allotment rent increase 2011

Tr1pp

I pay £40 a year for a 250sqft (think is sqft, maybe sq meters?)

anyway, council will be bumping the price up by an extra £5, I live in kent


unless you pay peanuts then quadrupling sounds a bit excessive to me

[Deleted User]

but why should joe public be subsidising allotment holders?

parkey

Years ago allotments were unfashionable and councils were just glad to get them rented out even if the rent was peanuts.

Now there are huge waiting list, simple economics of supply and demand means that councils are now in a poistion of being able to increase rent charges.

This asside if you do a quick rental increase based on the retail price index from the year the rent you are on was introduced I think that you will find that the increase councils are proposing is actually quiet realistic.

For allotments with water, security fences, car parking areas and grass area which the council mows, plus having a memeber of staff dealing with allotment holders enquiries. I know from experience that not many councils actually cover the cost of their allotments from the allotment fee alone.

Worked out on a weekly basis the rent is pences. Think of how much pleaseure you get from your allotment - I think it is worth a lot more and rental increases are completely justified and need to be brought in line with other services provided by councils.

littlechezza

We pay around £30 a year but as the allotment is part of a local nature park this is a family pass for there so I guess the allotment is free.
It is a starters plot and there are several around us but this has been perfect for us, I think so many people like the idea of the allotment and then take on too big an area and it is too much for them.
We will have the chance to have a bigger plot eventually but we are quite taken with our little patch of land so may just keep that.
Not sure if the price will go up this year but we haven't had any notification as of yet.

jellymid

Have just had notification through, and our fees will stay at £11 this year.

If this had been quadrupled to £44 it would still be in line with many other posts here, however, I would expect a bit more from the parish council for my money, eg some waste disposal facility, better maintenance of pathways etc

The conditions have changed a bit though and we will have to get rid of the old carpet that we have around our shed, waterbutts and compost bins though...only commercial weed supressent allowed hence forth. It will be hard work but probably needed attention this year anyway

GreenFly_2

£25 in south wales

valk_scot

£11 for a full plot (?) is ridiculously low. My rent is £20 for a full plot (80' x 40') and that's still silly, given that a full plot one mile away in the next council area costs £60. We were talking about rent rises in the committee last month as we suspect our council will up the rent next lease renewal (we're a self managed site, leased from the council) and we were thinking about what would be reasonable and what might need disputed. Our rental hasn't actually gone up in the last 10 years! We eventually decided that anything up to a £50 per plot would be considered acceptable, given that this worked out as £1 per week rental, and that we would phase it in over two rent years if necessary.(We'd get a year's notice of any increase.)

After all, £1 a week is sod all, considering. We don't get any works or support done by our council btw, unless we can sweet talk it out of the Parks Department and they have some community service folk needing something to do. We're self managed otherwise and do our own maintenence. We're regarded as a model allotment in our area, btw.

janeawej

Hi, I run a private allotment site on my smallholding in Cornwall, I charge £100 a year for a full plot 30x90 feet most other private sites charge the same around here

Little_Miss_Determined

I never realised how cheap they were! People pay over £30 a month to go to the gym. An allotment will get you just as healthy and you end up with delicious veg.

nodwah

We got ours in Glasgow last year and there was a £5 joining fee and £25 annual fee. It's the same regardless of how big your plot is as you are paying a membership fee rather than rent but I think some people have more than one plot so I assume they pay more.

The site is privately run sort of as a cooperative owned by the members but it is on council land so I'd expect the ground rent from the council to go up - we'll see!

The fees actually went up last year from £22 to £25 and the extra was supposed to be paying for rental of a portaloo over the summer months - but it never appeared :mad: Find out at the AGM
(once our shed is up I can get a bucket in there just in case :rotfl )