ALLOTMENT DISPUTES

[GIULIA]

IF YOU'RE ON AN ALLOTMENT COMMITTEE I'D BE VERY INTERESTED TO HEAR IF YOU HAVE A SET PROCESS FOR DEALING WITH NEIGHBOUR DISPUTES/ACCUSATIONS OF THEFT OR VANDALISM, THAT KIND OF THING. ALL ALLOTMENT SITES ARE TROUBLED BY THESE AND I FEEL ADDING IT TO A/O/B ON A COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA IS NOT THE BEST WAY TO TACKLE IT. ANY THOUGHTS?

[Compo]

If it is theft you should get the 'victim' to contact the police, other disputes can usually be sorted by gentle mediation.

[GIULIA]

That sounds fine in theory and once upon a time I would have hoped mediation was the obvious answer, but boundary disputes seem to simmer on and on. There's also the problem that in almost any dispute, one party is going to be close to one of the committee or even a member of it, with associated suspicions of partiality. Does no allotment site have a clear procedure for handling these things or any advice on how to achieve some kind of closure when plot neighbours have a falling out? It must be a common problem.

[Chantal]

I'm Secretary of our Association, our rules were rewritten and approved last year and there is nothing on boundary disputes at all. Neither has there ever been a problem apparently and the plots have been going for over 40 years.

I'll email you a copy of our rules if you send me a PM with your email address Giulia, but I don't think they'll help you at all.

[Weed]

There have been a couple of minor disputes over the boundary between plots on our site.
The local Council person responsible for the allotment site soon sorted it all out by remeasuring the boundary in each case.. job done... no argument

[lizzie]

I agree with Weed.

The size of the plots where I am are all the same for a full plot, there are also half plots. The paths are all the same width. Any problems the plots/paths were re-measured. Argument sorted.

Any further dispute is then sent in writing to the allotments officer at the city council whose decision is final.

I have a copy of our site rules that I can send to you if you'd like. Just pm me and let me know.

[sue-the-recycler]

It depends firstly on whether your site is self managed or council run. If you are council run you need to clarify of the complaint is within the jurisdiction of the councils allotments officer (if they have one) If it’s the former you could, as some sites are beginning to do here, adopt a formal complaints procedure and have a small sub group of the committee who deal exclusively with complaints outside the main committee meetings. This does at least give the whole thing a 'start, middle and end' and any plot holder who does not accept the final decision and continues to wrangle even when all avenues have been exhausted can be given notice to quit. Often ‘vexatious’ issues can dominate committee meetings and cause a great deal of bad feeling and upset and the loss of people willing to be volunteers on the committee.
In Stoke City there are 70+ sites and about 30 reps from sites across the city come together for a city wide network meeting each month to act as a collective voice for sites in the City. The council’s officer and a handful of members from the Allotments Network have recently launched a ‘surgery’ designed to tackle issues that are not getting resolved locally. It is open to all plot holders council run or self managed, and takes place one morning a month. It is intended as an opportunity to chat informally and get advice and opinion on the issue. There is also access to a local independant mediation service that has a great deal of experience in dealing with gardening/neighbours disputes. None of these measures replace the police where any allegation is potentially a criminal matter. These processes take a bit od time to set up but seem to be reaping benifits.
Sue

[GIULIA]

Thankyou Sue for a very useful reply. The surgery idea sounds particularly interesting.

[Compo]

Hi again Giulia, I probably did not sound all that sympathetic before, but I am lucky to be chair person of a small site that virtually runs itself, occasionally a plot holder complains about a neighbours weeds and weed seeds etc, pr wonky boundary it is difficult if the plot holder does not want to speak to the neighbour, so my role would be to make the communication occur, it is always useful if you have a suggestion up your sleeve when making the initial communication, but one thing you definitely discover is that there is nowt so queer as folk. So what I would say, is the disputes still remains between the plot holders, and not your actual responsibility. I feel it is any official's responsibility to listen and advise if you can, but try not to own the problem yourself.

Hope this is a bit more helpful and good luck

Compo

[peter]

Not personally, but as site agent I wander round the whole site at least once a week to "cast an eye" over all the plots.

This week the latest let had been rotovated and the chopped up couch piled in the way of my new fencing.

BUT the rotovating had gone a good four yards into the next plot. Happily that plts tenants had started clearance from the other end and it was long and narrow, so no real harm done.

Turned out to be someone doing a favour for the new plotholder and rotovating it for her, but not bothering to listen carefully enough to the "my plot starts at..." briefing.

As a visible action to ensure it does not happen again I'm putting marker posts in round that plot.

Our site runs on "See the site agent." and the council back the site agent, unless he can be proved to have gone wrong.

[GIULIA]

Thanks for these replies. We've had two notable and long-running disputes on our site which just keep recurring I'm afraid as borders mysteriously move in the night so it's claimed, and then denied and then it all starts again. These have been officially measured and re-measured and so on and so on but still it rumbles on. The committee cannont police personality clashes, that's usually the real problem. However I'm beginning to think persuading the parties to sign up to a written peace agreement might help.
Part of the discipline problem on allotments is lack of sanctions - it seems to be evicition (a council decision, not ours) or nothing. Since I've been on our committee I've discovered that common sense and common courtesy are anything but commonplace.
Mind you most of our crowd are good folks and we've had a few jolly social events lately so don't let me leave you all with a horribly negative impression. We've got over 100 people gardening on our site so there's bound to be the occasional ding dong isn't there?