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allotments for calne · Newbie Joined: 21 Oct 2009 Posts: 5 Status:

I have been trying to obtain an allotment for about 2 1/2 years and don't seem to be moving up the list.

I have had a number of discussion with members of the Council about better provision of land and have attended a council meeting to point out the short comings of the Council in this respect.

Bear in mind that it was the Council who sold off the allotment land at Stokes Croft for housing and spent the money on a grandious sports ground at Beversbrook. Admittedly they did, under a lot of pressure, find a corner for a few allotments to keep the peace.
However, I feel that they should find land to the South or East of the town for the us of local people.

We are being lectured about a green enviroment, healthy eating with 5 a day advisors supplied by government and about food miles and so on. It is fairly pointless to grow your own food and then drive from one end of town to the other to harvest a couple of carrots for Sunday lunch and therefore the provision should be local or central to the town.

We live in a rural area and I am convinced that a local landowner or farmer must have a pocket of unproductive land that they would happlly rent to the Town Council for a nominal sum, but there seems to be an unwillingness on the part of our Council to play their part in helping their residents to enjoy a healthy life.

I know that I am not the only person on the waiting list and I would like anyone who is also waiting to contact me so that we can form an effective lobby group at [url]allotmentsforcalne@googlemail.com [/url]
I look forward to hearing from you, and please tell your friends and neighbours about this fight

Peter Dolman · Posted: Fri Oct 23, 2009 9:43 pm Post subject:

this topic has been discussed many times on this forum.

firstly the "allotments" were sold off by the council of 1999 to 2003 some of them are still councillors today, I wonder why they were re-elected?
the "allotments" were not legally allotments which is why they were able to get away with it. the fault for that lies historically with previous council.
the land became "allotments" by default as it was purchased for housing (newcroft road/ridgemead etc) but was never built on.

there is farm land in the quemerford area but the price is beyond what is reasonable because of spectulation that an eastern byepass will be built and therefore permission to build housing will be given.

during my time as a councillor much time was spent trying to identify possible allotment land to no avail.

there is no easy answer to this issue!
_________________
A lifelong Calne supporter

allotments for calne · Newbie Joined: 21 Oct 2009 Posts: 5 Status:

Thank you for your reply Peter,

I feel that you and the Council are ignoring the statutory and hence mandatory position of the Council under the 1908 Allotment Act which states
Precedent : Provision and Letting of Allotments (England & Wales)
Pursuant to the provisions of section 23 subsection (1) Small Holdings and Allotments Act 1908 (n1) a Municipal authority in England & Wales * is under two Statutory and hence mandatory obligations, in respect of demand for allotments (n2) :
(i) to provide a sufficient number of allotments ; and
(ii) to let these to folk who wish to take them.
The obligations imposed by s. 23 (1) are absolute : they admit of neither challenge, argument, nor yet defence.
“Sufficient”, in this context, has yet to be defined by a Court of Competent Jurisdiction. In strict Legal theory it is at least arguable that if there be one person on a waiting list for an allotment, the municipal authority is in breach of the Statutory duty imposed by s. 23 (1).

Authority for this statement is to be found in the provisions of section 25 Small Holdings and Allotments Act 1908 which confers powers of compulsory acquisition of land for allotments on a Municipal authority.

Where land for allotments is to be acquired compulsorily, the compulsory hiring, provided for in section 39 subsection (2) Small Holdings and Allotments Act 1908, may be resorted to. This provides for a compulsory hiring of land for allotments, for a minimum of 14 years and a maximum of 35 years, on first hiring. Any such hiring would be at an agricultural rent, currently £65 - £85 per acre per year. In any such hiring, the Landlord Paramount (landowner) retains the reversionary interest in the land.
*’municipal authority’ : parish Council, district council , borough council, city council, county borough council, county council.

Demand for allotments is probably best evidenced according to the provisions of section 23 subsection (2) Small Holdings and Allotments Act 1908
Where six or more Parliamentary electors make written representations to the appropriate Municipal authority that allotments are wanted in that area, the said Council is then obliged to become pro-active in seeking land for allotments. It is not enough for a Municipal authority merely to ‘consider’ provision. There must be action on the part of the authority which evidences active seeking of land for provision and letting in accordance with s. 23 (1).

n2 The Small Holdings and Allotments Act 1908 is the principal Statute on allotments for the Jurisdiction of England & Wales. Later Statutes amend it, if at all.

Further it was advanced by a member of the Amenity Committee that change of use planning permission would be problem, in this respect I refer you the following:

Provided that land intended for allotments was previously agricultural land, planning permission is not required for allotments. The authority for this statement derives from Section 55 subsection (2) paragraph (e) and section 336 Town and Country Planning Act 1990.
s. 55 (2) (e) :
The following operations or uses of land shall not be taken for the purposes of this Act to involver development of the land . . . the use of any land for the purposes of agriculture . . . and the use . . . of any building occupied together with land so used.
s. 336 :
‘agriculture’ includes horticulture, fruit growing, seed growing . . . the . . . keeping of live stock .

As you can see the Council has a statutory obligation to provide allotments and I will shortly present to the Council a number of formal applications pursuant to section 23 of the above Act.

I suggest, Peter, that the issue of land values in Quemerford is immaterial as the bypass extension may never happen, or dependant on the rate abstraction at Hills, is many years in the future.

I do not believe that hope value is a real factor.

I would welcome anybody who wants to lodge a formal written application to the Council under Section 23 above to contact me so that we can get growing in the new year.

Peter Dolman · Posted: Thu Oct 29, 2009 1:04 pm Post subject:

the council will be able to show that over a number of years it has actively sought to identify land suitable for use as allotments but has yet to find any such land.

One issue that has been raised by prospective allotment users is that of ease of access. Many on the waiting list want to be able to walk to their allotment!

I am all in favour of using compulsary purchase powers if suitable land is found.

You cannot write of the prospect of an eastern byepass (I am against it) and spectulative planning applications have already succeeded ie Jolly Miller and back filling at 265 Quemerford.

There is an imperative for councils to provide of that there is no arguement.
The majority of council tax payers in the town do not want to have an allotment but currently they subsidise every the exsisting allotment at the rate of approx £2.50 per house per year. They are approx 5,500 houses in the town. Currently the town has some 130 allotments.

Compare this with the leisure centre which is used by approx 750 people every week and does not receive any subsidy from the town council.

In an perfect world the town council would be able to provide an allotment for everyone who wants one. In todays economic climate the demand is strong but go back 5 years and there was not the demand.

While planning permission is not required to use land as allotments permission I suggest will be required to provide all the infrastucture such as roads, sheds, running water, fencing etc that is also needed. these all cost money.
The allotments of the byepass have been vandalised more than once and any new ones will have to be made as secure as possible.

An emotive subject without a simple conclusion I am afraid.

_________________
A lifelong Calne supporter