[maxie]

Are they a good thing or a bad thing?
From my experience its got to be bad.
We had a nice quiet site a bit dilapidated but no one bothered anyone and we got along quite well,rents were cheap.
Then the allotment commitee came along,mostly new starters who wanted the town council to tidy it up and spend money on the site.
So now we have the same dilapidated site,a lot of bad feelings and rents have more than trebled.
From what i can gather the town council were quite happy with the cheap rents as the site took no running and was mostly just forgot about,till the do gooders came along 

[Give it a go]

We have an association who work with the local council. The council pass some of the addministration over to them. A bit of give and take. My rent allbeit a small plot is just £12 that includes the water charge.

[boosh]

I think they can be a good thing.
All depends who runs it.

BUT our allotment site is run by commitee.
The head person (site rep) just burys his head in the raised bed when ever a problem crops up. the rest of the commitee are rarely on site, and unless your one of the sheep, your say counts for nothing.

AS i said i think they can be a good thing, you need the right people in place and a strong but fair site rep.

I hope this helps,  

[compostqueen]

Give them a chance Maxie, and some support would not go amiss.  It's everyone's site and surely everyone must have a common aim - to improve things. It's not easy being a doer and it gets really wearing when folks constantly carp from the sidelines.  Ask if there's anything you could do to help  

[maxie]

The only aim i have on my allotment is to grow myself some veg compostqueen,thats all i want,its a relaxing and enjoyable hobby,why would i want to get involved with a commitee or the local council and all the hassle they create.
Im sure they started off with the best intentions but all they have achieved so far is to treble the rents 

[peterjf]

our allotments formed a comittee in 2006 , instead of seperate people complaining to council , we are now a force to be reckoned with regarding the coulcil , we have a constitution that everyone follows , the council cannot ignore a group of 240 people , thats a lot of votes when it comes to elections ,

so it works for us in deepest darkest east yorkshire

[Aidy]

But surely, with rents trebled it is still a small cost for the enjoyment, and the veg that you get from it. We have a commitee on our site, they run the site on a day to day basis, they invite whenever a plot is available the next tennant, these details are then passed to the council they do the admin. This is my 5th site I have been on, and by far the best run, most friendliest site by a country mile, by the same token it is also the most expensive, but security etc is top notch and I am sure if no one took the bull by the horns it will be a messy chaotic site. Your commitee must work closer with the council.

[peterjf]

our rents  are 28-00 for 250 sq yrds per year and added 5-00 water charge per year,
disabled and older plot keepers get a 25% discount ,

our management committee have gor us 2 x community rotovators,
hired out at 15-00 a day

our plot shop sells the usual soil improvers , feeds etc at very cheap prices ,

all singing from the same hymn sheet

[plot6b]

our allotments formed a comittee in 2006 , instead of seperate people complaining to council , we are now a force to be reckoned with regarding the coulcil , we have a constitution that everyone follows , the council cannot ignore a group of 240 people , thats a lot of votes when it comes to elections ,

so it works for us in deepest darkest east yorkshire

That is so true.
I would say commitees are a good thing.Allotment sites need to be managed,maintained and improved. This does not happen on it's own, hence a commtee is ELECTED in by fellow members to oversee this.
I believe our site commitee do's this to the best of there ability and are firm but fair in any members disputes arising. Members are not individual sheep but members of one flock who all want to grow fruit and veg that is what we all have in common.  

[maxie]

Well our site has gone from £11 a year to £35.
When i asked the council if it cost them money to run the site with the old rents i was told no,so when i asked what the extra money was going to be spent on? well lets just say in true councillor waffle...im still waiting for an answer.

[plot6b]

Well our site has gone from £11 a year to £35.
When i asked the council if it cost them money to run the site with the old rents i was told no,so when i asked what the extra money was going to be spent on? well lets just say in true councillor waffle...im still waiting for an answer.

I can understand your anger Maxie. Our site is owned by the council who are responsible for the boundary fences,but what is inside is ran by us with minimal interferance from the vendors. the toilet blocks,chalet and Sensory/Ability garden were paid for by grants,donations etc.............  I wish you luck

[DavidT]

A couple of things, Maxie. Why have rents trebled since the committee was formed and why are you complaing about a committee which MUST have been elected by the members?

[maxie]

The committee was formed by a few plot holders who seemed to want to sort the site out rather than grow veg,no election i think they just kind of elected themselves.
They have now disbanded due to the grief they have got.
This is what my belief is on the rent rise.
The council gets no grief from the running of the site for 40 odd years,rents are cheap everybodies happy.
Two or three plot holders start moaning to the council wanting new fences,tarmac road,rat baited regular,more water supplies.
The main focus of their moaning is a retired career councillor who is the new clerk,a man who you cannot get a straight answer from,starts looking into the allotments and realises rents are cheap and need to be brought into line with neighbouring parishes(his quote)
So to me the allotment committee brought it upon us by bringing us to the attention of the council 

[Aidy]

What size is your plot Maxie? To give you a comparison, and other members will probably reply with theirs, mine is 250sq meters and I pay £43 per year, includes water, this is on a meter and new plot holders that took over some derelict plots had a habit of watering for hours when it had rained the day before, it took our commitee a while to sort this out as it was bumping our costs up. To be honest this sounds like my old site, it was run by the council who to be frank could not give flying fig about what went on, infact they claim to have had a waiting list when half the site was empty and derelict. They it passed onto the parish council to manange and guess what, yep fees went up! I get the feeling you either get a pro active council as we have in Blackpool or one that just gets passed about, I have a feeling it was on the books that you were going to get hit at sometime with or without the self elected commitee.

[boosh]

I've read the replies to your post, and it seems that the vast majority of allotments run by commitees are a good thing.
As i said before ours is not run that well.
I have helped a couple of people on the site dig over there allotment in the winter, due to ill health. All i got from a couple of the commitee members was " you should not do that, if they can't do it themselves they should give it up." my reply was " i thought we were meant to be one big family, and help each other out."

On the postive side of things. we do get two skips a year for our rubbish. free horse manure from a local stables.( arranged by the council) and my rent is £23 for 150 sq metres including water.