Barrow council ‘can’t afford allotments subsidy’
Last updated at 16:36, Monday, 11 March 2013
A COUNCIL can no longer afford to subsidise the cost of allotments, a review has concluded.
Barrow Borough Council instructed a review into how allotments were operated after being hit with an £88,380 bill for their upkeep in 2010/11.
With only £33,200 being brought in from their rent in the same period, the council’s scrutiny committee was instructed to carry out a review of the service, which has now been concluded.
The annual cost of renting the plots has already been increased as part of the council’s budget strategy, with prices ranging from £43 to £172. The review recommends the allotment service be funded by the income from the rents, and that the increases in the budget strategy will cover the cost of delivering the service.
The council is also encouraging allotment holders to pay by Direct Debit or credit card, as other types of payments incur a cost.
The review aims to tackle the lengthy waiting list that exists for allotments, with vacant lots to be let on an “as seen” basis. Applicants are set to only be offered two plots and will have to respond within three weeks of being offered an allotment.
Under the proposals, tenants will be able to hand over a single plot to a family member when they terminate their tenancy, provided that the recipient is on the waiting list.
One of the main costs to the council is providing water for the upkeep of the allotments, and tenants will be encouraged to find alternative water supplies, such as collecting rain water.
And the report states that the council should consider any approaches from organisations to self-manage allotments.
The council’s overview and scrutiny committee will meet on Thursday at Barrow Town Hall at 2pm to determine how the review should be progressed.
First published at 16:08, Monday, 11 March 2013
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk
under sec23 smallholing & allotments act,your council has a duty to provide sufficiant alotment space, it even sugests a minimum of 20 per 1000 housholds,it is your councils responsibility to asess the need in its area.
so my question is how come barrow has had a masive waiting list for as long as i can remember?[and thats more than 40 years]
barrow needs more alotments close to housing,
our council will justify privatising the alotments because it costs more to maintain than they were getting in ?
next thing will be councilers will be buying up land and renting it out as alotments privatly.
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These people request the 'luxury' of an allotment why should they not be expected to pay for its upkeep? Why should the rest of the town's council tax pay for it?
Posted by Annoyed in Barrow on 12 March 2013 at 16:23