sounds shifty

[muddled]

On our allotment site there is a long, brick building.
At one end is a lean-to with clear plastic roof.
This was filled with rubbish.

At the other end is a flushing toilet...a rare find on London allotments.
Our site rep picks and chooses who he tells about this loo, which is kept locked.
An old timer told me about it, I borrowed a key and got one cut.

In between these two ends are three more locked doors.

My lottie neighbour and I got a few folk together and we spent two whole days clearing the rubbish from the lean-to so we could start seedlings in there.
Our site rep (who had not been to the site for more that six months) saw the photos on faceache and complained to the council who wrote to tell us that we "must leave management of the site to the site rep."

Then I discovered (having been on the site for over a year) that behind one of the locked doors was a room of tool lockers! Still no sign of our site rep so I asked the council to ask him if I could have a locker.
The reply (actually from the council allotments officer) is that there is no spare locker and no waiting list. The site rep has absolute control of the lockers, who gets one and who doesn't..."at his own discretion".
Further investigation proved that the site rep and his friends have ALL the lockers.

The other two doors, it turns out, were a shop.
A decade or more ago it ceased trading when the lady that ran became ill.
But we could make good use of those rooms!

Repeated enquiries to the council have resulted in many different stories. the first being "The roof is caved in"...(we got a ladder...the roof is fine)
and the last one being...
"The site rep has plans for it...you will be told in the spring"

So spring came and went and we continued to ask for details.
Eventually the truth came out.

The council allotment officer agreed with our site rep (and his mate) several years ago, that they could buy their own locks, put them on this council owned shop...and have it for themselves...without any other plotholders knowing...to keep their own stuff in...along with a room full of tool lockers...on an allotment site he hardly goes to.

I have got no idea what to do about this.
It smacks of dodgy deals and maladministration...a nasty tinpot tyrant who gets his plot for free, does no work and is literally given a fifedom and whole buildings while we, mere peasants, pay 200 quid a year for a plot and have to scrabble for a key to the toilet!

Thank you if you've read this far!
I really needed to get that off my chest.

[veggiechicken]

Who appoints the site rep? Is he part of a committee? Can you vote him out?

Photos to the Allotment Officer?
Local press?

[WendyC]

Does sound very dodgy. Local press? Difficult to know how to proceed without making life difficult for yourself.

[muddled]

No-one voted for him.
Years ago the old rep left and this bloke 'took it on'.

There is no commitee, just him and the council allotment officer who is the rudest woman I have EVER met. And I only met her when I went to the office. Despite her assertions that she is "always going to [our] site" to do the plot inspections...no-one has ever, ever seen her and only people the rep doesn't like get letters.

But you can't argue with a liar...well you can but its just an excercise in frustration.
She told me to my face there was no roof on the building.
Now she says she never said that.

[Bal]

I'm hopping mad just reading this. I hate injustice and cronyism. There must be something that can be done. How many of the plot holders are in the 'favoured circle' if theirs more out than in surely something could be done.

[Jay-ell]

Could you contact either your councillor or the councillor whose ward the site it is in?

[muddled]

Well, there's the rub.

There are a lot of people on our site who don't speak English very well!
They get by...and can certainly communicate enough to give me seedlings and excess produce...but much more than that and it gets a whole lot more difficult.
One Russian lady on the site does speak good English and she is trying to talk to those from Russia, Lithuania and Poland in the hope that they have enough common words between them to work it out!

There are also some very elderly plotters who just want a quiet life....they tell me they hate the man but that I'll never get anywhere...to leave things be and put my things in their sheds if I want to.

The group of 'cross' people is quite large and a few want to do something...just don't know what. Its not enough of a percentage to apply for self management (I don't think) and of course, when I try to find out how to go about that the council allotment officer is the person I have to approach...and she will tell me yet again to put any and all questions through my site rep.

Also, I think that some of them are up for a good moan....but not always up for actually doing something about it. Of course, I won't know for sure unless I think of a plan and put it in action...that's usually the time you look behind you and see if anyone is still there isn't it?

[muddled]

Sorry Jay-ell, cross posted...

Yes, I think that will probably be my next step.
I am conscious though that I will probably come across as a bit of a nutter...so I'm testing it out on you lot first!

Its all been going round in my head for weeks so I needed to actually write it down...and pare it down to its major parts...there are so many other transgressions I've not even mentioned...like the total site wide hose ban he rants about even though his mate has one permenantly on the tap, boxed in so no-one else can use it and running into a sink in his shed just for washing up!

[sparrow100]

We'll be behind you too!

In terms of going for self management, there's a fair amount of info you can find out from either other self managed sites in the borough, from the National Allotment Society or from other sites in other boroughs who've done it (mine has).

Totally agree that this is dodgy. And that talking to a Councillor would help- mismanagement of resources isn't something Councils take lightly and there will be a formal escalation process if you want to go down that route. Personally I would no longer call the Council and start putting everything in writing, including queries to the site rep.

I'd just say to be sure that's what you want to do, as the site rep will very probably try to make things difficult for you.

[sparrow100]

I would also copy in your Councillor or the one for the ward yourplot's in (or both!) to any correspondance with the Council worker as letters can go astray...

[JanieB]

Oooooh! sounds like a fight right up my street. I wish I'd fought a bit harder for my lottie but at the time other things took priority.

Who owns/is responsible for the land the allotments are on?

[noviceveggrower]

Well this sounds a bit like its not what you know its who you know. That's really naffs me off as I once went for a job that I knew I was the most qualified for and it turned out the least qualified person they had apply got it because her mom knew the interviewer.
It it smells a bit stinky. Why all the big secret?
I would keep a diary on phone calls and copies letters and emails. See what your Russian friend comes back with about what the other plot holders have said to her. You have our support but it will be nice for you to know you have support down there. It could get a bit bumpy down there if its discovered you have been asking questions.
Also just thinking of it would you be able to take the roll on? If your site person throws the keys at you and tells you politely if you can do a better job do it yourself could you? Might be a job for you and your Russian friend to get everyone involved and make it more of an equal site not just one person being the boss.
Just my thought.

[gardening_gal]

I would be a woman on a mission if this were me. How infuriating!

I can't offer any advice, I've never had a plot and don't know the workings but I do know unfairness when I see it and I'd be challenging this as much as I could.

[Snadger]

I could be mistaken, but the allotment Officers wages are payed from your plot rents. So ultimately SHE works for you! An employee doesn't dictate to her masters, not if she wants to keep her job.

[Potstubsdustbins]

^^^^Spot on Snadger my thoughts entirely.

Nothing to do with allotments but I have to deal with council people on a weekly basis. As in all walks of life there are good and bad and the bad seem to be very bad.

One thing that really gets my goat is being talked down to by someone who thinks they are important i.e. "Don't you know I work for the council" as if this puts them one step above others.

Not suggesting you use my standard reply but I love the look on theirs faces when I say "Excuse me but you don't work for the council, they act as merely an employment agency for ME! I am the one that pays your wages therefore you are MY paid servant."

As to advice, if you decide to make an issue out of this I would go with those that say contact the councillor's in writing, keeping copies of everything and making sure they know you are coping your MP to.

It certainly worked for me when a dangerous tree on council property that threatened my property needed felling. After 6 weeks of phone calls and letters to the Housing Association I was getting no where. After writing to my councillor noting I would hold the council responsible for any damage caused, I returned home at lunch time 4 days later to find said tree gone.....