Allotments 4 All
General => News => Topic started by: Chris on August 26, 2003, 15:31:03
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Hi! Sorry to introduce myself with such a boring subject but I just found the site as I was doing a bit of research. Is there anyone who knows what rent is charged on allotments owned by the Crown or by the Duchy of Lancaster?
I rent one of a group of 6 allotments which have no facilities and no maintenance. We are currently being asked for a rent increase from £40 to £100. We might get it down to £80 but this still seems an exhorbitant amount. I'd be delighted for any input as I try to put a persuasive letter together. Chris
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Hi sounds like they want the land for something else? no one increases that amount sorry Teresa
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You'd think these guys have enough of the readies without that kind of hike (gulp! Hope I won't be sent off to the Tower :-/) Can't you check rents for local council plots to help your argument?
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This year our rent went up from £40 to £50 - 25% rise. Last year the Tories got back in charge of the council. They have decided to "maximise income" from Leisure Services, so have removed OAP discounts on services, trebled fishing permit prices, sold the only bowling alley to a private gym and our allotment rent will rise from £50 to £100 - a 100% rise! On top of that we will be charged an extra fee for use of water. We get nothing extra for that - no site improvements, no security. It's just a plan to put as many people off and declare the site vacant and ready to be passed to their developer friends.
The council refuse to enter into any correspondence in the matter. Some sites have put together petitions, got their MP involved. There has yet to be any response.
We're still writing and intent to fight this even after the invoices arrive.
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Thanks to all for your replies re rents. I see we are not the only ones to suffer though we have been assured that the land is not down for any other use. I wouldn't mind paying a bit for water but there is none laid on at our site - another bone of contention. Looks like I may have to go straight to the top! See you in the Tower. Chris
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our local train system is run by Nexus, who 'manage' allotments alongside the tracks. I was told today that they are charging an initial £80 to 'draw up' the legal papers, and then the new holders are responsible for putting in new fencing themselves. Apparently they are re-naming the plots as 'garden extensions' rather than allotments. No checks are made to see if the allotments that are rented out are used, so most are in rack and ruin and would take years of graft to get in any usable shape. As the lotties are in long rows between pavement and track not in block there is no development potential so what's all that about?
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Hi!
Calling allotments 'garden extensions' is a crafty one. We have had some genuine rentable gardens added on to a row of cottages in the village with rents of £100 and again owned by the Duchy. I suspect our allotment rent increase is an attempt to bring the rents in line. However I am assured by a surveyor that high rents such as these can only be charged if the 'garden' abuts the relevant building - thus making it of particular value to that householder. It sounds as if your BR 'garden extensions' are misnamed as there is no house there and they are trying to pull a fast one.Chris
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thanks for letting me know about the misnomer - I'll pass it on to our council's lotty man who is less than impressed by the situation and I think may well get involved. I'll let you know if he gets anywhere
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where is everybody from here £40-£100 rent for a garden I just fell off my chair We pay £10 and have water a car park no crime.
I am just outside bishop auckland in county durham ;)
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£31 a year in whitley bay (tyne and wear) for me for 10 poles (?). we have water.
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Hi 5pole 12.00 Northamptonshire, spring water and small car park next to lottie no vandles. Some prices frightening Teresa
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I've got my lottie yesterday and only pay £4.50, which is just to cover the water bill! I'm in North Luffenham, Rutland (lovely quiet village) and there's quite a few lotties available - which is surprising at that cost!
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mines 1/2 plot, water, car park, security fences - £12 quid a year (its about 50ft x 15 ft - don't know about poles!)
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Blimey, some of those sound expensive :o
I'm one of the lucky ones - 1/2 plot is only about £20 a year, as much water as we can use, space for cars (if not strictly speaking a car park), very secure with high fences and no rules about sheds etc.
As far as I can tell our local council (Surrey) is actively trying to encourage people to take on allotments. I guess prices will always be higher in some parts of the country - which I suppose is why mine's more then some not near London - depending on the value of the land/amont of free space in the area. We're also lucky that it's part of a 'greeen belt' classification so fairly well protected (touch wood!)
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Our site is in delves green road ,Walsall,we pay £12.00 per year includes water, on site toilets,fright container to store tools including the sites rotavator and motorised truck that we all have use of,and a very helpful site manager,only thing missing is a clubhouse with bar,but wer,e working on it.
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My rent is £30.00 for approx 80 x50 site, all the water you need, next to a stables (so all the horse muck you need too) and a cemetary (gods way of making compost)...in east london...also have portable toilets which are dead handy. £100.00 sounds outrageous...I hope you can fight this, although I do understand that the duchy could do with the extra income! :o
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£8 per year with water (sorta - one tap at far end of lottie but better than nowt). Right in middle of town so bounded by roads, roads and back of warehouse - no nice views but will plant many sunflowers.
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Hi,
From your tales i think i have been very luckly with the allotment i have just joined .the land is owned by the plotholders and covers 24 acers it has a canteen a social club and a large trading hut flush toilets and mains water every 50 yds for a rent of £28 for a new plotholder.Some of your tales are very bad i thought goverment policy was to encourage fuller use of allotments for all not drive poeple off them.Good luck with your fights give them hell !!!
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4 quid a year, no car park, no security, no vandals, as much water as you can lug from the stream! ;D
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Hi, There seems to be a huge variety of charges doesn't there? We pay £21 for our Plot in Whitley Bay, the odd £1 is to belong to our allotment association. We have water, its enclosed and we have a Horty Shed which opens on a Sunday.
I was very surprised some charges were so exhorbitant :o as having a lottie should be encouraged, when you think of all the health benefits both mental and physical, and not everybody would be able to afford such a high fee. As Ceri and Jo would know there is so much land in our area going to housing now, there will soon be only a few bits of green open spaces left. Allotments are a must, especially because they house such a lot of wildlife as well. :( busy_lizzie
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we only pay £18.50 for half a plot (about 25' X 50') per year and £1 for the lottie association.
I cant believe what some of you are paying :o :o
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Reading Council charge me about £20 as a starting fee, plus £16/year for 75 x 18ft..which I consider a bargain.
Although not too impressed that you also have to pay the starting fee for any subsequent plots you take on.
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Starting fee, the state most of them are when you take them on, they should be paying us to clear them!! ;D
DP
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The rents for allotment are controlled by section 10 of the 1950 Act, I think - and they are supposed to be "reasonable". They are not subject to negotiations directly by the tenants - the Council can give you the cheeky run-aroiund - but "reasonable" can be made to stick. It was tested in Howard v. Reigate and Banstead Borough Council (13th Nov. 1981) and the tenant won. A trebling of the rent was reversed. Allotments are not meant to cover their own costs - they are entitled to the same rate of subsidy as other leisure activities, and the upper limit to be charged to tax (0.8 p in the £ yield) was removed in the 1992 L G Finance Regs. Which means they can charge more to the rates than before.
Councils have a statutory duty to provide allotments , like the duty to bury the dead. It is not down to the fads and fancies of individual councillors, and they should be reminded that they break the law if they defy that duty. If six or more people make individual written separate requests to the Council for alloments, they must be considered. If suitable land can be suggested the case gets stronger. This duty to provide does not apply to things like children's playgrounds etc. which they pretend sometimes they have a right to give priority to :o. Any money from the sale of allotment land should go to imprvements on the rest or a fund for purchase of replacements. But we do NOT have to sell land to pay for fencing etc. - that is a reasonable landlord's duty anyway.
Allotments are not defined in law by any single definition: the 1922 Act defines "allotment gardens" which are set at 40 rods (a quarter of an acre) as normal, though most are let in 10 rod sizes today ( the problems of digging, perhaps; the desire to avoid finding more land, perhaps). But those are only a subdivision of allotments. In the 1925 Act allotment means the 1922 definition plus any parcel of land not more than five acres cultivated as a garden or farm or partly as a garden or farm; and under section 3 of the 1922 Act an allotment is any parcel of land less than two acres attached to a cottage or not held by a tenant: which might cover the "garden extensions" one Council above is reported as trying to use to get away from the protected status of allotments.
What is a reasonable rent; perhaps the rent for grazing land ( £150 per acre tops?) and less without sheds, fence, and water provided: as rent actually costed to the plot holder i e say £8 a plot of 10 rods.
The way forward on the rents and services issue is to form an Association or Club covering the site - urge all plot holders to join. You do not needCouncil approval for this. Indeed, if you are organising a public meeting to urge the provision of more allotments, you have under the 1908 Act (where our rights were generally consolidated) the right of access to a school for the meeting. Once you have your group come together, join the National Society of Allotment and Leisure Gardeners(O'Dell House, Hunters Road, Corby, Northamptonshire NN17 5JE) at £1-50 a head and get your case put forward with their advice; and the support of their regional groupings too, if they are active. It is important to get all to join if possible, otherwise the free-riders are a financial burden on the rest of us.
:)The 1908 Act, which established Statutory Fields,and paved the way for compulsory purchase to get them, is one of those very rare things in law: truly benevolent legislation. We have a right to access to a decent bit of English ground, and to cultivate it for fruit, flowers, vegetables, and to keep chickens, rabbits, perhaps bees.
Well worth defending, and it can only be done as "allotments". Green space, recreation ground etc is held only at the whim of others.
Many Councils of course have nothing but good will and their provision is fine.
:-[And I am probably telling everyone what they knew anyway - only I had to learn the hard way, so perhaps it may help some who start out like me.
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Wow :) :) :) !!
Now you sound like a useful person to have around, nadcaa! Not just somebody who knows where the legislation can be found, but who also knows your way around it!
Welcome aboard!
All best - Gavin
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Hello! What a wonderfully informative first post! I don't have a lottie, but I know someone who does, on a site which is being threatened...have printed this out for them.
Thanks ever such a lot - Lishka
PS...you Mr? Mrs? Miss? or, heaven forbid, not a mzzzzz, are you? ;D
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Starting fee, the state most of them are when you take them on, they should be paying us to clear them!! ;D
DP
Couldn't agree more ;)
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:)Thanks Alishka and gavin!
Nice to be welcomed:- I am Mr., had my first allotment when I was at school; ad helped save the site from dev4elopment.
Thanks a lot