Topic: COUNCIL ALLOTMENT RENT RISES

[Unwashed]

I have not yet worked out how councils work out the amount they say allotments cost them to run.   I am not sure I understand how they are spending the £10k they will be receiving for the site.  Is this covered by freedom of information?

According to their website they have more than 3000 allotments, so total income for next year should be around the half million £ mark.  If I was a sheffield allotmenteer I would be interested in know what they are spending it on.

I can illustrate the problem with Newbury Town Council where I know the accounts.  I roundish numbers then:

Newbury Town Council has six sites, with 500 plots totaling of 2,500 poles.  They now charge £8 per pole which generates £20k revenue.

Running costs are £24k, of which £600 is to rent one of the sites, £3,000 is the water bill, £2,150 is for pest control, £18,250 pays contractors to do all of the site maintenance such as cutting the grass, clipping the hedges, fixing the fences.

It costs £36k in staff costs for the various clerks that administer the service, and another £48k of administration overheads that pays for the staff office accommodation, back-office administration support, and the management of that administration.

In Newbury then the allotment service consumes £88k of tax-payers money to provide 500 plots - that's a break-even rent of £43.20 per pole.  That gives you an idea of the problem.

This is the standard accounting practice method of assessing net cost - add the running costs to the staff costs and then apportion overheads in proportion to some measure, typically the cost of the staff directly delivering the service.  Take the revenue from this and that's your net service cost.  Divide that by the number of let poles and that gives you the break-even pole rate.  This is the fairest way to assess the full cost because it takes into account not just the direct costs of delivering the service but the indirect overheads too, so it gives you the full cost to the tax-payer of the council delivering the service.

[Digeroo]

If staff costs £36,000 this is a basically a whole person.   Just how long does it take to send out 500 invoices.   I had a job when I worked part time and send out about 2500 invoices every month and processed and chased payments and considered that only a minor part of my job.    Then it is the basis on which overheads are apportioned that interest me.   

My guess is that there is a large charge for the pension scheme.

[Unwashed]

If staff costs £36,000 this is a basically a whole person.   Just how long does it take to send out 500 invoices.   I had a job when I worked part time and send out about 2500 invoices every month and processed and chased payments and considered that only a minor part of my job.    Then it is the basis on which overheads are apportioned that interest me.   

My guess is that there is a large charge for the pension scheme.

I made a FoI request on this point, and the council say they have 1.5 full-time equivalent service staff delivering the allotment service.  That's around six hours of administration per plot!  Newbury Town Council are just really, really inefficient.  It's not just the allotment service though, there's I think 12 or 13 full-time staff the council doesn't really do much more than a couple of parks and and cemeteries.

Overheads are apportioned in proportion to some kind of measure, and both staff time and material costs are conventionally used.  This site describes the methodology.

[picman]

I guess we can count ourselves lucky <7 poles + water £33 with concessions , council have about 3% rise each year (11% in 2009)  I think their problem is the fact that the management of their sites is a mess, countless officers have tried to get some sort of uniformity but not all sites have associations, or even a representative. If the sites all had the same procedures and did a lot of the management themselves it would cut cost at the council house and our council tax !!!  (not) . They seem to be having another try at rationalization possibly with a few pennies for us by doing our own letting or hedge cutting etc...Perhaps a pre-cursor to a massive rent increase, or is that my suspicious mind kicking in...

[philistine]

The bills have come out now and the rent is indeed £160 for a 300m plot .Sheffield has 3000+ plots over 70 sites and an allotments office consisting of an allotments manager, allotments officer, 2 part time back room staff and one ranger costing maybe 125k per year. Does anybody know what rents are paid for similar size set ups in other cities ?

[digmore]

Hi Philistine,

What sort of figures are you talking about ?

Digmore 

[digmore]

Philistine,

Have a look at post...........Small, medium or large in this section.

Digmore 

[Unwashed]

The bills have come out now and the rent is indeed £160 for a 300m plot .Sheffield has 3000+ plots over 70 sites and an allotments office consisting of an allotments manager, allotments officer, 2 part time back room staff and one ranger costing maybe 125k per year. Does anybody know what rents are paid for similar size set ups in other cities ?

The average cost is around £5.21/pole, so that's around £62.52 for a 300m² or 12 pole plot.

At £160 for a 12 pole plot that's one of the most expensive rents in the country at £13.33/pole.  I only know of Runnymede Borough Council and Wandsworth Borough Council who charge more.

However, Sheffield City Council charge for plots on a granularity of medium (up to 200m²) £80, large (up to 201-300m²) £112, and very large (over 301m²) £160, so a standard 10 pole plot which is still relatively big nowadays will cost you £112, which is still in the super-league for costs and more expensive than around 95% of other sites, but it's a little more affordable than £160.

Self-management is the way to go if the Sheffield societies can organise their allotmenteers and work cooperatively to run their own service.  Rents would likely be less than £50 for a 12 pole plot, possibly quite a bit less, and self-management typically brings many social benefits too.