Extortionate plot rents............

[Aberdeenplotter]

don't forget to throw the Harwood vs Reigate and Banstead court case at your Council. It was held that the rate of increases to allotment holders should not exceed the rate of increase applied to the users of the Council's other recreational services. get a few FOI requests in to see what increases are being applied to the users of the Council's other recreational services.

[bubblewrap]

I have posted on this subject before & in some cases I am smelling one big RAT.
Sometimes methinks that putting up the rent is a way of getting rid of the tenants.
Do some of these councils want the land for other reasons?
Land values are going up all the time & government pressure is being put on councils to build new affordable housing.

[alldigging]

I have posted on this subject before & in some cases I am smelling one big RAT..

It is probably that the people who have made the decisions have not wasted time on legal advice, as they will see it as a 'hobby' for people.

The answer is to remove the 'cost' aspect from the council and go self-managed. But that means if your fences need repairing then you'll be the ones finding the money for them.
It's a risk worth taking though I think - although does rely on agreement from all sites (Although I think Rochdale has some self-managed and some council managed) to actually save proper money.

Allotments are enshrined in law and are such a valuable part of the UK's social history that they need to be protected.

[Dom2599]

Redcar & Cleveland council rises from an FOI request;

2004 - 3%
2005 - 3%
2006 - 3%
2007 - 10%
2008 - 5%
2009 - 5%
2010 - 5%
2011 - 18%
2012 - 22.9%

theres a couple of % going on this year bringing this years rent to £100 for a full size plot.

Their reason for this is to bring their rents in line with other councils within the Tees Valley, or in other words to bring it in line with all other labour run councils to generate as much revenue as possible.........due to central government cuts, blah blah

Plus, looking at the FOI requests i sent to other councils, this reason is not quite true.

[Snadger]

Redcar & Cleveland council rises from an FOI request;

2004 - 3%
2005 - 3%
2006 - 3%
2007 - 10%
2008 - 5%
2009 - 5%
2010 - 5%
2011 - 18%
2012 - 22.9%

theres a couple of % going on this year bringing this years rent to £100 for a full size plot.

Their reason for this is to bring their rents in line with other councils within the Tees Valley, or in other words to bring it in line with all other labour run councils to generate as much revenue as possible.........due to central government cuts, blah blah

Plus, looking at the FOI requests i sent to other councils, this reason is not quite true.

As I said...........the knock on effect. One Council charges stupid money, gets away with it, and the rest follow like bladdy sheep. Only trouble is its the allotment holders who sometimes have ploughed a lot of money into there plots and would hate to give them up who ultimately are the lambs being lead to the slaughter and who have to absorb the hefty increases!

[Samurailord]

Our rents for 2013 were set at last night's AGM

I am paying £52.80 for 214 sq metres which when compared to £80 last year is a fantastic deal. (Last year did include an amount to build up a fund for potential legal fees).

Andy

[alldigging]

The land fees for this year are 20p a m2 with half price for OAPs.
Next year and the year after its 24p per m2 with half price for OAPs.
5% goes to the federation.

The membership fee is up to us what we charge on top.

[lottie dolly]

Redcar & Cleveland council rises from an FOI request;

2004 - 3%
2005 - 3%
2006 - 3%
2007 - 10%
2008 - 5%
2009 - 5%
2010 - 5%
2011 - 18%
2012 - 22.9%

theres a couple of % going on this year bringing this years rent to £100 for a full size plot.

,thats steep,maybe they figured,if the shops are charging more for the veggies,then that entitles them to grab more rent money,the mind boggles,i am so pleased at what we pay,

[Dom2599]

When we had the 22.9% increase, i argued with the council that if they are going to increase like this, then they need to make it easier for people to pay, not just a letter demanding payment by a date.

I payed last year at about £19 per month, this year they are getting £10 per month wether they like it or not

With regards to them stating that they were bringing in line with other councils, well that was utter rubbish, Middlesbrough council charged more (just) Stockton council charged way less (75%) and Hartlepool council were less

Most councils now just look at allotments as money generators. I spoke with a councillor and he told me they need to increase rents as they needed to save front line services!

[Veggielot]

It is still council owned land, we have a long term lease, the council have no other involvement.. Rent set by alotment association. They appeared more interested in getting rid of their management responsibilties. It was a case of do it ourselves or have some private management company run it.

[hamamelis]

This year I noticed an extra line on the bill for my lottie rent- 'This increase is in line with other Council funded activities'. It was a pound or so above last years, quite reasonable.

I've not heard of any court cases going on here about it, but it seems someone got the message across!

[Snadger]

Well I've eventually got to the bottom of the planned 50% rise in land rent for allotment sites next year.
Apparently we have an Allotment Officer on the Council who is paid 30 grand a year. They are now intending taking his wage out of the 60 grand they get as land rent for all allotments in the Newcastle area.
He is employed by the council but they intend back handing his salary onto us plotholders.

No one knows why he is employed or what he does anyway!

We have a year to make our voices heard. A position of this nature should be self financing by sponsorship or other means we feel.

[polc1410]

Sponsorship? You didn't even know this person existed so why would anyone sponsor it to exist? If someone like T&M were to chip in for the post they'd want to think they were getting £30k return for their money. That means they would be expecting plot holders to (a) know they had sponsored something (b) think the sponsorship was a good idea and (c) that plot holders would then either feel encouraged to go use their services or that the post holder's work would have caused that to happen anyway. So perhaps if there were 30 allotments in Newcastle each with 10 empty plots (300 plots in total) and T&M (or anyone else) thought an allotment officer being in post would get those 300 plots occupied and that the FOI per plot filled would be £100 they'd be up for it... Based on my plot aquasition it should be wilko and poundland that do the sponsoring!!

And bear in mind there are something like 130 councils so thats £4M worth of 'sponsorship' that would be needed across the country - cant see T&M or Suttons etc footing that bill for fun!

Seems perfectly reasonable to me to expect that allotment fees should cover the costs of running them. The questions that may be needed are if you don't know what £30k per year of staff does someone should be asking. What does the other £30k go to?

[simon180399]

My plot is roughly 50x30ft (139 sq meters) and we only pay £13 per year, the reason it is so cheap is that we are provided with nothing but running water and the fact that the land it is on is owned by a nunnery who gave it to the council to run many years ago, I believe they are only allowed to charge for the water and management (which they don't do a lot of).

There are no luxuries such as concrete roads, rubbish collection etc etc, it is on a hill and there is a single dirt track which becomes unusual when its wet,but for £13 a year we really cannot moan.

regards simon

[Snadger]

What does the other £30k go to?

There is £60,000 generated in land rents across the County. A lot of this is ploughed back into individual sites with fence repairs, road repairs, drainage repairs etc but only if the individual sites make a written request for assistance.
The person they make this request to is the allotment officer, who from next year will already have eaten up half of the land lease income with his own wage.
Surely if he could set up a sponsorship deals with local and national companies, they could advertise there wares at the sites and on any paperwork generated?
This could be a big help to allotment holders as well and the list of gardening related firms who could be approached are endless.
Advertising is a multi million pound enterprise and I'm sure that relevant firms would appreciate havng a captive audience of gardeners, rather than wasting money on a blanket approach to the population, many of whom will be non gardeners.
I have organised events myself and sponsorship IS out there for the asking. The event I organised was for one day and attracted only 50 people yet we were able to get £1000 worth of sponsorship!