Council policy towards allotments

[Barry]

Our local council has ceded control of allotments to allotment associations over the last decade. It will make available no money for anything. This is now understood by all concerned and accepted. However, other than this, the Council appears to have no overall policy towards allotments, so local associations flounder whenever something odd crops up that should have been sorted out and put in writing years ago.
So, I think it would be interesting to try and put a policy document together and put it to the Council in the hope that they will adopt it and make it mandatory.
Can you therefore suggest anything that ought to be spelled out in a policy document that has cropped up in your area which has needed to be sorted out?
For example, we have a small group that wants to keep plots wild as a biodiversity agenda. Have any of you had to find ways to accommodate that? Can you tell plot holders what they should grow and what they shouldn't grow?
Should committee members be allowed from outside the borough?
How about bees? Ours issues licenses, but this is an area fraught with difficulty.
We have a car park half owned by the Council and half owned by somebody else. How does you Council deal with that?
You access our site along a track owned by householders and Network Rail. How do you ensure that track remains open and in good condition?
We have a 75m water pipe that goes outside our stopcock located inside the gate to a mains cut off in the main road. It leaked recently. How do we go about ensuring that we don't have to pay for repairing a leak in an area that we cannot undertake repairs?
How does your eviction policy work? Does it work?
Things like that interest me. Can they we generalised into a policy that could be adopted by the Council and applied to all allotments?
Any thoughts gratefully appreciated.

[Tigger]

The Council I work for has an allotment policy. I'll look it up for you.

The other's that spring to mind as they have excellent allotment schemes are Sandwell (who have a scheme that was on Radio 4 recently and is linked with cooking and healthy living) and Wolverhampton who were featured in KG last year. It might be worth a search on their respective websites or giving them a call.

[peter]

Most of your example questions are answered very simply without recourse to a policy, look at the "Allotments - A Plotholders Guide" leaflet at www.farmgarden.org.uk/ari/documents/plo ... sguide.pdf .
"For example, we have a small group that wants to keep plots wild as a biodiversity agenda. Have any of you had to find ways to accommodate that?"
Tough, allotments are for the growing of vegatable and fruit, by act of parliament, if they want biodiversity join a Wildlife trust and help manage a Nature Reserve. (Says the man with a bee friendly bit on his plot)
"Can you tell plot holders what they should grow and what they shouldn't grow?"
Yes, but it should be on your rules, which should be inherited from whatever the Council's rules were.
"Should committee members be allowed from outside the borough?"
No, as plots should only be provided to people from within the parish or town boundary.
"How about bees?"
See above re Rules, you can be specific about what livestock, especially on Health & Safety grounds, for example a significant proportion of the population are allergic to bee stings.
"We have a car park half owned by the Council and half owned by somebody else."
Get the council to tell you which bit is theirs and point out their insurance liabilities if any injury or damage is caused by their lack of maintenance.
Also get the council to give you a full explanation of the arrangement with the co-owner, in writing, for similar reason. You could always say someone has damage to car and is considering claiming so you need clarification. Don't say any of this to co-owner.

"You access our site along a track owned by householders and Network Rail. How do you ensure that track remains open and in good condition?"
Based on similar reasons to above, try it on with Network Rail, they have loads and loads of ballast (stones) removed from railway lines they could re-surface with. If they have a local depot get pally with its manager.
"We have a 75m water pipe that goes outside our stopcock located inside the gate to a mains cut off in the main road. It leaked recently. How do we go about ensuring that we don't have to pay for repairing a leak in an area that we cannot undertake repairs?"
Ask the water company where your responsibility ends/begins.
"How does your eviction policy work?"
In a word Slowly.
Main one is failing to use the plot for growing vegetable, leaving it as weeds or using it as a dump.
"Does it work?"
Yes, but slowly.
Assessment of how well a plot is used is written in the Council Rules as "in the opinion of the Site Agent", I'm a site agent and I wrote out my "opinion" and put it on both my noticeboards. It is a time-line with percentage of plot expected to be under cultivation from when the plot is taken and it acceptes that "illness and other things do happen" urging people affected by such things to inform me so I can be understanding.

[Johnboy]

Hi Peter,
What you have written seems exceedingly sensible. The one thing that I believe to be is that if the path is a 'Line Path' then the Railway Authority are responsible for it's maintenance and must keep it well maintained.
I think this is something to do with the Railways Act in the dim and distant past.
JB.

[Binky]

If you are self managing, you also need to think about public liability insurance. Our local council was not prepared to cover us, even if we paid something. The only policy designed specifically for allotments we could find was through NSALG. There are others which can be taken out by individual plotholders but we needed something that covered everyone.

[Barry]

Thanks everybody for your input.
I read the 1908 act after looking at Peter's posting and it does indeed define what you can and cannot do on an allotment.
However, I would like to share some points with you and see what you think regarding biodiversity and the like.
Until 3 years ago, our 80-plot allotment site was down to fewer than 10 active plots. A Council initiative during that period was to encourage projects to improve the local environment. This resulted in a large pond being built on the site using grants, which is a nice feature. In addition, a woodpile was established to encourage wood beatles. Three plots were also set aside for an apiary, which again is an asset -even though the bees probably don't forage locally once they get up to cruising height! We also have common lizards, slowworms and grass snakes on the site, not to mention lots of rarish birds. As we began to clear plots for conventional use, this was resisted by a small group of environmentalists associated with the beekeepers, who objected to the programme saying it was ruining the atmosphere and look of the site. Although the majority of the overgrown plots have been cleared, there are others which, apparently, were set aside under the aforementioned Council project to improve the environment. No paperwork exists supporting this initiative, which was implemented under a previous political administration, while the programme itself is now in abeyance. We have a waiting list for plots and around half a dozen that could potentially be cleared for them, but which would cause WWIII if we were to go ahead and do it. I have sought guidance from the Council, but getting anything in writing... well, you can imagine.
So, what would you do in my position?
What is the legal position regarding these biodiversity plots?
Does your allotment set aside plots for biodiversity?
Any further input appreciated!

[peter]

Ahh, now I understand.

You are in a bit of a quandary.

The only practical advice I can come up with is to pick a relevant councillor and get him/her on side with resolving the waiting list / vacant plot situation.

I work for a large council and can assure you that nowadays councillors are, like MP's, a bit of an odd beast, sort of a CAB/Social/Worker/Agony Aunt/Court of Appeal/Politician all rolled into one and council officers tend to jump to it when a councillor asks a question, more so for the ruling party mind, though not a huge difference.

Slow Worms, Grass Snakes and Lizards are legally protected and it would be wrong to inconvenience them too much, not least because you have a nice load of biological pest controls through them. The bees will go to whatever nectar or pollen sources they find and will go local rather than fly miles.

[Johnboy]

Hi Barry,
I agree with Peter that you certainly are in a quandary. I am not an allotmenteer but what strikes me is that the council have the right to convert any allotment land for biodiversity. Or do they? We hear of cases quite frequently where other councils are making rulings as to what can be and what cannot be grown on allotments. Your council seems to be a reversal of most other areas.
The government are pushing the grow your own scene at present and I wonder what your MP would have to say on the subject. If your MP holds surgeries, which he/she should, attend a surgery and put the case to him/her direct.
JB.

[Barry]

Peter/Johnboy,
Thanks for that. Being a real country boy, I must say I am in favour of promoting nature. But an allotment is not supposed to be for anything other than "husbandry", the 1908 act spells that out -I read it! As for linking up with councillors, they don't even have a policy, hence my interest in this area. They don't want anything to do with us, or perhaps I should say that we get zero priority. I understand this, but it strikes me, to change the definition of an allotment site to one accommodating biodiversity requires something in writing. This is a must, especially since we are seeking to get a lease on the site so that we can access grants to improve utilities provision. I wouldn't want to share with you on an open forum the struggles and battles I have, but sometimes I think people (including myself!) do lose perspective. Things are drawing to a head and I think I see several (quite clever) ways out of this and the 1908 act certainly suggests that the Council would be acting unlawfully if they don't see through their plans for the site, which was originally to turn it back to proper (sic) allotments.
Any other thoughts from anybody else really welcome.

[glallotments]

I hope evrything works out for you Barry,
Lasy year our council wanted us to become a self managed site and we were in talks with the council as to how this would be achieved and also the division of responsibilities.

A small group decided that this wasn't what they wanted and stirred things up so much that the whole idea was abandoned. In retrospect I feel we had a lucky escape as to try and manage a site where there is an awkward squad who just won't go along with the majority would have been just impossible and caused too much stress and grief.