Growers must dig in to keep allotments as council cuts costs
PLOT holders and community groups could take over the management of allotments as a council looks to cut costs.
Newcastle Borough Council is to carry out a review to find ways of reducing the £38,190 cost of running its seven allotment sites.
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COSTLY: The allotments in Park Road.
One of the changes being considered is local management of allotments, by committees, parish councils or other bodies.
Non-borough council allotments are already provided by Kidsgrove Town Council and Audley Parish Council, as well as Friends of Lyme Valley.
Tim Pattison has had an allotment in Park Road, Silverdale, for eight years.
He does not think many allotment holders will want to take on management duties.
The 62-year-old, from Bradwell, said: "We've tried two or three times in the past to set up an allotment association, but we've always had to give up because of lack of interest.
"People just want to pay their rent and work on their allotments.
"They don't want to get involved in the politics.
"I think the borough council has been quite good at managing the allotments. But a recent questionnaire caused us some concern. It asked us how much we'd be prepared to pay for our allotment, which seems quite a loaded question."
Plot holders pay £53.10 a year rent, with unemployed and pensioners paying a concessionary rate of £25.25.
There are currently 295 people waiting for one of the borough council's 254 allotment plots in Silverdale, Knutton, Thistleberry, Wolstanton, May Bank and Cross Heath.
Of these areas, only Silverdale currently has a parish council.
George Cairns, chairman of Silverdale Parish Council, said: "The parish council will take a serious look at this, and I think it is something we could do. But we'd need to know what sort of financial contribution we would get from the borough council.
"If we take on financial responsibility for the allotments we will have to raise our parish precept, and not everyone will be able to use the allotments."
Cabinet members are due to ask officers to carry out the review at their meeting tomorrow.
The report to cabinet states: "In order to fully consider the issue of provision and other relevant factors your officers propose to undertake a full review of the council's allotments policy including a review of the cost of the allotment service to determine whether the cost can be reduced significantly or fully recovered, and a review of opportunities to secure local management of sites.
"It is proposed that this process will involve consultation with current plot holders, residents on the waiting lists, relevant community groups and organisations."
4 Comments
by johnwhite18
Wednesday, November 30 2011, 6:57AM
“£38,190 cost of running its seven allotment sites i think i am missing something here ! £53.10p rent a year thats £13487.40p coming in of 254 plots so whats the £38,190 going on then ?”
by rwbthatisme
Tuesday, November 29 2011, 8:50PM
“Ok this story needs a bit more digging (excuse the pun) but there are 300 plots in the borough (as per the borough council site), if it costs the council £38,000pa then the basic break even point of the service (un-subsidised) would be £123 per plot. Therefore on average the cost / subsidy per plot is not less than £70, quite clearly the council are not charging a realistic rent for the plots.
I have visited the Silverdale allotments, and know that many are vacant (perhaps even for more than one year), but on enquiring and applying for an allotment the council the default answer is that you will be added to the waiting list. The crux of the matter is, is the council making any effort to manage this waiting list? There are available plots and interested parties but the council don't seem to be moving on the potential.
Secondly the question is that is the low cost of renting a plot, allowing delinquent plot holders to block the fair movement of the queue. If the rent where a higher, plot holders might think twice about leaving their plot untended. If its seen as unfair to raise the rents for active plot holders, incorporate a deposit scheme, maintain your allotment and you get your deposit back.
Lastly as a proportion of the annual budget spending of £56.5million £38k represents less than a single percentage point, so hiving off allotments would make a negligible contribution to reducing expenditures.”
by rwbthatisme
Tuesday, November 29 2011, 8:48PM
“Ok this story needs a bit more digging (excuse the pun) but there are 300 plots in the borough (as per the borough council site), if it costs the council £38,000pa then the basic break even point of the service (un-subsidised) would be £123 per plot. Therefore on average the cost / subsidy per plot is not less than £70, quite clearly the council are not charging a realistic rent for the plots.
I have visited the Silverdale allotments, and know that many are vacant (perhaps even for more than one year), but on enquiring and applying for an allotment the council the default answer is that you will be added to the waiting list. The crux of the matter is, is the council making any effort to manage this waiting list? There are available plots and interested parties but the council don't seem to be moving on the potential.
Secondly the question is that is the low cost of renting a plot, allowing delinquent plot holders to block the fair movement of the queue. If the rent where a higher, plot holders might think twice about leaving their plot untended. If its seen as unfair to raise the rents for active plot holders, incorporate a deposit scheme, maintain your allotment and you get your deposit back.
Lastly as a proportion of the annual budget spending of £56.5million £38k represents less than a single percentage point, so hiving off allotments would make a negligible contribution to reducing expenditures.”
by yamerama
Tuesday, November 29 2011, 8:33PM
“What costs £48000 a year to 'run' these allotments anyway? Pay someone to administer them part time - the £10000 odd rent income should cover this. In fact, I would be happy to do this job and many others would too I suspect.
I think it's quite understandable that present holders don't want this work - they use their allotments to get away from it all.”