Topic: The Big A4A Annual Rent Review - 2013 Season

[Tee Gee]

Council owned!

Rates include water supply (approx  1 tap per two plots)

Plot size 60ft x 30 ft (20 yds x 10 yds)

Annual rent £21-28*

*  pensioners are charged 50% of full rate

So I get my two for the price of one.

I will leave you to do the maths on poles, rods & perches I am not a very good fisherman!

I would end up with the proverbial answer......it was this big <........................................>

[Unwashed]

:We are council owned,self-managed. Our plots are measured front to back linear measure only.                    $1 per metre ( sorry no pound sign on this flippin'kindle ) we have two plots one is 26 metres and the other is 28 meters strange but they seem to be the same length but one is a little wider. 

Thanks macmac

To allow me to make a comparable cost per area I'm going to assume a typical plot is 5m wide - let me know if that is wildly out.

[macmac]

I'll measure on our next visit 

[Digeroo]

No increase in price so whatever you had for me last year.  Private site,  includes water, and path mowing and hedge maintenance and use of communal shed, but no security fencing.     No concessions.

[French-Dream]

We've only just started in Feb this year,  our site is owned by the diocese of Warwick.  We pay by Feb/March, for our plot which is classed as half a plot...around 50 yards by 5 yards (that's me stepping it out) £24 which includes all the water we what.
We have a committee that runs the site & collects rents, the site is full with no unattended plots and we have a short waiting list of 3 folks...(as stated at our AGM)

We are also having an open day in July, can't wait for it.

[Tee Gee]

We are also having an open day in July, can't wait for it.

This comment reminded me of ours in 2012.....needless to say ...."it rained"

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tee_gee/sets/72157630359326768/show/

and this was the year before;

http://s222.photobucket.com/user/tgalmanac/slideshow/Open%20day%202011?sort=4

Sorry for high jacking the thread but it does show you what we get for our £21-28

[French-Dream]

Thanks Tee Gee for the photos...we enjoyed looking through them....this open day is part of the National garden scheme.

[kt.]

Our site is governed by the town council but self managed and includes water.

Rent:
£24 full plot,  (£14 pensioner)
£13 half plots (£8 Pensioner)

We are subsidised with £5000 that is split between us and public areas,  flower pots and seating / garden areas around the town.  At a guess, around £2500 of this subsides us directly.  If this goes then discretionary rates may cease because on current calculations, concessions are about £750 and our total rent collected is approximately £2200 and that would still leave a shortfall of around £2050...... But we will see.

[Unwashed]

Digeroo prompted me to dig out last year's survey, and here it is:  http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/smf/index.php/topic,71968.msg735922.html#msg735922

And here's the 2011 review: http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/smf/index.php/topic,66485.0.html
And the 2010 review: http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/smf/index.php/topic,57122.0.html

[Unwashed]

Please keep them coming, the more samples we get the more accurate the picture.

Here's the latest:

Rates in £/pole
average   £4.11
average council   £4.57
average private   £2.60
average council-admin   £5.09
average self-admin   £3.28
average council-maintained   £6.59
average self-maintained   £2.76
                     
Number of Sites:
Council sites   11
Private sites   5
Self-administered   10
Council administered   6
Self-maintained   11
Council-maintained   5

[pumkinlover]

£30 per 10 pole, council owned self admin.
Weary secretary.

[Unwashed]

*boing*

Any more for any more?

[katynewbie]

Council owned site, managed by a committee. I have a half plot, total for the year £29.50. That is broken down as 15.50 for the plot, 4 for nsalg and our site committee, 10 for facilities, that is water, toilets, kitchen, shop. This is the same price as last year and I don't get any benefits, it is reduced if you do.

It's the best value hobby I know!

[Digeroo]

Thanks for doing this again.  I always enjoy the results. 

I still think I get very good value.  Last year I think I matched the rent in raspberries, though I would not have bought that amount.  At the moment I am easily saving the rent for the month with parsnips, rhubarb, cabbage spring greens and purple sprouting.   

Not sure it is covering my seedoholic tendancy yet. 

[Unwashed]

Council owned site, managed by a committee. I have a half plot, total for the year £29.50. That is broken down as 15.50 for the plot, 4 for nsalg and our site committee, 10 for facilities, that is water, toilets, kitchen, shop. This is the same price as last year and I don't get any benefits, it is reduced if you do.

It's the best value hobby I know!

Thanks katynewbie

If I were to have a 10 pole plot on your site would that be a full plot?  Would I pay £59.00 for it, or woud it be £31.00 for the plot and a flat rate £14.00 for NSALG, committee, and facilities?

[katynewbie]

Unwashed: £59 for full plot and £14 flat rate for other stuff, I think

[Unwashed]

Unwashed: £59 for full plot and £14 flat rate for other stuff, I think

If it's a flat rate of £14 for the committee and facilities (and that seems natural) then I'm guessing it's £31 for the plot plus £14 for the flat rate stuff, so a total charge of £45 rather than £59.

[Unwashed]

The analysis so far:  This is what our survey has suggested over the last four years.

With a statistical confidence of 90%

Code: [Select]

  average pole rate somewhere between    and most likely
2010 season                  £3.88 and £5.39                  £4.64
2011 season                  £2.94 and £4.30                  £3.62
2012 season                  £4.57 and £5.98                  £5.27
2013 season                  £3.33 and £5.27                  £4.30

What this demonstrates is that it's quite difficult to get an accurate picture of plot rates nationally from a relatively small number of samples when the rates from one site to another vary so wildly.  It seems unlikely that the average rate has actually reduced since last year or that rates are lower than they were four years ago, yet that's currently what this year's survey is suggesting.  Statistics allows us to quantify this uncertainty and that's how I've been able to say that with a confidence of 90% the national is within the given range, and 90% is not a particularly high degree of confidence.  A bigger sample would narrow that range but it would have to be very much bigger to make any real difference, like several hundred sites, because site rates do genuinely vary enormously - from less than £1/pole to more than £10/pole.

What this year's analysis has thrown up though is that there is a statistically significant difference in the rate for self-management, or specifically self-maintained sites as against council sites where the council do the maintenance.  This is what it looks like:

Code: [Select]

            average pole rate somewhere between    and most likely
average council-maintained      £4.47 and £8.71                  £6.59
average self-maintained           £2.62 and £4.21                  £3.42

And because those ranges don't overlap we can say with a statistical confidence of 90% that self-maintained is cheaper than council maintained.  You'd expect that of course, but it's nice to see that coming through from the survey.  How much cheaper is difficult to say because those ranges are still quite broad, but the best estimate is that the average self-maintained site charges £34.20 for a ten pole plot, and the average on a council-maintained site is £65.90.

[carroteater]

300Sq Yards £38 (Leeds council are talking about increasing to £160 next year) + £18 water + £7 insurance + £5 association fee

[Plot No.69]

£30 per yr for 10 poles in Radlett, Herts. Includes water.