Greenwich Council’s Cabinet unanimously agreed price rises for its allotments at a meeting last night at Woolwich Town Hall.
The allotment price hike has been watered down since originally being proposed but the concessions were not enough to win over allotment holders who left the meeting angry, disappointed and with the air turned blue.
It was originally intended that the full rate for residents rise to £20 per rod this year, but the increase will now be phased in over two years following consultations.
The full cost of renting an allotment will go from £6.50 per rod to £13.20 per rod this year – an increase of 103% – and then rise to £20 the following year.
An average 5 rod size allotment will cost £66 in 2011/12 under the new proposals, and £100 next year. Rods are a system to measure allotments – one square rod is the equivalent of about 25 square metres.
49% of current allotment holders qualify for a concessionary rate which sees them pay about the half the standard price.
Local growers at the meeting criticised the council’s consultation, claiming it hadn’t been properly publicised. Allotment holder, Irene Woods, said she only found out about the consultation once it was too late to be involved.
She had already invested both expense and effort into preparing her plot, she said, and was left “demotivated” and unsure as to whether she could afford to carry it on. The rise would “set a precedent for massive increases” in the future, she said.
Another allotment holder called the proposals “rubbish”, adding “It’s not fair, it’s not right and it’s not justice.”
The Cabinet agreed to defer this years rise from April until July and will allow allotments to be paid for quarterly, although the holders claim the council was legally obliged to offer this anyway.
A report by council officers says allotments currently get a 73% subsidy and the new pricing will take this to 45% this year and approximately 25% the year after, which matches the current subsidy to leisure centres.
Cabinet Member of Culture and the Olympics, Cllr John Fahy, said the “funding to local government has been significantly reduced by central government” and the allotment price increases were “probably the most difficult decision we’ve had to take as part of this budget process”.
This is a real shame, but we need to think of innovative ways to make sure the allotments continue. I’m sure there are lots of people like me that would love to have an allotment to have homegrown veg, flowers and so on, but dont have the time to maintain one, or can’t get one. Would it work to have an “allotment cooperative” where we could buy into the allotments, helping people pay the fee in return for some of the produce or the chance to come and help with the digging every so often?
Two or three years ago, someone who was in a position to know told me that the Dear Leader does not like allotments. So, as with other things in Greenwich, the only long-term mitigation or resolution may be “regime change”.
I am determined to work with allotment holders to minimise the effects of the increase in subsequent years. Reducing the Council subsidy can be achieved. The Allotments Working Party will meet shortly to look at all costs and overheads. It will also give help and support to those who want to enter into self managed sites. Those who do can determine their own charges. Antonia has made an interesting point which needs to be considered.
The “consultation” was a complete joke – and has left the allotment holders angry disappointed and having very little trust in the Council and that means you Cllr Fahy.
If the “Allotments Working Party” is run on the same basis as the consultation it will simply be a propaganda tool of the council, when their record on this is that all means possible are used to keep allotment holders and other interested people from having any input or getting even the most basic information.
You have massively upset the very people who were most likely to help the council find and maintain ways of saving money. Nice work.
The council has reserves of over £100 million and it has no need to make cuts in areas that have limited financial impact, such as allotments. I can only assume that these cuts are politically motivated. The irony of this is that allotments were originally a socialist concept, but as they have become embraced by the middle class the ideological successors of their inventors are turning their backs to them.
Ginger
So sorry to read your comments. The Working Party will be run by and for allotment holders.
Will
The Council does not have £100m reserves. If only that were the case.
John, I looked into this and you are right, the council does not have £100 million, but £133 million in reserves. This is £100 million more than Bexley’s reserves, and actually the highest for any London borough. Some of this is naturally earmarked for specific future projects, but it is absurd to think that Greenwich needs 3 to 4 times more reserves than the average borough. This raises a number of questions, eg. why does the council hoard these funds? Where has the money been invested? Why does it feel the need to make petty cuts, such as reducing the subsidy for allotments, if it has tens of millions in “excess reserves”? This is tax payers’ money and the council owes us an explanation – the council can’t just take our money and then pretend that it doesn’t exist.
Will,
Wrong again. All the reserves in the Council are for specific projects,school buildings etc. There is no capital for other projects nor can reserves be used for specific revenue funding.
John
A Freedom of Information enquiry in January of this year – made to LBG via What do they know.com – revealed there were 769 plot holders in Greenwich spread over 15 sites.
CouldCouncillor Fahy divulge precisely how many of the Greenwich allotment holders were consulted and should this intill confidence in the proposed Working Party or a considerable degree of scepticism?