Brighton & Hove Allotment Holders To Complain About Council Management Failings

Allotment holders are due to discuss a number of complaints about the support provided by Brighton and Hove City Council.

The Brighton and Hove Allotment Federation’s annual general meeting (AGM) includes an item headed: “Is the allotment service broken?”

BHAF members are due to discuss their concerns on Tuesday (March 26) including

• a lack of inspections
• overgrown and unused plots because people who are not working them are not being evicted
• the 3,000-plus waiting list and £18 cost of joining it
• plot vacancies at an “all-time high”
• site reps being told that they cannot let plots
• site reps’ morale at an “all-time low”
• the 10-year allotment strategy ending with just seven of 83 recommendations completed
• trees growing on plots
• fences, gates and haulage ways not being maintained
• emails not being answered
• late billing with people waiting nine months for their bills

Allotment Federation chair Mark Carroll said that the biggest issue was the size of the waiting list and people being charged to join it.

Mr Carroll said:

“This might seem like a relatively minor issue to some but not to people on the waiting list who paid for the privilege to be on it.

“Our problem is that we have no way of alerting people on the waiting list to what is happening.

“We obviously don’t have their email addresses and the council isn’t going to tell them or give us their emails.”

The council said that there were currently 3,547 people on the waiting list after a surge in applications during the coronavirus pandemic.

The largest of the council’s 35 sites, Weald Avenue, in Hove, has more than 700 people on the waiting list for up to five years for one of its 463 plots.

Roedale Valley, in Golf Drive, Hollingdean, has the second longest list with 424 people waiting, again for up to five years, for one of the 264 plots.

Allotment holder Dominic Furlong started renting a plot at the Moulsecoomb Allotments, in Natal Road, with his husband Chris four years ago after co-working with another allotment holder.

Mr Furlong said:

“We had inspections – not by the allotment service but by Cityparks. As a result, our site reps have been able to let 13 plots.

“My understanding is the allotment service hasn’t done any inspections or terminations of tenancies across any of the allotment sites for more than two years.”

Kelly Sharp has cultivated her plot at Camp Site Allotments, in Windlesham Close, Portslade, for the past seven to eight years.

Ms Sharp said:

“The paths are starting to become unkempt. There are trees growing out of the paths. It’s a shame it’s gone to pot really. Certainly over the last two or three years, the quality has dropped.

“When we first came here it was nicely kept. I don’t think Brighton and Hove City Council is doing its bit, as the people who own the site, to help people.”

Whitehawk Hill site rep Jane Griffin has worked her plot for the past 28 years but has no way of communicating with potential allotment holders.

She said:

“Originally, we would be given a list of tenants, waiting lists and the official co-workers, with contact details.

“Now Brighton and Hove City Council has decided its take on data protection means site reps as volunteers can’t have this information. It means we can’t do anything.

“There are literally three people working in the allotment office. We had the ability to meet people and show them around.

“Now, not only can we not have people’s details, the office arrange for us to show people around but if we’re ill we can’t get in touch with them.”

The council said that it had addressed the allotment federation’s concerns and had inspected The Weald, Roedale Valley, Moulsecoomb, Keston, Horsdean and Patcham, Charltons, in Coldean, Chates Farm, in Hanover, Falmer, Peacock Lane, in Withdean, and Waverley Crescent, in Hollingdean.

After the inspections, 72 tenants were evicted last year. The council said that 8 per cent of the 2,800 plots on the sites that were inspected were vacant including those under offer.

Since last June, the council said that it had held 22 letting events at 20 sites and had processed 253 new tenancies – and apologised for shortcomings including reduced administrative and maintenance capacity.

It said that bills went out more than nine months late because of database problems and that the arboricultural team was prioritising work on trees that posed a health and safety risk.

Labour councillor Tim Rowkins, who chairs the council’s City Environment, South Downs and the Sea Committee, said:

“We’re very aware that our allotment service is not currently operating effectively and we’re really sorry about this.

“We completed a review of the service recently and this sets out where improvements are needed.

“We really want to reset our relationship with the Allotment Federation and its members in the coming weeks and months.

“We will be working towards improving working relationships with the brilliant network of site reps at allotments sites across the city, as well as with plot holders.

“We are committed to improving our management processes and to looking positively at how we can transform the service and work more effectively with our wide network of volunteers.”

The council has a letting event planned at Horsdean over the Easter weekend, where seven plots are available.

The Brighton and Hove Allotment Federation’s AGM is due to start at 7pm on Tuesday (March 26) at the Brighthelm Centre, in North Road, Brighton. It is open to allotment holders, co-workers and those on the waiting list.