4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[Janepie33]

Hello to all you allotment people. I have a question regarding who is allowed to work on your allotment, friends, family, neighbours etc.?

 

A neighbour of ours put his name down for a plot on our local voluntary managed site and he asked the family next door to him to join him, even though his name was on the paperwork. The second family did loads of work clearing half the site and growing a variety of fruit and veg, but the named plot holder did nothing and has now had 3 warnings and may be asked to leave the site.

 

Last summer my teenage son also helped out and cleared another section of the plot and also grew some yummy things for us to eat.

The named plot holder has been warned yet again to clear the site and do something with it or he will be asked to give up the plot. That would be a shame for my son and our neighbours who have put in loads of hours maintaining the plot, but the committee now consider this a case of queue jumping.

The named plot holder has no extended family in the area and neither does our neighbour.

 

Has anyone else been in the same situation and what did you do?

[Guest]

"committee"??? sounds like it must be private allotment? Ours is a council owned plot and there's nothing in the tenancy agreement about who can work on it and who can't.

 

Does it state in their agreement that "Ooops, word censored!"ody else can work on the plot? I think privately run allotments with "committees" can be very cliquey and they don't like just anyone turning up.

[Snowy]

Ours are run by a committee and we have the same things written into the contract. The reason behind it is to stop queue jumping - they should have had joint names on the agreement in the first place. I would be annoyed if I had had my name on the list for an allotment and someone else managed to get one by this method. I know that it was not their intent to queue jump or anything, but it was naughty of the original tennant to allow them to do this in the first place - as the named plot holder he would have had to sign a tennancy agreement with all this in writing. If he was unable to manage a full plot, he should have told the committee and they could have given a half plot to someone else. I am sorry for your neighbours though, so frustrating after all their hard work. Could they not clear and use the whole plot though? Surely if the plot were cleared and maintained there would not have been an issue in the first place?

[Guest]

I can see snowy's POV, if someone was helping you with your allotment I think that's perfectly fine but to have someone else do all the work and never turn up isn't fair to those on the waiting list. Really rotten for your son though after all the hard work he's put in

[Tara.F]

does your son know how long the waiting is?

 

if it's not too long, perhaps he could write to the commitee explaining that he never intended to jump the queue but since he has already proven himself to be a good worker could he please be considered for an official plotshare?

sometimes plot holders are desperate to hang on to their allotment but struggle to maintain it by themselves due to old age or illness. If your son was clearly offering to assist rather than take over, this would not be queue jumping.

Moreover, he could do this while waiting to get to the top of the list for his own plot

[Janepie33]

Thanks Tara. That sounds like a sensible solution. I will draft a letter. He will be going off to university in September anyway, so wouldn't be able to help anymore.

[TAJ]

"committee"??? sounds like it must be private allotment? Ours is a council owned plot and there's nothing in the tenancy agreement about who can work on it and who can't.

 

Does it state in their agreement that "Ooops, word censored!"ody else can work on the plot? I think privately run allotments with "committees" can be very cliquey and they don't like just anyone turning up.

 

Our allotment is run by the parish council, but has a committee (which OH is on). As with most allotments the rules are usually 'no sub-letting', so whilst someone might assist an old lady looking after her plot for her own use it is not allowed to keep a plot, but for someone else to use it.

 

Whilst I understand the work some 'sub-letters' do you have to think about how unfair this is for people on the waiting list. In our parish there are 140 plots, until about 3 years ago about 10% were vacated annually - this meant all people on the waiting list in the parish usually got a plot come March renewals each year (put people outside the parish could wait 5+ yrs). The situation currently is that there is a waiting list of 70 people - 50% of the plots in total and very few people are giving them up at the moment. So every sub-lett is depriving someone who may have waited years for a plot on the waiting list.

 

Fairly the person not using the plot should give it up and it should go to the person on the top of the waiting list - what sub-letting means is that people who have not been waiting so long for a plot unfairly get one sooner than others and it also means less plots become available to those that have been waiting their turn.

 

Ideally the government would prioritise getting more allotment plots to go round!

 

Tracy

[Happy chickens!]

Sounds a bit unfair - if the plot is being tended and the neighbour is paying for it, surely he can ask whoever s/he wants to help with it? I suppose the difficulty is if your son wants the official tennancy, then the jobsworths get involved. Hope it gets sorted for you.