Brighton and Hove Allotment Federation AGM
Tuesday 26th March 7.00pm
Refreshments, wine and snacks provided
The Brighthelm Centre, North Road, Brighton
Along with the usual AGM business the main discussion this year is; The allotments service - is it broken? Councillors and council officers responsible for the allotment service have been invited to hear your voice and answer your questions.
Cuts to local councils’ budgets have decimated many public services.
But at last year’s AGM the council assured us the allotment service was
back to full strength and that the historic issues would now be
addressed. A year later and sadly things have gone from bad to worse.
- The allotment service has not completed full inspections at any
site for at least the past two years.
(Possibly four years if we include Covid lockdowns)
- As a result the allotment service has not evicted a single tenant
for not looking after their plot for at least two years.
- Many plots are now overgrown and unused.
- The waiting list is at its longest ever (3000+) with people still
signing up and paying £18 to join it.
- Plot vacancies are at their highest level for 10 years despite
the demand being at an all-time high.
- Site Reps are being told they can’t let plots despite there being
vacant plots ready to go.
- Site Reps morale is at an all-time low. They complain of lack of
support and training.
- The 10 year Allotment Strategy has now finished with only 7 of
the 83 recommendations completed*.
- Hundreds of trees are growing on plots and some sites are
reverting to woodland.
- Fences, gates and haulage ways are not being maintained.
- Emails are not being answered impacting Site Reps and tenants.
- Last year all the bills were months late with some people
waiting over 9 months to be billed.
*Data from council reports to the
Allotment Oversight Board
For details, please visit our website; https://www.bhaf.org.uk/content/about/issues/is-the-allotment-service-broken
Sadly, the time has come to sound the alarm.
We look forward to hearing from senior Council Officers on how they propose to rehabilitate the service, address the failure to implement the Allotment Strategy and work with BHAF, site reps and tenants to create allotment sites that we can all be proud of.
