Topic: poultry

[beefyb55]

i have had poultry on my allotment now for nearly 2 years, there are 2 other allotment holders with chickens in which i have the most.
up to this autum i had four different breeds large fowl, and now i have five breeds of bantams totaling 20.
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At the moment i have about 20 extra chicks which replace older stock.
The sonning parish council have never bothered till now and have suddenly decided that it is time to change the allotment rules.
I am dissabled and this was my pastime, i have managed to till my plot and grow enough veg for other pentioners and supply them with eggs, 50% are not even cultivated. could anyone help with any information?

[ceres]

Welcome to A4A beefy.  I've moved your post in here to Kept Animals where more people who might be able to help will see it.

Can you tell us what the council has said about your chickens?  There are very few circumstances where a council can stop you keeping chickens but they might intervene if you had too many for your own use, if they were being kept in poor conditions or were causing a nuisance.  I have an information sheet from the NSALG on the legal right to keep chickens on allotments which I can send you if you PM your email address to me.

[kt.]

Welcome beefy.

Our town council has just had a meeting 2 days ago, they are amending and adding some rules to come into force in the next financial year.   Some of the new rules and amendments would affect some current plot holders in a negative way even though they tender their plots very well and have stuck by the rule book over many years.  As a compromise so as to keep the status-quo, some will only come into effect as and when plots are reallocated to new tenants.  Present tenants will retain "grandfather rights" so to speak on some issues that have been amended.  See if you can get the same dispensation.

[alotalot]

Our allotment association has a 25 year lease from the council with a clause in it that no livestock what so ever can be kept. After some recent requests regarding keeping chickens the council have relented apparently being sympathetic with the recent interest in local food and food quality issues. However, it turns out that the clause in the lease would not have had a chance if challenged because the last Allotment Act dictates that chickens and rabbits can be kept by allotment holders.

This might be an avenue of research for you.