily run the service themselves at zero cost to the tax-payer, and when councils are slashing services for the disadvantaged and needy because to save the tax-payer a few quid it seems obscene to me that an allotment service should take priority.

[Poet]

The linked article says the council are proposing to increase the rent of a full plot (which I'm assuming to be 10 pole) from £31 to £100.  That's actually a 223% increase, but the significant point is that it goes up to £100 and that's very expensive for an allotment, top 3% by the latest University of Leiscester national analysis.  At this cost it will surely exclude some of the least able from having an allotment - the very demographic that the movement is supposed to serve.

Will the council discuss the option of self-management with you Poet?  It typically costs tax-payers quite a bit to subsidise their council's allotment service and I can't agree this is right when allotmenteers can quite happily run the service themselves at zero cost to the tax-payer, and when councils are slashing services for the disadvantaged and needy because to save the tax-payer a few quid it seems obscene to me that an allotment service should take priority.

the problem i have is that we don't know any of the other allotment tenants, that is why i'm trying to get everyone to join the facebook group.  I can't do this on my own.  we have no contact details for any of the reps from each site and the council won't give me that info.

[Unwashed]

the problem i have is that we don't know any of the other allotment tenants, that is why i'm trying to get everyone to join the facebook group.  I can't do this on my own.  we have no contact details for any of the reps from each site and the council won't give me that info.

I sympathise.  You definitely need strength in numbers, and it wouldn't surprise me if your council tried to suppress and frustrate your attempts to organise.  I don't do facebook so I can't comment on how successful this might be.  Try to talk to plot holders in person too.  Best of luck.

[Poet]

the problem i have is that we don't know any of the other allotment tenants, that is why i'm trying to get everyone to join the facebook group.  I can't do this on my own.  we have no contact details for any of the reps from each site and the council won't give me that info.

I sympathise.  You definitely need strength in numbers, and it wouldn't surprise me if your council tried to suppress and frustrate your attempts to organise.  I don't do facebook so I can't comment on how successful this might be.  Try to talk to plot holders in person too.  Best of luck.

we don't know who the rep is for our site and the notice board doesn't have their details on.  The noticeboard is also a locked one.  I think i'll have to print something off and put it in a plastic wallet and sellotape it to the board, asking the rep to contact me.  But, I'm hoping some of the halton allotmenteers use this site so, as i said originally, if you know any, pls spread the word.

[ceres]

I’ve searched for Halton on the forum and found these.  There's a couple of people who appear to be near you and a member Alan_Y or Yarwooda (I think they're the same person but haven't checked) who appears to have been an allotments officer of some kind.  The posts are old and they haven't visited the forum in a long time but you could try sending them a Personal Message through the forum and see if they respond.

http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/smf/index.php/topic,16103.msg165453.html#msg165453

http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/smf/index.php/topic,801.msg118110.html#msg118110

http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/smf/index.php/topic,3663.msg32952.html#msg32952

http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/smf/index.php/topic,13701.msg131019.html#msg131019

http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/smf/index.php/topic,845.msg105129.html#msg105129

http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/smf/index.php/topic,14924.msg147916.html#msg147916

http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/smf/index.php/topic,4078.msg36191.html#msg36191

http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/smf/index.php/topic,2870.msg26522.html#msg26522

http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/smf/index.php/topic,18887.msg195303.html#msg195303

http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/smf/index.php/topic,800.msg8160.html#msg8160

[Poet]

thanks, i've asked the local paper, who originally ran the stroy, to post something to let people know.  I've also asked the freecycle network to post a message.  I'll get the local radio station to help if i can too.

[Unwashed]

we don't know who the rep is for our site and the notice board doesn't have their details on.

The site rep represents the council so it's not them you need to be talking to, it's your fellow allotmenteers.  If your site doesn't have an association then you need to start one yourself, and you don't need your council's involvement to do that, you just need to talk to your fellow allotmenteers and sound them out.  If you can get half a dozen who want to form a committee and organise themselves into an assoication then you're off and running.

[Poet]

we don't know who the rep is for our site and the notice board doesn't have their details on.

The site rep represents the council so it's not them you need to be talking to, it's your fellow allotmenteers.  If your site doesn't have an association then you need to start one yourself, and you don't need your council's involvement to do that, you just need to talk to your fellow allotmenteers and sound them out.  If you can get half a dozen who want to form a committee and organise themselves into an assoication then you're off and running.

do you know much/anything about the allotment act?  Doesn't it say that councils cannot raise the rent to unaffordable levels?  £100 would be unaffordable to almost everyone i should think.  It would be cheaper to buy fruit and veg.

[Unwashed]

do you know much/anything about the allotment act?  Doesn't it say that councils cannot raise the rent to unaffordable levels?  £100 would be unaffordable to almost everyone i should think.  It would be cheaper to buy fruit and veg.

The interpretation given in Harwood v. Reigate and Banstead Borough Council to Section 10 of the Allotments Act 1950 that "an allotment shall be let at such rent as a tenant may reasonably be expected to pay" is that it's for the council to decide what rent is reasonable so there's very little scope to complain that you find a particular rent unreasonable.  However, the judgment does say that allotments are to be treated the same as the council's other comparable leisure services such as tennis courts and swimming sessions, and if the council discriminates against allotments by charging a proportionately higher rent so as to achieve a proportionately lower level of subsidy for allotments than for other comparable leisure services then that would be unlawful.

Another piece of legislation that could buy you some time if the council intend springing a rent increase on you is the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 because a rent reviwew term that allows the council to impose a rent increase without 12 months notice is almost certainly unfair, and in principle Trading Standards should step in to prevent the council imposing the rent increase.  But it only buys you time, if the council get their act together they will eventually be able to impose what increase they want.

Be cautious about challenging the council without the back-up of your site association membership because your council might just evict you for standing up for your rights.

[Ellen K]

I think the council might argue that this is an adjustment as rents weren't increased at all for many years or even decades.  So compared to what you paid in e.g. 1970, the equivalent 2012 rent is £100.

And in reality, most plotholders get their plots at a concessionary rate, usually half price.  Tough for those who dont (like me) but we are in the minority.

Unwashed has gone through all this before (and paid the price  ) so his advice is realistic.  You need the support of the majority of your fellow plotholders.  And you need to present options to the council.  Either a slow ramp up in price - say 10% per annum.  Or to go over to self management and thereby reduce their costs to justify the rent staying the same.

Some people have been successful in challenging these rent rises and no doubt they will be posting soon.  But you need to sound your council out and understand how serious they are about upping the rent or considering other options.

Good luck.

[Poet]

what do you mean "paid the price"?

[Ellen K]

There are various threads in this section of the forum about rent increases and eviction notices, they make interesting reading and give you some indication of possible outcomes - good and bad.

As Unwashed says in his last post, one scenario is that the council give you one year's notice and terminate your tenancy -  if you are seen as a solo boat-rocker, that is a simple solution for the council.

[ceres]

As Ellen K said, there is a lot of stuff on the forum.  Do some searching and you'll get a lot of useful information.

Please don't get into a discussion of the ins and outs of Unwashed's (or anyone else's) ongoing cases.  That would not be helpful.

[Poet]

As Ellen K said, there is a lot of stuff on the forum.  Do some searching and you'll get a lot of useful information.

Please don't get into a discussion of the ins and outs of Unwashed's (or anyone else's) ongoing cases.  That would not be helpful.

I didn't!!!!!  I asked what soemone meant by "paid the price"  Their comment, not mine!!!

if the council do take that route then the local press will get the story and I'll ask my MP to support me.  But, the idea of coming here was so I wouldn't have to do it alone.  So, back to drumming up support...gosh, I didn't expect this post to cause me any stress! 

[ceres]

Poet, people have made helpful comments to point you in the right direction.  I spent 20 minutes searching and copying links to threads where people from your site/near your site have posted here in the past.  If you can find others who agree with you, then you won't have to go it alone but no-one here is going to do the work for you.  There is a lot of information here about rent increases, comparisons between sites and due process that you'll be able to find if you use the search facility.  That's all.

[Poet]

Poet, people have made helpful comments to point you in the right direction.  I spent 20 minutes searching and copying links to threads where people from your site/near your site have posted here in the past.  If you can find others who agree with you, then you won't have to go it alone but no-one here is going to do the work for you.  There is a lot of information here about rent increases, comparisons between sites and due process that you'll be able to find if you use the search facility.  That's all.

i didn't ask anyone to do any work for me!  Blimey, i only posted this to see if there were any other halton allotmenteers that use the forum and i seem to have been dragged into something that ended with me getting a telling off.  How did that happen!???