Can a City Council triple allotment rents to generate revenue for unrelated services?

[bario1]

Our city council is proposing to triple the rent for a full allotment plot from £100 to £300 as from next year in order to generate revenue. None of this extra revenue will be used for any services relating to allotments.

Does anyone know if this is legal??

Clearly this is going to put renting a plot well beyond the budget of many current plotholders, and in my opinion is the beginning of a long term plan by the council to phase out allotments altogether so they can sell the land to property developers. No doubt in the short term it will 'help' with their spiralling waiting list numbers, as people who have rented plots for years are forced to give them up...

Has anyone else had experience of this kind of tactic from their city council?

[Bigmallly]

It's happening all over Bario but a fight can often be successful.

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...ews_81041.html

[Thelma Sanders]

It tripled between 2005 and 2014

6/11/12 : A ROW has broken out over “scandalous” rent rises at the Capital’s allotments after an agreement was reached to triple charges.

The clash comes after the city council agreed with leaders from the Federation of Edinburgh and District Allotments (FEDAGA) to increase rent from £30 a year in 2005 to £100 in 2014.

Row after charges for city allotments triple - Edinburgh Evening News

I can't see that they'd get away with tripling it again, from one year to the next.

[skeggijon]

The way to deal with it is form a committee and have a bloodless coup. Take over running the allotments from the council

[sparrow100]

I'd definitely see what sort of a fight you can muster. The Leeds case sets the legal precedent for the basis of the case doesn't it? Could you threaten court action using that as an example?

But I also wholeheartedly support Skeggijon's post - we are self-managed and our rent is a third of yours and 25% less than the council-run ones here.

[Aberdeenplotter]

Our city council is proposing to triple the rent for a full allotment plot from £100 to £300 as from next year in order to generate revenue. None of this extra revenue will be used for any services relating to allotments.

Does anyone know if this is legal??



Has anyone else had experience of this kind of tactic from their city council?

Bario.


When short of money in 2008, Aberdeen City Council increased their rents by 80% and followed that with 60% increases the following year.

I had a long bitter dispute with the Council which culminated with The Sheriff Principal upholding a decision by the Council to evict me. This was possible simply because the Council had given me more than the minimum 12 months notice to vacate.

The Sheriff said it didn't matter whether the rent was fair or unfair paid or unpaid.

However, during the course of my appeal against the original Sheriff's decision, the Sheriff Principal made it abundantly clear that a Council cannot just pluck a figure out of the air and call it a fair rent.

In the agenda document for the Budget meeting there were proposals for rent increases but there was also a sub note "Bench marking information to be obtained".

Bear in mind that in Scotland in terms of section 10(1) of the 1950 Allotments (Scotland)Act 1950 the rent requires to be the fair rent for the use of the land for the purpose.

During the course of the initial hearings in my case, the Sheriff made it clear that he could not do anything viz a viz the Council's decision. Juridiction lies with the Court of Session and an action for Judicial Review is needed.

Bear in mind that Judicial Review proceedings can only be taken after A Council has made a decision and also that delay can be fatal to such proceedings.

The Sheriff also said he wasn't sure how a fair rent could be established but one method would be to compare with other Councils.

I've already made these points to Peter Wright of FEDAGA .

One final bit of advice. Do not try to tackle this in court yourself. Far too stressful but in any event, you need representation by Counsel in the Court of Session.

[Aberdeenplotter]

P.S. In the event, I was not evicted. The Elected Members of the Council would not allow the Council officers to do so. I am extremely grateful for that but I have since walked. I now have a plot on a private site paying rent of £27 plus a membership fee of £10 for 472 squ yards. Had I stayed on the Council site I would have been paying pennies off £120

[bario1]

It tripled between 2005 and 2014

I can't see that they'd get away with tripling it again, from one year to the next.

Well they're trying!

Council looks to charge £300 in allotment rents - Edinburgh Evening News

[bario1]

Thanks AP, I had heard about the same thing happening in Aberdeen. Apparently we have the same councillor here now who pushed that through, as I'm sure you're aware.
I know FEDAGA are doing everything they can to oppose the proposal, and I will support them in any way I can. There is already an online petition, and I intend to write to my local councillors as FEDAGA have suggested.

[Kristen]

I am very happy for Allotments to be subsidised, but just for the sake of discussion:

I'm also sure that many people have proposed a costing basis for allotments in the past, and there is probably already some formula that is deemed "reasonable"?

But just for a hypothetical exercise I wondered whether allotment rents are comparable to the gross profit arable agricultural land earns for a farmer? i.e. if the land was not being used for allotments it could be farmed (yeah, it could be sold, just ONCE, for housing ... but that's Apples & Oranges in my book)

So: by way of a hypothetical exercise I found some figures:
Model farm - arable 2012

(latest are for 2012)

That shows a breakdown for an "average" 250 hectare arable farm, which works out (per hectare) as:

Total gross margin £737 (mix of Wheat, Barley and Rape)
Add subsidies £230
gives Total income £967

That suggests that if the rents are £1,000-ish, per hectare, then an allotment is making more money than arable farming would ...

That article had Costs as follows:

Labour £230
Power And Machinery £300
Overheads £155
Rent & Interest £110
Total fixed costs £795

I suppose I could argue that there is no Machine Capital Depreciation / Replacement to fund, so even if making £1000 - £300 = £700 a hectare in Rents it would still be a good bet ... and then I could deduct labour as it is all provided for free? (volunteers, so no Cost to deduct from the Rent - although the Council workers will be paid, so perhaps can't just write-off labour , so I'll stick with £700 / hectare as my second figure ). Also glossing over the need to "Buy" irrigation water (although a farmer has costs like that too, which are in the Overheads figures above)

A 10-pole allotment is 250 square metres, which is 40 allotments per hectare ... so:

£1,000 / 40 = £25 per plot
or
£700 / 40 = £17.5 per plot

provided that I haven't fouled-up my sums somewhere? Those prices seem quite cheap??

[skeggijon]

What a number of councils are actively doing, is trying to price allotments out of many peoples pocket. Then when plots become vacant due to nobody being prepared to pay high rents, they can justify selling the land off for building, due to 'lack of interest'.

I used to live in Bradford where they tried this practice in the days when Eric Pickles (now secretary of state for communities) was leader of the council and a staunch Thatcherite, selling everything he could lay his hands on.

We fought it by forming a committee and then forcing the council to devolve control of allotment to us. It is still thriving I'm told, with rents of £15 per plot per year.

[Martin H]

It will be much more valuable as building land.

Developers across the land would love to get their hands on allotment sites.

[sparrow100]

Went to a Green Spaces meeting at the local council last week. Turns out allotments are just under 5% of the total green spaces in the borough (admittedly that's including occupied cemeteries, playgrounds etc) and that the Council ones have vacant plots but the self-run ones don't and are in better nick....hmmmmmmm, you'd almost suspect a 'cunning plan'!

[VolesAteMyPeas]

I'm sorry that I have no advice to offer, Bario. All I can say is that I am absolutely shocked by those prices and I find the situation that you're in absolutely disgusting.

All I can suggest is speaking to the CAB. If they can't help, they'll know someone who can. Best of luck and let us know how you're getting on. If there's anything anyone on here can do then please let us know.

[Aberdeenplotter]

I am very happy for Allotments to be subsidised, but just for the sake of discussion:

If you want to compare anything, compare only with the rent payable for tenanted agricultural properties in the area. In my case, I argued that tenanted farms are valid comparables. Farms are used for production of food as are allotments. Tenants of farms have to provide their own fencing taking over existing at valuation on ingo. Our site was unfenced and we had to provide our own fencing (but without reimbursment on outgo). Ergo farms and allotments are similar.

Our rents equated to over £1000 per acre. Farm rents in our area at the time less than £100. Farms are let with a house included. Allotments have no house. Farms have a range of outbuildings. Allotments do not. Farms have power light and water and toilet facilities. Out site had none of these. Many farms also have redundant cottar house let by the farmers at sizeable rents. Farmers have huge subsidies. Farmers have the benefits of economy of scale.


I hope you are getting the picture.

What comes off an allotment is wholly down to the efforts and expertise of the allotment holder. The Council is providing a bare piece of ground with little services(or none in our case)provided.

Edinburgh has a black hole in its finances caused by a huge overspend in installing a tram system. To ask allotment holders to fund any part of that especially when the allotment service there is already self funded is wholly unjustified.