Topic: Allotment rent increase - HELP!

[zaz283]

Our allotment association is about to do battle with the Town Council over a proposed 40% increase in allotment rents. To read more about their proposal and our defence read click the link below.

Can anyone help with ways they've successfully challenge an increase, whether legal or by force of argument? Please post a comment on the link... all help gratefully received.

Thanks, John

http://allotmentheaven.blogspot.com/2010/11/increased-allotment-rents.html

[Ellen K]

Unwashed is your man and his actions are documented on this forum - he was eventually successful but it was a long process and not a pleasant one ..... but a) £35/year for a large plot is still at the cheap end (I pay £40 for 10 poles) and b) is water included?  You might find the water bill is a 4 figure sum.

As allotment holders get exclusive use of their plots, I don't think you can compare them to Parks IMO.

Good luck.  I don't mind paying a bit more as the plot is good value but I would fear that once we have stomached a big rise, that will become the norm rather than a one-off adjustment.

[Ellen K]

^^ I suppose that is a Q you will have to ask: what are the increases likely to be over the next 5 years?  You need an assurance that there will be no more surprises.

[Unwashed]

Our allotment association is about to do battle with the Town Council over a proposed 40% increase in allotment rents. To read more about their proposal and our defence read click the link below.

Can anyone help with ways they've successfully challenge an increase, whether legal or by force of argument? Please post a comment on the link... all help gratefully received.

Thanks, John

http://allotmentheaven.blogspot.com/2010/11/increased-allotment-rents.html

If I guestimate right that you let a total of 1750 poles then I make your average pole rate £2.57 per pole, and that's very cheap.  Sorry mate, but I'm very much with the town council on this one.

[kt.]

As allotment supervisor I am meeting with our town council to discuss next years proposed increase of up to 35%.  My main argument is that from our Open spaces budget - £1800 was spent on tree maintenance for diseased trees in a public communal square down town, nowhere near the allotments.  Plot holders should not have to subsidise other public amenities by paying higher rents .

At this moment we are about £600 under budget compared to this time last year so why the need for any increase.

Ding ding - round 1 >:( >:(

[Unwashed]

I'm just trying to get my head around John's figures.  One site with around 200 plots, and 1750 poles total

Income from rents £4,500
Expenditure of £7,940 , broken down as…

• £7,390 staff costs (572 hours)
• Maintenance/improvements £500
• Clerk £50

Compare that to Newbury Town Council.  Six sites with around 500 plots and 2500 poles total

Income from Rents £17,500
Expenditure of £114,584, broken down as...

• £30,450 staff costs (1950 hours)
• Maintenance/improvements £21,680
• Clerk £5,000
• Overheads and back office £57,454

If your council is doing a good job then rents around £4 to £5 per pole aren't unreasonable, and if you're council wants to charge more then have a look at where they're spending the money.

[BAK]

As Unwashed indicates, there is insufficient information to comment JohnMac.

It would help if we knew what the definitions of small, medium and large plots are.

Using the current figure (on the Council's website) of £12.50 for a half plot, this equates to £2.50 per pole if you assume that a half plot is circa 5 poles.

I agree with Unwashed that this sounds cheap. I have seen the results of 6 small private surveys on rents plus I carried out one myself 3 years ago. The results of all these surveys indicate an average rent of between roughly £4 and £5 per pole.

[Kea]

What John hasn't said is that it's only a couple of years since we had an increase of 40% so that would be way above the rate of inflation.

The groundsmen famously drive a circuit of the site in their truck before disappearing out the gate. My friend tells me they hang out next to her place of work in a little hut chatting and drinking tea for hours. We have a new (temporary(?) groundsman who has shown us what someone who actually does work can do. He has strimmed the track behind my plot, something which a groundsman hasn't done since the year I took on my plot. Plus up until this year I have had to field the rather sarcastic comments of my family because of how much time I spend growing not much because of lack of water. When I took on the plot I was told a new water supply would be put in...that took 5 years so my access to water has been limited.

We have been given no indication of what constitutes a small, medium or large plot...possibly because they don't know themselves and plot sizes vary enormously. The site would have to be surveyed...at great expense probably to determine plot sizes. Until recently the Town Council had no idea how many plots they had or where each plot was, it was John who did all the work and produced a detailed map of the site. I guess they're going to try and use this to determine who has which size plot. Plus it is our allotment association that has done work to improve the site e.g. planting a hedge to shelter from the prevailing wind.
Another fact is the lack of security, anybody can wander in.
I don't think the water is on a meter so they're not getting charged for the amount of water used just a set charge for water.

[Unwashed]

It doesn't matter what year-on-year percentage increase you've seen, you're still only going to be paying £31 for a ten pole plot.  And you want to whine about the groundsmen drinking tea?  For goodness sake, fighting the council is miserable, alienating, and destructive - and in your case totally and utterly hopeless and groundless.  But hey, knock yourselves out.

[chriscross1966]

If I guestimate right that you let a total of 1750 poles then I make your average pole rate £2.57 per pole, and that's very cheap.  Sorry mate, but I'm very much with the town council on this one.

Wow.... I never thought I'd ever get to hear that... can I have it in....oh...it already is :-)...

Your rents do sound very cheap even with the increas  I'm afraid.....I'm paying what you pay for about half (or less) the area....

[Unwashed]

Hi Chris, it looks odd I know, but I'm not anti-establishment, I just believe strongly that allotmenteers deserve their rights, rights they often don't know they have and even more often don't know how to assert.  But talking about mounting a legal challenge because the council want to charge more than £2.50 per pole is, IMHO, comtemptable.

[Kea]

It doesn't matter what year-on-year percentage increase you've seen, you're still only going to be paying £31 for a ten pole plot.  And you want to whine about the groundsmen drinking tea?  For goodness sake, fighting the council is miserable, alienating, and destructive - and in your case totally and utterly hopeless and groundless.  But hey, knock yourselves out.

£35 and mine is less than a 10 pole plot but will be charged as one.
I take it you have an income which I don't.
I wouldn't mind paying if we had the facilities to go with it. Other sites owned by our district council have more facilities e.g. strong security fences.
I had £100 worth of stuff stolen last year