Allotment rents in Hyndburn
 

Our council(Labour) have decided in their wisdom(to help the ordinary working class people of Hyndburn)to raise allotments rents over the next
3 years by up to 400% They stress no increase this year but this year will only be for 9 months in their calender.I e-mailed Clr Cieran Wells(the financial wizard who has instigated this) but he hasnt deemed to give me a reply.Do you think I should ask our M.P. for his assistance??

Re: Allotment rents in Hyndburn
 

Don't be daft Dave they all pee in't same pop, your better off contacting the Observer and Telegraph and rattle some cages

Re: Allotment rents in Hyndburn
 

The Lancs Ev Tel have featured this already
National group supports Baxenden allotment holders (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Re: Allotment rents in Hyndburn
 

Contact the MP, you have nothing to lose.

Re: Allotment rents in Hyndburn
 

What I would like to know is where do they get
this figure from.
Anger is growing after the council announced it was putting up rents because each allotment costs taxpayers £240 to run each year.
What have the council ever done on any of the allotment sites, other than collect rents.
The allotment soceiety need to get a breakdown of these figures under the freedom of information act.
Thats if they really exist, and not just propaganda.

Retlaw.
sites

Re: Allotment rents in Hyndburn
 

When you read the articles on this the rents have been frozen for 10 years so they can not really complain about a rent rise now. I do think the rises mentioned in the paper are to much in one go though.

I think HBC have messed up by not increasing the rents each year for the last 10 years.

Re: Allotment rents in Hyndburn
 

That still doesn't explain how they can quote how much it actually costs to run per year. What have they ever done for the allotmeent holders, other than collect rents.
Retlaw.

Re: Allotment rents in Hyndburn
 

Not something I can answer sorry.

What do you think they should be doing for the allotment holders?

I know what I think but would like your opinion before I comment.

Re: Allotment rents in Hyndburn
 

The obvious answer to what have the council done for allotment holders is:NOTHING.

Re: Allotment rents in Hyndburn
 

So what do you think they should be doing?

If the figure cost per allotment to the council is correct you might not find the residents of Hyndburn very sympathetic to your cause, after all why should they pay for your hobby?

Re: Allotment rents in Hyndburn
 

For a start prove that it costs so much to admister those allotments, & if it does cost so much, what are they doing wrong, the council have never made any improvements that I can see. Why not sell them the land, with a proviso that when they quit. the land must not lie unused, if the allotment holders move out what would become of the land.
Retlaw

Re: Allotment rents in Hyndburn
 

I dont think anyone would begrudge a sensible rent increase but to raise(mine will go up from £39.00 to £200) to such a silly rate will only produce a lot of empty allotments and no one wanting to take them over.

Re: Allotment rents in Hyndburn
 

That sort of increase makes growing you own food more expensive than buying at Tesco.
Retlaw.

Re: Allotment rents in Hyndburn
 

Maybe the purpose of the increase is to have them become vacant and sell the land for development.

Re: Allotment rents in Hyndburn
 

From what I have seen near me, HBC give allotments to new tenants in a disgusting state. A friend of mine took one on recently ish. The ground is so bad, full of rubble, broken glass and who knows what else that he said he will only be able to grow anything in raised beds.

It was given to him with a massive area covered in brambles he did not want and an old collapsed greenhouse with the glass left dumped in a big pile with other rubble.

I think that a new tenant should be asked if they want anything remaining on the land like sheds, greenhouse etc when they take it on. Everything else should be cleared by HBC and left in a state that the allotment can be used.

In my opinion it is not only unacceptable but its down right wrong that HBC lease an allotment to a new tenant who then has to spend months clearing the rubbish left behind by the previous tenant because HBC did not manage the previous tenant correctly.

The land is not the tenants, its Hyndburns and it should be kept in a clean and tidy manner. If an allotment is covered in litter, rubble and broken glass, basically not in an acceptable condition, then the tenant should be instructed to sort it out. If they don't within a reasonable time then the tenancy should be terminated and the land cleared by HBC and let to a new tenant.

I should have taken pictures and posted them of my mates when he received it from Hyndburn at first, you would not have believed the state they handed it over to him in.

Re: Allotment rents in Hyndburn
 

The waiting list is so big in Hyndburn I think they will always find someone who will want one.

£200 a year is less than £4 a week, thats less than a packet of cigarettes

I think that if they had not frozen the rents for ten years, a mistake I think, that the increase from £39 to £200 would equate to about 17.7% each year for the 10 years. That is a high yearly increase.

Re: Allotment rents in Hyndburn
 

Seems possible to me,that the £39 rent was so cheap,some tenants didn't give a toss? To me a person should only be able to rent, if n allotment is in a reasonable state, Which is down to H.B.C. When they rent em out, How difficult must it be,to have a signed agreement, that the tenant is liable fer the upkeep?The rise to £200 is much to steep n people should not suffer fer incompetence.:rolleyes:

Re: Allotment rents in Hyndburn
 

It still boils down to the fact, What has Hyndburn ever done on those allotments, when they claim each one costs 240 a year to run, or is that to pay the wages of a paper shuffler.
Some bodies telling Porkies.
Retlaw.

Re: Allotment rents in Hyndburn
 

Basically what i was alluding too.;)

Re: Allotment rents in Hyndburn
 

£200 a year, payable in one lump upfront, will remove from the list the families who really need an allotment.

Yuppies who can afford that usually have gardens at home where they can grow veg if they want to.

So I still say the waiting list will disappear.

Re: Allotment rents in Hyndburn
 

We often walk our dog around the Heys allotments. When I took her out today a took a few photos. I have attached them along with a sample HBC allotment tenancy agreement I found online.

Here are a few bits from it under "THE Tenant agrees with the Council" section. If you look at the pictures you will see the Council are not enforcing the agreements and letting some tenants make the allotment site into an eyesore.

Re: Allotment rents in Hyndburn
 

Which goes to prove my point, where has the magic figure of 240 quid per year come from, and what has the council ever done to justify that figure.
Retlaw

Re: Allotment rents in Hyndburn
 

Those photographs do reveal that some neglect and breach of use is happening.
I have read also the downloadable guide to tenants
http://www.hyndburnbc.gov.uk/downloa...ders_guide.pdf

It states 'poultry' - which geese are - so the photo showing geese does not expose a breach, yet the sample tenancy agreement mentions only 'hens'. So the info from the council is ambiguous. Geese are useful 'watchdogs' against foxes, which are prevalent.

As for the caravans - sometimes they are used for overnight stays, so they should not be tolerated.

Some of those woodpiles are overlarge. Sometimes in summer it isn't possible to have my windows open due the allotment fires. I once complained when the fire was next to the path which separates the plots from our flats. I suggested that the fire be set at the opposite end of the plot - only to be told that the smoke would damage the plants.

Re: Allotment rents in Hyndburn
 

If you read about fires it says small and in a container or something like that. On one allotment it looks like someone is getting ready to burn some old furniture and the damage caused by other can be seen. Maybe the increase in rent will pay for a full time officer who can start to address these problems.

Re: Allotment rents in Hyndburn
 

Maybe it would, but the question is,Why aint they "EVER" checked on these tenancies, Money aint always been tight.:rolleyes:

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Maybe the increase in rent will pay for a full time officer who can start to address these problems.
Its not a full time officer we need its proper accounting. Just found out where some of those fancy figures for allotment costs have come from, projects that are not really anything to do with allotments, have been included in the figures, one of them is for 20 odd thousand quid spent on a car park, another is a bill for 550 quid, repair to a tap, why should the allotment tenants be loaded with idiotic spending like that, theres probably a lot more when the budget documents are finally revealed.
Retlaw