Child’s Hill Allotment Society
Future management
Most of you will have heard that Barnet Council wants to hand over all aspects
of site management to local societies and groups, and April of this year was originally set for the completion of the process. This was a political decision that was made last June with little consideration as how it might be carried out in practice. Given the extraordinarily optimistic timescale, it had been expected that there would by now have been some real progress in discussions between Barnet and the allotment societies, but to date only one site has been formally approached.
On November 29, a policy paper entitled The Future of Barnet’s Allotments was adopted by the Barnet council cabinet. The paper is available on the council’s website at http://committeepapers.barnet.gov.uk/
democracy/documents/getdoc_ext.asp?DocID=87807
The recommendations in the paper were as follows:
1.1 That the council explore a new Big Society management model for the Borough’s allotment sites, providing for allotment site management with the sites run by their users.
1.2 To start a new management model with Brookfarm Allotment, with responsibility for the management of the site transferred to the allotment society. This management arrangement will then be rolled out to other leased sites.
1.3 That the Council approaches Central Government to seek a change to legislation governing allotments so that new leases can be granted, and current leases renewed and varied, thereby providing an alternative option for creating allotment management by their users.
1.4 To advertise for interested parties to manage the remaining direct-let and self-collect sites with the view to employing the same approach or a variation on this in order to devolve as much management responsibility as possible to plot-holders.
1.5 To seek to recover full costs from those sites which do not choose to move to this management model, through the fees and charges
The contents of the paper and these recommendations were much as expected. However, we were concerned that 1.4 opened the way for Barnet to advertise generally to recruit organisations to take over the management of self-collect sites such as ours. We therefore emailed Cllr Coleman (the cabinet member for the environment) to ask that, before advertising, the council should first ask individual self-collect site societies whether they were interested in taking on the site management. We received the following reply
“I am clear that current Management Committees such as yours (assuming you are properly organised with some sort of constitution and “democratic” process) will be the organisation to take over the running of your allotment site. We do not intend to bring in outsiders except on sites where there is no organised Committee and where tenants cannot get their act together where we would ask neighbouring allotment Committees (again such as yours) if they would take over the running of dysfunctional sites
We intend for allotments to become truly Community run, there is no suggestion of "privatisation”
So what is emerging is a future in which the council plays almost no part in the management of allotments. They want local societies to be responsible for
– the issuing and the termination of tenancy agreements
– all the maintenance at the sites, including buildings, fences, roads, paths and gates
– the payment of all charges, including those for water
– the collection of rents, all of which are to be retained by the society
– the establishment of local rules, consistent with any rules set by the council
– the enforcement of the rules
– the setting of rents at an level appropriate to undertake these tasks and pay the bills
Only if a site were to become completely neglected, would the council step in. Otherwise, since no rents will go to the council, it will not have the funds to support allotments, so there will be no officers to deal with allotment matters. There will be no additional funding or any other services from Barnet.
Brook Farm allotments are mentioned and, to date, it is the only one of the approximately 50 allotment sites in the borough that has yet entered into discussions with Barnet. This is a site whose society already has a lease from the council and has limited formal management responsibility, including the issue of tenancy agreements and the collection of rents, but is not responsible for the maintenance of buildings, roads or boundaries. It is believed that they are being offered a variation of the lease that will include all the aspects of management listed above.
CHAS has yet to be approached by Barnet; however a meeting/workshop was convened on January 18 by council officers, to which each site was asked to send two representatives. We were told in advance that its purpose was “basically a scoping exercise to set the scene, identify absolute musts, issues, best practice models, opportunities and interested parties”, and that they“have been tasked with devolving the allotment management and we need to work something up to make this happen within the current options available to us”.
At the workshop, we were told that within the existing legal restraints, the most important of which is that the council cannot issue new leases, there appeared to be three approaches that they might take
– To amend existing leases to transfer all responsibilities to the currently leased sites.
– To negotiate management agreements or licences with named responsible individuals.
– To appoint allotment managers from the plotholders, as allowed for by Allotments Act 1908.
As things stand, the first of these is irrelevant to us, since no new leases can be created; the second is unattractive since it gives no security of tenure and potentially imposes unacceptable liabilities on individuals; the third also provides no security of tenure, and is also unattractive, since the law requires managers to be Barnet council-tax payers, which for a site like ours would mean that participation in management would be restricted to about 40% of plotholders.
So, while there is considerable political pressure in the council to move to the new management arrangements by April 2011, the officers responsible for implementing them have very little idea as to how to go about it and want the sites to help in devising them. At the meeting there was an overwhelming view, expressed by a vote with about 95% in favour, that, rather than negotiate with individual societies, the negotiations should be with the Federation of Barnet Allotment and Horticultural Societies (http://www.barnetallotments.org.uk), acting on their behalf. The Federation has already taken the lead in the collation and dissemination of information and advice for societies, and has officers who are up to speed on the practical and legal issues around devolution. The council is to write to all societies to ask whether or not they support the Federation’s acting in this way.
It is our view that we have no real option but to proceed on the basis that the plotholders will take on the full management at Child’s Hill. As discussions progress we will keep you informed of developments. When and if we reach a point where we believe that what is on offer is in the interests of us all and is workable, we shall call a special general meeting at which the membership as a whole will be asked whether or not to agree to it. If there is no agreement with the council, then it is very likely that the council will employ a third party management organisation to manage the site and plotholders will have little or no say in how this is done.
In the meantime, we need to think about what a new management arrangement of this kind might mean for us. It is clear that it will require much greater involvement of members of the society in the day to day running of the site than there is at present. Indeed, it must be emphasised that the site will be managed by a committee but by the plotholders collectively, who will be responsible for setting policy, agreeing rents, devising rules, etc. with the day to day activities being delegated to elected officers. If we don’t get away from the present “them and us” situation and move to one in which plotholders are fully committed to the idea that the management and running of the site is the responsibility of everybody, we are unlikely to succeed in the long term.
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