There may be trouble ahead ( swansea allotments)

[jackarmy]

All swansea allotmenteers have been invited to meetings which are to take part over the next two days at the civic center.
Seems the council want to discuss future plans for us, *worried look*
Unfourtunatley im unable to attend my slot this evening so will be relying on an email from my sec tonight to keep me updated, fingers crossed.

[1Bee]

Ugh. I hope it's not as bad as you fear.

I work closely with our county council up here, and I very much feel for those forced to make millions of pounds worth of cuts from an already overstretched budget. It's soul destroying. Not that that makes it any easier for those on the 'cut' end.... :-/

[veggiechicken]

I'm guessing they want all the sites to be self-managed .
Maybe give you some funding to set up with Swansea - Grow Local Swansea

[Thelma Sanders]

If it's anything like happened to us, the meetings were because they wanted to gauge the reaction to

Local allotment societies taking over the running of the plots rather than the Council. Nobody wanted to be involved in this, so they still run them.

putting the price up by £2 a perch/rod per year. If too many people would vacate their plots rather than pay the increase - they would gain nothing. This is being phased in £1 extra this year, another pound for the year after.

putting restrictions on water usage (water costing too much, some people having drip pipes on all day!)

wanting to split bigger plots into smaller plots, so less people left on waiting lists. They now do this when big plots become vacant, but nobody forced to give up part of their plot.

wanting to charge for the year in advance - so people can't leave after a couple of months, without paying. The payment date is now changing over a few years, so we didn't have to pay 2 years at once, because of plot holders' fears over paying.
OAPs/people on benefit got free plots on showing proof , now it is a 50% reduction.

This means the allotment accounts are now cost neutral, they don't have to subsidise the allotments, but at the same time we don't pay more than we should.
So the discussion was worthwhile

[Cadalot]

In our borough the council have handed over the management to an external contractor Idverde who have no idea how to manage anything let alone allotments, I've been bashing the Local Authority and Idverde for the last three months or more and finally after getting the chief exec and councillors involved everyone want to play nice and work together to sort things out.

An emergency meeting that I had been requesting and pressing for happened 30th Oct and we have a meeting scheduled for Feb to push things forward and resolve issues, See https://lbs-site-rep-assoc.blogspot.co.uk/

[jackarmy]

We already run our site as does most of the countys allotment sites, the only ones the council run are down the mumbles lol.
As the letters came from the buildings and planning dept were pretty worried ,a rent hike we could cope with as were only paying around £ 30 between the council and the site fees a year so were just hoping itll be that lol.
Have a feeling some sites may be facing the axe though , should find out by tonight or tomorrow at latest hopefully, meetings in 45 minutes, could take my grandkids with me maybe ?

[veggiechicken]

Well, what happened?

[jackarmy]

I couldnt go as i had the grandkids, waiting on an email from the secretary or someone, hopefully today.

[FerretFarts]

Which site are you on Jack?

Just had a brief email from our secretary along the lines of:

'From April there is no money for allotments. They have legal responsibility to provide land but not manage allotments. They are offering us a 25 year lease which has to be registered with land registry and we will have to take over running costs.'

[jackarmy]

Ah, thatll probably be it then, thanks Ferret lol.
Thats pretty cool as were self run basically t the moment anyway, im at Frederick place in Llansamlet, you ?

[Snoop Puss]

Welcome to the Vine, FerretFarts.

[veggiechicken]

Croeso, FerretF. Can't bring myself to write your complete name.

[1Bee]

Could be worse... :-/

[veggiechicken]

Its would have been **** or banned

[lottie dolly]

welcome to the vine FF,love the name,but glad i live miles away hehehehe,tell us what you grow ext,in the introduce yourself page,