Legality of closing allotment waiting list.

[Peter]

This mornings post held Council Allotment Committee minutes and agenda for Mondays meeting.
In them I find that my council landlord is proposing to close it's allotment waiting list, due to the current demand level, with over one hundred people on the list.

Is this legal for "statuatory allotments" provided under the various Allotment Acts by a Town Council?

At the moment I think that they are not allowed to do this, but I need to know whether they can as I believe that this is a knee-jerk reaction by the Councillors acting without knowledge.

Please no comments about whether this is fair or not, I know it is unfair, they can cap demand rather than it build up to the level where people would be justified in asking for a previously closed site to be re-opened.

What I need is a straight accurate factual answer for the meeting being held on Monday evening 2nd Feb 2009.

[NOG]

I would say it is totally legal. There is only a requirement to provide allotments if there is a demand.

As you have an allotment site they have covered this requirement.

[Fruitlad]

Try:

House of Commons - Environment, Transport and Regional Affairs - Fifth Report

Section 23 provides that if allotment authorities 'are of the opinion that there is a demand for allotments...in the borough, district or parish the council shall provide a sufficient number of allotments to persons...resident in the borough district or parish and desiring the same'. In determining demand an authority must take into consideration 'a representation in writing by any six registered parliamentary electors or rate payers'.

I'm not a lawyer, but 'sufficient demand' sounds significant.

[SarzWix]

Have you looked on the NSALG website to see if there's any contact telephone numbers? Doesn't sound like you have time to wait around for email answers, and I would think they're the people who might have the answer to this question.
I have definitely heard of waiting lists being 'closed' before though.
In terms of the law being quoted above, it shouldn't make any difference if they close it - if 6 people constitutes 'demand' then 100 people most certainly does, those 100 people just need to be mobilised into writing to the council in groups of 6 demanding more allotments be provided.

[RedThorn]

If you need my vote, etc on the group of 6....let me know. being from near Standsted airport and all

[BarleySugar]

Although the law says they have to provide allotments if more than 6 people write, at our meeting with the council we asked who enforces this law, and nobody is ' in charge' of doing so. The council employee even said there are a lot of 'legal requirements' not met by councils, but very few are enforced. I do not know about closing a waiting list, but I have also heard of this being done in some areas. Our list is still open, but we started compling it and then passed it to the council. We have around 50, for a site that doesn't even exist yet If we actually had any land the numbers would probably rise.

Even though the council said in theory they would pay the lease on suitable land if any could be found and we would only need to pay a peppercorn rent, there is actually no budget allocation for setting up and running an allotment site.

[Peter]

To clarify the "6 rule".
That applies where the council has NO allotments at all and then if six or more people demand them the council has to set something up.

[NOG]

Bromley has a waiting list of 13 years. Is there any point in keep adding people to it.

[snohare]

Seems like it is never too late ! Just found this...
setupasite
Sounds like the mandatory setup order is pretty non-negotiable.

[Snadger]

Bromley has a waiting list of 13 years. Is there any point in keep adding people to it.

How do you measure a waiting list in years instead people? Even though some people may have been on the waiting list for that long if everyone decided to pack in there allotment at once...............
One person could have applied 13 years ago but the next on the list could have applied a month ago...........

Just a thought!

[Eyren]

How do you measure a waiting list in years instead people?

I assume they have some figure based on the average waiting time - if few tenants are giving up their plots at the moment, or the council is making little effort to get rid of backsliders, 13 years could be a queue of as few as 13 people

Closing waiting lists is probably a tactic to minimise the expense and hassle of maintaining the list... Having lived in the borough of Bromley for a while, I suspect the council is still living in the 80s