On the 24th December 2020 the Council approved their proposals for the fees and charges to be levied against allotment holders for 2021/22
The current cost of a 10-rod plot is £86.16. With a 50% concessionary rate reduction if you are over 60 years of age and live in the Borough. No concessions if you live outside the Borough.
The proposals for residents, are for the rent to be increased to £120 per year and concessions will be means tested and so only available if you are receiving benefits including pension relief. So, where this year you may have paid £50.26, after concessions, next year you will pay £120 a whopping increase of 138%
If you live outside the Borough, this year you will have paid £86.16, next year you will pay £250 per annum an eyewatering increase of 290%
There are currently 93 out of 230 tenants of 10 Road plots who never have enjoyed concessions and will now pay an extra £163.83 per annum for their plots. The remaining 137 having to pay an additional £33.84 per annum
There are currently 128 of 353 tenants of 5 Road plots who never have enjoyed concessions and will now pay an extra ££81.92 per annum for their plots. The remaining 228 having to pay an additional £16.92 per annum
Does CHAS have the % of allotment holders over the ages of 60/65. This would help accuse the council of discriminatory action against people on account of age.
Did the original detail posted by LBH claim how much money this will raise (presumably to help fill the COVID gap) – very little possibly, compared to a 5% increase in parking charges?
Clearly the increase for non LBH residents will encourage some to leave thereby projecting a lower level of income raised if replacement plot lets go to LBH residents.
Hello Don,
I am afraid that neither CHAS or the Council as far as I know, keep details of the age or sex of their tenants. It is known of course that the majority of tenants fall into the category of senior citizens and age discrimination is one of the points raised in objections to the proposed increases.
The Council have agreed that any additional income raised, will be ring fenced to allotments. The Council do however, need more feet on the grounds to manage the allotments and not administration staff, which will be needed to administer the new charges, checking eligiblity to concessions etc.,which is where I feel any additional income will go.
The Councils benchmarkng exercise to determine the new charges have already been demonstrated to be incorrect and a nearer top figure should be £210.
A consultation is currently underway and it is anticipated that the charges will be reduced. Hopefully the Council will see sense and grant some form of grandfather rights to existing tenants who have had their plots over 20 years in some cases and made allotments on what had the appearance of a meadow. There are some Councillors however, who are insistent that out of Borough tenants who do not pay rates to Hounslow Council, for allotments that are subsidised, should be made to pay more irrespective of the fact they have spent several tears converting fields in productive plots.
The Council argue that there are several hundred people on the waiting list for allotments and they are not worried if they price out of borough tenants off their plots. The increase in the waiting lists is of course due to the pandemic and peoples needs to get out of their homes. It will be interesting to see if interest wanes once we overcome this pandemic and the plots have been allocated to people who do not realise that maintaining an allotment is hard work and a full time all year round activity. I am drawn to the analogy that Battersea Dogs home is inundated with rescues from people who thought that owning a dog was the answer to their problems during the pandemic only to find out that dog ownership requires commitment and effort – as does an allotment.
Dennis, in your reply to Don, your last comment re would be new tenants realise the commitment required was one of the first thoughts I had. It has been a major talking point with people I know on the site. It will be very interesting to see what happens as you said.
This week I received a letter regarding feedback to the proposals, from LBH Head of Parks & Leisure and I imagine that it was sent to all members. In case anyone has not received it I was amazed to read that the earlier strategy consultation had overwhelming support (over 91%) from respondents.
I am concerned that the curtailing of concessions to non benefit claiments appears to assume that all others can afford to pay the proposed rates. I’m sure that there are people who just fall out of the benefit zone, (it reminds me of my mother being rejected for some benefit or other following my father’s passing because her total pension income was 1 shilling (yes it was a good while ago), over the limit.
These increased fees come at a time LBH are likely to raise Council Tax by the maximum amount permissable of I believe 6.4%. This has a hint of cake and eating it to me.
I do have suggestions that I will add to my response to LBH so this is not purely a rant.
I would love to hear other people’s views.
Hello Bob,
I hope all allotment holders feel so passionately about the outrageous increases and respond to the Councils consultation.
My allotment’s address is the Burial Ground. I believe there was a proposal some time ago to evict some plot holders In order to expand the
Hello Peter,
The Councils 2019 Cemetery Strategy which can be found here https://www.hounslow.gov.uk/downloads/file/2419/cemetery_strategy_-_october_2019
indicates that there is sufficient ground available in the current cemetery for 20 years. Of coursed the current pandemic may have changed this.
However any additional land that may be required would be at the end of the Burial Ground allotment site adjacent to the railway line.
The site occupied by the trading hut is called the Burial Ground Allotments. There was some talk a few years ago of the Chiswick New Cemetery intention to expand into the site and displace/evict some of the allotment holders at the west end of the site.
Hello Myra,
The Council says it is committed to keeping all allotments. However, the allotments are in a prime location for housing, but they would have a lot of hurdles to jump to be able to obtain a change of use.
Is there any way of appealing against this? I have had the allotment for 30years and
do not live in Hounslow. So I would get the full hit.
I would probably jack it in if the rise is implemented.
Frank
Hello Frank,
Along with other allotment associations in Hounslow, we are currently in talks with the Council about staggering the increase over a couple of years and monthly payments etc. However given the dire state of the Council’s finances, I am not holding out much hope.
The Council have to give tenants a years notice of any increase, so the earliest they could implement any increases would be February/March 2022
I read about this on Chiswickw4.com before Christmas. It appears to be a single member decision. I cannot see any justification for such a huge increase unless LBH are planning considerable upgrades to the sites (see 6th para).
There doesn’t appear to be any reference to the cost of different size plots, there are 10 and 5 rod plots and recently 2.5 rod plots.
I am also suspicious as to why the decision was planned for Christmas eve although I am a very cynical person.
The following is copied and pasted from the ChiswickW4.com front page.
“A report recommending significant increases in the fees paid by allotment holders in the borough of Hounslow is to be decided on before the end of the year.
If approved it will see an increase of 69% from £71 per annum to £120 plus greater restrictions on the number of over 65s who qualify for a discretionary rate.
The borough has 29 allotments managed by Lampton Greenspace 360 Ltd with around 2000 plots and considerable waiting lists. Interest in allotments has grown since the Covid-19 outbreak with residents looking to increase the amount of time they spend outdoors.
The report which is to be considered by Councillor Samia Chaudhary, Cabinet Member for Leisure Services, states that the overall vision for allotments is to “maximise their value for health and well-being, stronger communities, biodiversity and sustainable living.
She is due to make a decision on the matter on Christmas Eve, and if this is not called in by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee, the recommendations will come into effect on 13 January 2021.
The report says that a benchmarking exercise was carried out to evaluate fees and charges in other London boroughs and that currently Hounslow was the 9th cheapest out of 21 with an annual charge of £71 and below the average of £120. Boroughs with cheaper rates often do not provide water or toilet facilities to their sites.
Under the new proposals the separate water fee would be abolished and the new annual rate would be £120 or £90 for sites with no water provision such as Saxon Avenue and Manor Garden.
An out of borough allotment holder fee of £250pa is to be introduced and concessionary rates for the over 65s would be means tested with any allotment holder to provide evidence that people are receiving benefits.
A year’s notice is required for any increase in fees above the rate of inflation so the allotment holders will receive notification of the increase with the invoice for October charges”
Hello Bob,
Due to the adverse publicity this increase has received, Cllr Chaudhary issued the following press release on the 13th January 2021.
Councillor Samia Chaudhary, Cabinet member for Leisure Services and responsible for allotments, responds to criticism over the price increase. She said: “Hounslow is committed to ensuring the borough has well-managed allotments and raising revenue is one way to achieve this. This was agreed at a seminar as part of the shaping of the new allotment strategy, attended by over 100 participants, mainly allotment holders, who concluded that increasing costs was an acceptable way to gain more revenue for the service. A public consultation was also held to shape and agree the strategy, which included the proposal to increase the costs – only 7% of the respondents openly disagreed with the principle of the increase. As a result, the strategy includes an action to look at increasing fees and charges by benchmarking with other London Boroughs.
Hounslow was one of the cheapest places in London to rent an allotment and after the benchmarking, the new proposed charges for non-concessions are still average in London; the highest cost is now £10 per month and the lowest is less than £3 per month for concessions, which have been frozen from last year. We also abolished any additional charges that were previously in place. Concessions are one of the cheapest in London and with the standard charges we are still cheaper than our neighbours in Richmond and Ealing.
Allotments are part of the Borough Infrastructure Development Plan and so we are hopeful that future CIL funding allocations can be granted to implement the improvements identified in the strategy. The Council has already started on improvements to our allotments with a number of local sustainable interventions and exploring new self-compostable toilets which will be piloted soon at Inwood road allotments.
How can they justify such a big increase in rent ,its unacceptable , the fact that they are able to slap on any amount in one fell swoop is worrying what else are they going to charge for , we allready cant use our freedom pass at different times of the day .
Hello Pam,
I agree the increase is unacceptable. The report on which they based their decision is at https://democraticservices.hounslow.gov.uk/documents/g12057/Public%20reports%20pack%20Thursday%2024-Dec-2020%2012.00%20Cabinet%20Member%20Single%20Member%20Decision%20-%20formerly%20t.pdf?T=10
John Todd our local councillor tried to get it stopped but was unsuccessful.
Ouch! These are pretty vicious increases.
Is there any way of appealing?
Hello Lizzie,
It would appear not.
John Todd our local councillor is to have meetings with Council officers who compiled the report. It may be possible to phase the increases in over a couple of years but I would not hold your breath.
Is this a move to get tenants off the plots in order to develop them for housing?
My thoughts exactly Myra, they want to build.