To receive a presentation from the Operations Manager on Allotments within King’s Lynn.
Minutes:
The Chairman welcomed Councillor Mrs Nockolds, Portfolio Holder to the meeting.
The Committee received a presentation from Sarah Moore, Operations Manager on Allotments.
Sarah explained that an allotment was:
‘By definition an allotment was: an area of land leased either from a private or local authority landlord, for the use of growing fruit and vegetables. In some cases this land will also be used for the growing of ornamental plants, and keeping hens, rabbits or bees. ‘
In managing allotments, local authorities were also governed by the following national legislation:
• The Land Settlement Facilities Act 1919
• The Allotment Act 1922
• The Allotment Act 1925
• The Town and Country Planning Act 1947
• The Allotment Act 1950
The Small Holdings and Allotments Act 1908 – this placed a statutory duty on local authorities to provide allotments appropriate to demand and they were traditionally managed by the lowest form of government and therefore the allotments which fell within the unparished areas of Kings Lynn were managed by the Council.
Advice and guidance could also be sought from the National Society of Allotments and Leisure Gardens, of which the Council was a member. They held regional forum meetings which allowed officers to get together and exchange ideas and advice, but importantly they were attended by the Societies legal officer who was there to offer legal advice in any difficult or challenging cases.
From March 2014 the management of allotments was moved from the Property Services section to Public Open Space section.
At present there were 14 sites across Kings Lynn, 4 of which were managed by allotment associations, the remaining 10 were directly managed by Public Open Space.
Of these, one site was rented from NCC, the rest were Council owned
There were 476 plots within those 10 sites
There was a waiting list of 90 people, and the Council received on average 2 allotment applications per week
In October 2014, allotments were subject to an internal audit, and the service was reviewed in order to guide future actions required to help to improve the service.
It was noted that improvements could be made to the back office administration and management.
One of the priorities highlighted was the need for an allotments strategy, which would set out the direction and future of the allotment stock, however as there were a number of day to day management operations to improve, it was agreed that this would be delivered during 2016.
A risk assessment had been developed that would be available to tenants and officers alike to cover the range of hazards that could be associated with allotments, such as machinery/ tools, bonfires, personal and public safety.
The waiting list was inherited from Property Services and detailed residents that had made allotment applications as far back as 2010. The recommendation was to bring the waiting list up to date by contacting the residents to ensure that they were, still interested, still in the area and had not been allocated a plot elsewhere.
Consideration had been given to making the eligibility criteria clearer, specifically to ensure that the applicants were residents within the unparished area of Kings Lynn, (those outside of this area, would be eligible for a plot within their own parish), over 18, did not have an outstanding debt with the Council, and were not already allotment tenants of 2 plots or more.
The plots were allocated on a first come first serve basis, where the applicants that had been on the list for the longest got offered the next available plot. They were given 14 days to accept/refuse the plot, and were informed that refusal would either take them off the list, or place them back to the bottom of the list whichever they preferred.
It was recommended that a livestock register be compiled in order to improve two way communications between authorities and tenants in the case of any livestock epidemics, or other issues.
To ensure that tenants were using the allotments appropriately, an inspection regime had been developed along with specific criteria
Cultivation level – it was a requirement that a minimum of 60% of any plot be cultivated, this included areas taken up by, greenhouses or polytunnels, and the area under fruit trees. Also, that the remaining area was kept mown or tidy, free from weeds, debris and litter. Tenants could often complain about a neighbouring plot holder that allowed their weeds to grow up and shed weed seed.
Structures – the structural soundness of any buildings that tenants had placed on their plot tried to be assessed. Conditions varied greatly, from brand new sheds, to homemade tin shacks.
Fences/hedges – a check was carried out to ensure that the tenants were adequately maintaining their bordering hedges or fences, keeping them to a restricted height of 4ft.
Hazardous Materials – a check was made for the presence of hazardous materials such as asbestos and barbed wire, and for other materials which could be hazardous to the soil condition, such as carpet and tyres
Livestock – a check was undertaken to ensure that any livestock appeared to have the basic needs of food, water and shelter, fulfilled and checked for signs that they were regularly attended.
It was found that whilst, on the whole most tenants used the allotments to grow fruit and vegetables there were a number of plots that were being misused, these varied from being uncultivated, used as storage or for other reasons.
Where vacating tenants left their allotments in bad conditions, attempts were made to at least remove the debris and waste left on the plots so that new tenants could at least start to cultivate unhindered. Also over growth was cut back and fence/hedge boundaries were checked, reinstating boundary lines with post and wire where required.
· Tenants in breach got a warning letter – Notice to Tidy 28 days to comply
· Then sent a Notice to Cultivate - 28 days to comply
· Then a Notice to Quit – 28 days to clear and vacate
There was a question on whether the Council tried to recuperate costs from the out-going tenants when items such as these were left behind.
It was recommended that a rule book be compiled that would make it clear to tenants what they could and could not do on their plots, and to explain and formalise the back office procedures.
The rule book was still currently in draft form and would be circulated as part of a consultation plan to tenants by November of this year. The rule book had been compiled by looking at the conditions and rules applied by other eastern area allotment managers, including Hellesdon Parish Council, Norwich City Council and from guidance developed by the National Society.
The rules denoted the appropriate use for an allotment and aimed to ensure that not only tenants were clear on what could and could not be done, but also enabled officers to be able to challenge and evict tenants efficiently should the rules be breached in any way.
In creating this document, the tenancy agreements would need to be revisited to ensure that they referred to the ‘rule book’, making the two documents work in conjunction with each other.
As tenancy agreements only legally last for 12 months, it was aimed to complete the rule book consultation by February, with an agreed version, and develop the new tenancy agreements by April 2016 for issue to all tenants.
It was likely that tenants would not always read a full rule book, so it was aimed to adopt a similar approach to Sheffield, where tenants got an illustrated handbook, which read easily and highlighted the most important points.
In short the rule book will cover:
· Waiting list and eligibility
· Cultivation – and what it means
· Structure size
· Tenancy and breach of tenancy
· Anti-social behaviour including visitors
· Visitors
· Dogs
· Fences/hedges
· Bonfires
· Livestock and bees
The Allotments Act 1950 required that an allotment must be let at ‘rent that a tenant is reasonably expected to pay’, which is not particularly helpful. However our current rental charge was £0.07 per sq metre which equated to £17.50 per year for a standard plot of 250m2.
This rent had not been reviewed or increased since 2001 when the charge was £0.063 per sq metre or £15.75 per year
According to the DCLG guidance ‘growing in the community’ factors that could be used to assess how reasonable allotment rents were:
• Rents in other neighbouring areas
• Charges to users for other recreational or leisure activities
A comparison showed that the Council’s current charge for the allotments was extremely low, when compared to a neighbouring council and to leisure charges.
The service was currently subsidised via a special expenses charge of circa £20,000 per annum paid by council tax payers, and the total rent received from the directly managed sites was £8300.
The Chairman thanked Sarah for the presentation and then asked the Committee for any questions, which are summarised below:
Councillor Tyler added that he knew that allotments were important to people in the area, and asked what the biggest problems were and what was the positive aspect?
The Operations Manager explained that the biggest challenge was getting people interested in what they were able and not able to do. The positive side was some of the individual sites and the sense of community and explained that in North Lynn a group of people met up every Saturday morning, had breakfast and shared ideas, etc.
Councillor Rochford asked whether the Committee could have a copy of the draft rules. He also commented that he did a tour of allotments and clearly some were not being used for the purpose they were let, and asked whether the Council could enforce against those.
The Operations Manager agreed to send out a copy of the draft rules and welcomed any feedback from the Committee. The Operations Manager explained that enforcement could take place but it could take up to three months to evict a tenant. She added that she would be happy to help groups of people set up allotment associations.
Councillor Collop referred to special expenses which were incurred in the running of the allotments as King’s Lynn did not have a Parish Council to run them. He added that it cost the Council a lot of money to run them and considered that the running of allotments should be reformed. However, if they were to be reformed then he considered that it should be done properly. He thought that allotments were good but that the Council was not charging enough. He added that Associations were run well but thought that they charged more.
The Operations Manager explained that she had been unable to clarify how much associations charged as this depended on a number of things. She did plan to have an Allotment Forum this year.
In response to a question from Councillor Collop regarding who made the decision to put allotment charges up, the Executive Director explained that the Committee’s views were required in relation to this issue.
The Portfolio Holder explained that she would welcome a decision from the Committee in relation to any increases in rents for allotments. She added that it was costly for the Council if they had to go and clear a site. She further explained that the rents had not been increased in line with inflation. There would need to be a 12-month notice period given if there were to be any rent increase. She informed the Committee that South Wootton Parish Council currently charged £25.00 per year.
The Executive Director suggested that a report be prepared on the issues raised and some further work undertaken in relation to costings and presented to the next meeting of the Committee.
Councillor Smith referred to an increase from £17.00 per year to £72.76 and stated that any increase of that nature needed to be undertaken in stages, as he considered that people would give up their allotments due to the rent increase.
Councillor Miss Bambridge stated that, whilst she was not against the rent being increased, she did consider there was a limit as to what it could be. She stated that residents of South Wootton who had an allotment paid £25.00 but it would be a big leap to increase to £70.00. She added that allotments also gave a health and exercise benefit, which should not be ignored.
Councillor Collop added that the rents for allotments could be increased then the Special Expenses paid by all residents of King’s Lynn could be reduced. He added that people living in King’s Lynn did not always know what their money was being spent on.
Councillor McGuinness stated that it would be helpful in the report if information could be included on the impact of having to carry out remedial work. He also asked about bonfires and whether there was any guidance which covered this, and used an example of a parcel of allotments in South Lynn which was surrounded by houses, where bonfires were lit regularly.
The Operations Manager explained that she was proposing that bonfires be banned in the summer months.
Councillor McGuinness added that it would be useful to look at those sites which were surrounded by houses individually.
In response to a question from Councillor Smith, the Operations Manager explained the process undertaken when letters had to written to people when action was required to tidy up their allotment. She added that in most cases, when the first letter was sent, this normally prompted a response from the individual, where she could then assess the situation and whether there was a need to carry out any further action.
Councillor McGuinness also asked whether there was a baseline in relation to the state of the allotment when handed to a person. In response, the Operations Manager explained that a photograph was taken on the day the allotment was offered to a person.
The Chairman thanked Sarah for the presentation and attending the meeting.
AGREED: (1) That, a report be prepared and presented to the next meeting in relation to increasing rents for allotments.
(2) That a copy of the drat rulebook for allotments be sent to the Committee for their comments.
The Walks
Councillor Collop raised the issue of litter in the Walks following a Friday evening, which appeared to be coming from the two retail units near the crossing.
The Operations Manager explained that she was aware of the situation and would monitor the issue. However, this tended to be more of an issue when the weather was better. She explained that the Friends of the Walks had made a connection with the retail units and asked them to help with the litter picking. She added that the bin at the bottom of the Walks was often full and emptied on a regular basis. She would look at installing another bin at that end of the Walks.