Topic: help for a land owner

[Robert_Brenchley]

Toilets would be an advantage as not everyone shares the traditional ethos of recycling it. Plotholders would feel more able to bring their families down i there was one, and it would make it easier to create a family atmosphere. Depending on the number of plots involved, you might need a septic tank; they're expensive to put in, but cost nothing to run thereafter.

[carlseawolf]

Hi greenbelt,
 May i say i'm happy to see someone with surplus land willing to give some up so the allotment / grow your own movement can expand, and in these hard times familys can get land to grow food.

 I would only have one major problem and that would be change of use of the land and putting in any kind of services , as you have all ready said your surounded by houses and changing use of land could affect how easy or difficult the local authority could purchase your land for housing.

What i would do with your neighbours who have taken a piece of your land as there own , would be to get your field boundery surveyed so you know where it is and then work out how many square feet they have grabed then charge them rental each year for the space as you can not grow crops on it.
Why should you lose crop space to these people and not make a living as it would cost you money to rent a field even if it's grass.

One last thing , is there an local allotment association who can manage the site for you rather than have to deal with the added paper work associated with running the site and evicting tennants, a small loss of revenue to you  for piece of mind may be worth it.

[Hyacinth]

The Garden Law site would be a good place to ask questions re: Change of Use legalities, etc:-

http://www.gardenlaw.co.uk/

Hope this helps, and good luck! Splendid initiative 8)

[Pesky Wabbit]

Like the idea, but wouldn't pay £100 a year for it.  :(

£100 buys a lot of veg from the supermarket and thats without all the time and effort a lottie would involve.

[saddad]

I wouldn't either, but it took me years to get our association to raise the rent from £10pa. My target is £30 pa per 300sq yds... £24 from October. At £2 per week though it is great value... cheaper than any gymn...  ;D

[thifasmom]

although £100/ yr sounds steep but it really only works out to just over £8/ a month and that certainly will not buy you a month worth of veg. granted i may not want to pay out that much in one go so if i had an allotment at that price i would put aside my eight pounds every month so when bill time comes it won't hurt to pay (i'm qite certain there are times when i have wasted more on stuff i can't even acount for ::)), actually i would probably but aside more like ten that way i could start the new season with a little seed money as well :D.

oops sorry back to the topic at hand :-[.

[Pesky Wabbit]

£8/ a month and that certainly will not buy you a month worth of veg.  :-[.

Nor does my plot. Some months esp June/July/August theres a glut, but Nov-May, I get very little.

[littlebabybird]

i pay £116 for my plot, i would pay triple that if i had to.


lbb

[Eristic]

but Nov-May, I get very little.

Why?

[greenbelt]

i pay £116 for my plot, i would pay triple that if i had to.


lbb

Hello lbb,  Please can you tell me more .... such as where your plot is in the country / proximity to city, I'm assuming its privately owned, how you came to find it, what you use it for & how often . This would be very valuable advice & help me understand what different types of people are looking for & comfortbale to pay. I know from what people have said that they pay few pounds a year , but for my situation it would need to pay at least the same or more than grazing rental , which is currently very much in demand, if I was to go ahead with the infrastructure.
Thanks.

[gardentg44]

£8/ a month and that certainly will not buy you a month worth of veg.  :-[.

[Nor does my plot. Some months esp June/July/August theres a glut, but Nov-May, I get very little.]

you will have to plan alittle better this year ;D ;D

[artichoke]

In case this helps:

I pay £52 for three plots amounting to just over one whole plot (250 sq metres). Yes, I have them in order to grow more and more vegetables and fruit, and I would have plenty all the year round (even winter, with kale and broccoli, spinach, stored veg and fruit) if only people didn't demand more variety....

But uppermost in my mind when taking on the second and third plot, in a large open meadow with plenty of trees around the edges, was to have space for grandsons (7 of them so far, aged 2 to 13) to run around, build competitive bonfires, cook food, make little shelters, grow radishes, have picnics with and without their parents, and generally let off steam. They can't do this in my tiny back yard, and I find the village playgrounds stultifyingly boring with nothing for me to do but push swings and watch them playing.

I don't let them annoy other plot holders, of course. They know where not to go, and how much noise is too much, and the fires they love so much have to be tactfully placed, and so on.

I suspect that a lot of your future plot holders may have similar reasons - getting their families out of the house and small garden and into the open air with running space, BBQs and wobbly stick shelters, sand pits etc. Maybe you should be prepared for that, as well as for the traditional dedicated solo digger?

[littlebabybird]

i'm in surrey,
i was on the list for 2 1/2 years to get it,
its a council site.
lbb