Allotment Rental to be made Quicker

An informal council meeting on Monday 11th October is to look at ways of speeding up the process of renting allotments : hopefully this will mean the waiting list of 150+ can be reduced and uncultivated plots re-let much more quickly.

Lib Dem councillors have championed allotments in the borough for many years. They've insisted on new sites being built into the planning process and now hope that existing "site reps" can help with the administration processes of getting potential new plot-holders onto vacant or disused plots.

Cllrs Julie Morris, Alison Kelly and Colin Taylor are concerned at the long waiting list and the time it takes to issue warning notices to tenants of plots which are not being properly maintained, then the series of site inspections which are apparently needed, the the final termination notices. Following that involved process, council officers then have to review the waiting list to see who is next, get in touch with them, arrange a site visit, issue new tenancy agreements, etc. The council have also recently built in a procedure whereby plot-holders on "starter" plots can move to larger plots.

Three of the 10 Lib Dem councillors are plot-holders themselves - Julie, Jonathan Lees and Charles Wood.

Julie says "it is all very complicated and in some respects needs to be to ensure the owner, i.e. the council, complies with the legal requirements, but it's taking far too long with some uncultivated plots apparently staying like that for nearly a year before they are re-let".

The council hopes to get site reps involved in the letting process - perhaps arranging viewings, holding waiting lists and doing some of the preliminary administration on behalf of the council.