Battle on allotment rent increase - The result

[Aberdeenplotter]

Oh but all of us were able to report such success. We have different legislation up here in Scotland and one crucial aspect of the law is that to become entitled to collect rent for allotments, a Local Authority must first of all have its regulation for rent confirmed by the Scottish Government after inquiry(full public consultation) and publication. Aberdeen City Council has not done this. Fortunately for Scottish Allotment holders the law makes it clear that any regulations not so confirmed are not legally enforceable.

Really fortunate for me because I received a letter on Saturday telling me my leases have been terminated and giving me notice to quit.

I have responded as follows to the Council

"I refer to you email of 6th January and must express disappointment that I have had no further contact from yourself or from the City Solicitor. It is all the more disappointing because Council Officers have attempted to take enforcement action against me as a result of my withholding rent for my allotments. I have carefully used the word “attempted” as it is clear from the wording of s6(1)Allotments Scotland Act 1892 that regulations that have not been confirmed by the Scottish Ministers are legally unenforceable. You may check the exact wording of the Act here Allotments (Scotland) Act 1892

I have attached a document containing a scanned copy of a letter dated 28th January 2011 in which it states my allotment leases have been terminated and the letter also gives me notice to remove on 31 January 2012. This note did not form part of my response. The copy letter will be available to see on our website later Home Edited to confirm copy letter now up on our website.

I will make it clear now that I shall not be vacating my allotments and that I do not accept that in the circumstances of this situation that the Council is either entitled to terminate my leases or to give Notice to Quit. In the course of any Court proceedings raised by the Council for recovery of possession of my allotments, that letter of 28 January 2011 shall be produced to show that the notice to quit was given as part of unlawful enforcement proceedings for non-payment of rent. In the circumstances, I do not anticipate any difficulty in having the termination of my leases or the Notice to Quit set aside or having any such court proceedings dismissed.

It escapes me how Council Officers could possibly think it could be lawful to try to evict a tenant who has quite lawfully refused to pay monies which the Scottish Government, via John Swinney Finance Minister, has confirmed a Local Authority is not entitled to collect using regulations which have not been confirmed in terms of s6(1) of the 1892 Act when the Council is in full knowledge that its regulation for rent has not been so confirmed.

I look forward to the Council’s response"

Wish me luck people. We really need to make sure that we never again have huge rent increases foisted upon us without our legal right to have an input to the process which is why I withheld rent in the first place. The Harwood v Reigate case and the Unfair Terms in contracts regulations have been made known to the Council also so we have them in reserve as also the fact that our Council openly increases rents to try to raise money from its allotments without regard to whether or not the resultant rents were the fair rent for the use as per section 10(1)Allotments(Scotland)Act 1950. Note that Scottish legislation is different from England in this respect.

[MrsMcGregor]

Well done Bafmeuk and good luck Aberdeenplotter.

After reading on this site and in the papers about my rent increase I emailled the council, and eventually I had an email back from Councilllor John Fahy saying "I can confirm that a further meeting of allotment holders will be held at the Town Hall on the 9th of February at 6pm."


Hopefully I will see some of you there?

Has anyone on here had a letter from Greenwich Council yet?

[Aberdeenplotter]

Well done Bafmeuk and good luck Aberdeenplotter.

After reading on this site and in the papers about my rent increase I emailled the council, and eventually I had an email back from Councilllor John Fahy saying "I can confirm that a further meeting of allotment holders will be held at the Town Hall on the 9th of February at 6pm."


Hopefully I will see some of you there?

Has anyone on here had a letter from Greenwich Council yet?

Hi Mrs Mac.

Thanks for your good wishes. I hope that at the end of the day that common sense will prevail.

The important thing though is for all allotment holders to stick together on this matter. Councils clearly see us as sitting ducks. The lack of reported court cases about allotment matters tends to support that view but I think that is generally because the ducks do not have the resources to shoot back by raising court proceedings and not because they don't want to shoot back.

That is why the Harwood case is so vitally important and why knowledge of it must be made known around the whole country.

The internet has also proved to be such a useful tool both as a source of information which would otherwise be beyond our reach and for communication purposes.

[Aberdeenplotter]

Although I'm confident of having the termination of my leases and the Notice to Remove set aside if ever it gets to court, in order to try to advance a resolution, I've made a formal complaint to Aberdeen City Council. That will then allow me to go to the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman well before the need for court proceedings. My only difficulty with using the Ombudsman is that the feedback is really attrocious. However, it can do no harm to be seen to be trying to have the matter resolved in a peaceable manner.

[ConfusedRhubarb]

Bumping this message up.
Don't forget the "consultation" meeting is at 6pm on Wed 9th Feb at Town Hall in Woolwich.
Plotholders - don't wait for an invite - you aren't going to get one.

[Aberdeenplotter]

Just discovered yet another Council trying to impose huge rent increases on their allotment tenants. In Cheltenham, plotters rents are being almost doubled and subsidies to pensioners are being reduced from 50% to 20%. I've posted a comment on the website of a local newspaper in Cheltenham alerting them to precedent set by the Harwood case and to the protection they can expect in terms of the Unfair terms in Consumer Contract Regulations.

[Aberdeenplotter]

In respect of my own dispute with aberdeen City Council, they deny having made a regulation yet they admit to haviong set a rent. I have sent them the following in an email today

"I have today received from Frank Doran MP a copy of a letter dated 27th October 2010 sent to him by Mr Pete Leonard, Director of Housing and Environment. It is regrettable that this copy letter was not sent to me earlier as my responses may well have resulted in a different course of action being taken by the Council.

In that letter, Mr Leonard states " Aberdeen City Council has the choice to make regulations under section 6(1) of the Allotments (Scotland)Act 1892 as amended. The Council has never chosen to make regulations under section 6(1)" etc.

Perhaps you would be good enough to point out where in section 6(1) there is any choice given to a local authority.

Section 6(1) does nothing more than permit a local authority to make regulations if it chooses to regulate any aspect of the management of its allotments. There is no alternative provided in terms of the act and there is nothing to prohibit a Local Authority from making regulations. It does not say a local authority may make regulations or do something else instead. It is made clear that to have legal force, any regulations made must be confirmed by the Scottish Ministers after publication and inquiry.


Also in the letter of 27th October , Mr Leonard states "The Council sets the allotment rent by means of Committee decisions which do not constitute "Regulations" within the meaning of section 6(1)." This is very puzzling since the word Regulations is not defined in section 6(1) as was confirmed by the Scottish Government via its Finance Minister John Swinney in response to a parliamentary question. Is the Council able to demonstrate that there is a precise meaning of the word regulations contained in section 6(1) and what meaning the Council places on the word? If so, where is the authority for such a view?

I have already pointed out to Aberdeen City Council that in circumstances where a word is not defined in legislation, that it is the literal, ordinary and natural/normal usage of a word which will apply and I have referred the Councils's legal department to various websites that contain sufficient information to confirm that view.

Are Council officers not aware that the word set is a synonym of the word regulate? Do they not realise that by setting a rent, they limit the amount of rent that can be collected by the Council from its allotment tenants and that the word limit is also a synonym of the word regulate? Are Council Officers not aware that the Council has made a Rule for rent and that the word Rule is also a synonym of regulate? Are they not aware that the word regulation is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as a rule made and maintained by a Local Authority? The Council should already be aware of all these matters quite simply because I have made them aware.

It is abundantly clear that the Aberdeen City Council has not only chosen to make a regulation for rent, but has in fact made such a regulation. The Council has admitted that it has not had any regulations confirmed by the Scottish Ministers and this has also been confirmed by the Scottish Executive in reply to yet another parliamentary question.

The Council's letter of 27 October together with the contents of this email and any other related documents will be produced to the Court in the event of any Court proceedings being instituted by the Council against me either for recovery of rent or for recovery of possession of my allotments.

This email should be treated as supplemental to my email of 31st January which I have already asked to be treated as a formal complaint."

[ConfusedRhubarb]

Hello people

The Greenwich allotment holders had their final "consultation" meeting with the Council last night. Although the council only told one person from each site about the meeting there were a fair few plotholders there. Most will have been disappointed as the council is still planning to increase rents on Council sites, but has agreed to stagger it over 4 years. They didn't give specific prices, but will publish them on their website on Mon 7 March as part of the papers for the Cabinet meeting on Tue 15 March. That meeting is open to the public - check out the website for how to arrange to speak or ask a question or to send a written "representation".

There are a few points which Cllr John Fahy did agree to at the meeting and later by email
* The representative from your finance team agreed to provide details of how central overheads have been allocated to the Leisure and Southmere Lake budgets so as to make the comparisons with the allotments fair.
* It is proposed that an allotment tenants panel will be set up in order to have quarterly meetings with the Council in order to discuss matters relating to the sites. This needs further clarification as to how it will operate in that it will be difficult to have a panel which will contain a member from each site in that this would involve 17 people. In addition more detail needs to be provided generally as to the role and constitution of the panel
* The self managed sites will be permitted to set their own rents subject to certain constraints that will be agreed shortly.
* You will be writing to all tenants at non self managed sites to say that you are proposing that the rent will be increased on phased basis over 4 years with only limited increases in years one and two but with higher percentage increases in years 3 and 4.
* The reason for the rent increases being phased in is to encourage sites to move to a self managed basis. In order to help with this move if sites wish to take advantage of it you agreed to consider giving site management associations "seed core" funding in orser to allow them some security in being able to meet unexpected costs that might arise.
* In the letter to non self managed tenants you agreed to indicate when the actual proposed increase would be posted on the Council's website, the address of the relevant webpage will also be provided and you will set out the procedure for making representations to the Cabinet meeting in March.

And there are few other promises that Cllr Fahy has been reminded about in writing.

7) Robert Goring's piece of work was to produce a report showing the actual maintenance works and associated costs carried at each of the council managed sites (i.e. how often grass/hedges were trimmed, etc) and the theoretical schedule of works and associated costs which are laid out in the Service Level Agreements for each site.

8) You made an emphatic "total guarantee" that a 50% concession would continue to be applied for retired people as per the current set of rules "in perpetuity".

9) You acknowledged that a site newly setting up as self managed would not only need "seed core" monies as below for unforeseen circumstances, but also for predictable foreseen circumstances. These would include at the least, somewhere secure to store maintenance equipment, the equipment itself, and costs for communication of the changes - ie printing & distribution and premises hire for meetings.

Also may I suggest that you distribute contact details for the relevant site reps in your letters to plotholders as several attending last night did not know who these people were.

Self managed sites like mine have been making the most noise in the local media and have now been allowed to set their own rents. If you are from one of the council managed sites and would like to get in touch please send an email to diggin4victory@gmail.com. We can also put you in touch with other council managed sites.

[Aberdeenplotter]

If it's unlawful to increase allotment rents, if higher increases are levied against allotment holders than are levied against users of other Council owned recreational facilities, then the Council's attempts to force plotters to elect for self management by continuing to do just that must surely be deemed to failure if even one protests.

However it may be the road to go down for some and they alone can be the judge of what they are prepared to accept.

[Aberdeenplotter]

After eventually getting a reply to some freedom of information requests, it has been established that when our allotment rents were increased by 80%the increases in charges applied to the Aberdeen Council's other recreational facilities were at the rate of 10%. All the more power to our argument.

[ConfusedRhubarb]

nice work Plotter!

[candyblue]

Just found out our allotment rents are doubling in North Herts

[Pies]

just had my bill in £4 per rod,but if you're disabled, unemployed a pensioner or on certain other benefits its free.No increase in price in 3 years

[ConfusedRhubarb]

Greenwich council will be deciding on the allotment rent increase on Tuesday March 22.
http://committees.greenwich.gov.uk/m....aspx?ID=14000
this link is to their report.
they are now planning to raise the rent from £6.70 up to £13.20 and then the next year to £20.
they are recommending that self managed sites be allowed to set own rent, and also do make quite a big deal about how they are planning to get more allotments to be self managed and so lower costs. This is all theoretical of course because since the consultation meetings the allotments officer has ctually been very obstructive won't give any info to plotholder except the 18 unelected site reps- some of whom haven't been seen for over a year.
There is quite a lot of spin in it, so grapes from Newbury might want to think twice before criticising - and shouldn't believe that the council are actually being deliberately helpful - it is a struggle and I can't see their attitude turning around very quickly.

[ConfusedRhubarb]

I forgot to say that i can't make it to the meeting on March 22 but will be emailling the cabinet members who will doing the crucial voting
All of their email addresses and phone numbers can be found on this page if anyone else wants to do the same
Greenwich Council - Councillors - Councillors