Topic: spending review and allotments

[gwynleg]

Our local council (Hertfordshire) is surveying residents on what to cut ..... Allotments are specifically mentioned several times  - both in a question on should spending on 'leisure' activities be cut, and should people pay more for allotments!! Must admit in all the anxiety about the spending cuts ( I work in a public service) I hadnt thought about my lovely lottie!

One more thing to worry about.

[SMP1704]

I think the days when councils could subsidise a minority leisure activity are in the past. What business would price a service which did not cover their running costs?  Self management is likely to become much more attractive to councils but not necessarily us.

[Unwashed]

Self-management is the way to go.  Taking responsibility creates community.  We're social animals, if you take away the nanny state we will remember how we used to help ourselves.  Chances are your site will become better run with better facilities, rents will be reasonable, and it'll save the tax-payer money.

And if for some reason allotmenteers don't want to self-manage, then sure, charge them a full commercial rent.

Take Newbury Town Council as an example.  In round figures the average tenant pays £35 rent at £6.94 per pole, but it costs the Council £230 to provide that plot and because most of that money is spent on administration and overheads there's virtually zero investment in facilities. Under self-management it's perfectly reasonable to run a site on significantly less than £6.94 per pole without any support from the tax-payer and still have some cash left for capital investment, so allotment self-management in Newbury would save the tax-payer £97,000 and improve the site facilities.  The problem in Newbury is that the council do so enjoy spending all of that lovely money and as they raise that money through a precept they see no reason to cut back.

[Squash64]

Self-management is the way to go.  Taking responsibility creates community.  We're social animals, if you take away the nanny state we will remember how we used to help ourselves.  Chances are your site will become better run with better facilities, rents will be reasonable, and it'll save the tax-payer money.

I love the fact that our site is self-managed even though it involves a lot of work for me as secretary. 

I do feel as though we are a community and I miss people if I don't see them for a few days.  I get visitors to my plot all the time and I love this.  Today someone came to tell me that he had a new grandchild and someone else came to pay the rent (we collect rent on the Sundays in October but this chap works on Sundays)
We chatted about various things and I asked him if he was happy with his plot.  He said "Madam, (he's Bangladeshi) I am very happy with my plot and I am more than happy with you!  I like your behaviour very very much!"  This made me smile every time I thought about it afterwards.  :)

Sometimes I even get the feeling that for me, gardening is taking second place to the social aspect of having an allotment.  ;)

[Nigel B]

One would have thought that in these coming days of austerity, allotments will assume a vital role in helping to sustain families.

When councils get around to divvying up whatever funds are still available, they  should have allotments on the 'very important', list instead of thinking of them as merely places where 'leisure' activities take place.

Taking responsibility creates community.  We're social animals, if you take away the nanny state we will remember how we used to help ourselves.  

Precisely.

[elvis2003]

 
I love the fact that our site is self-managed even though it involves a lot of work for me as secretary. 

I do feel as though we are a community and I miss people if I don't see them for a few days. 

Sometimes I even get the feeling that for me, gardening is taking second place to the social aspect of having an allotment.  ;)

agree agree agree  ;D

[gp.girl]

Cuts already here, no more manure arranged by the council  :(

Allotment association is trying to arrange deliveries  :)

Personally getting my own delivery shortly  8)

[Digeroo]

There is a call for people to make an effort to help themselves and growing your own food should in my opinion be encouraged.  We should be 'digging for victory'.  Allotments should not be considered a leisure activity.  People should not be priced out of their allotments but I think that allotmenteers should also expect to contribute to the organisation. 

Squash64 does a great job organising her allotments but are there enough people like her to go around?

[Mr Smith]

Our local council would struggle to bring our allotments in to their spending review because they do just three things for us, they make a crap job of cutting the weeds once a year, turn the water on and off once a year and three collect the rent, ;)

[caroline7758]

Likewise, Mr Smith, I'm sure our council makes a profit on our allotments- their only costs can be the stamps for the rent reminders and paying a chap to cut the outside hedge once a year (but only if we remind them!) No water, no facilities, nothing.

[Trevor_D]

I agree that self-management is the way to go. Mind you, as a non-Council site we haven't got much choice there! But we get things done on our site that the council sites only dream of.

We cut our own hedge and our own grass, when it's convenient to us or needs doing. If we need more water butts we run in some more pipe and add them. We've just re-vamped the main drainage ditch through the centre of the site. We've had Lottery funding to install a composting toilet. And we've put in a car park, two secure gates, a machine shed and re-vamped the fencing along the main road.

But yes - it does need people to organise it. (That's people like Betty & I.) But if that's in place, people are only too happy to volunteer to do jobs, because they can see things happening! We must have had upwards of 30 people trench-digging at various times; and our summer BBQ had most of the site mucking in somehow.

And we currently pay £13.00 for a 5-pole plot.