Bucksburn Allotments Association

Below, you will find the text of a presentation made to Bucksburn and KingsWells Community Council at their October meeting 2008.

'First of all may I say thanks to the Community Council for giving the local Allotment Holders a forum for discussion about the huge plot rents increases to be implemented in November.

For those of you who are not aware, allotment rents in Aberdeen were increased by 80% across the board at the Council Budget meeting back in February. Plot holders have to date not been told of this by the Council and the first notification many plot holders will have of the increases is when their rent notices drop through their letter boxes in November. That situation simply is not acceptable. I only found out the scale of the increases because I am the Aberdeen contact of the Scottish Allotments and Gardens Society. I was forwarded a copy of a document prepared by Sinclair Laing of the City Council. The document was intended for production to a Policy and Strategy committee meeting on 7^th October and was sent out for consultation to various external bodies prior to the meeting. It was specifically not sent out to plot holders. Plot holders have still not seen that document nor was it on the Councils web site when I looked the other day but it was approved on 7^th October.

When told by SAGS that they thought the document should be made public, Sinclair Laing’s comment was that he felt that local stakeholders have had an opportunity to input into this stage of the process already. That by putting the policy into the public domain would only serve to raise people’s expectations that their input would be taken into consideration. Well yes, that is what consultation is about. Unfortunately, the way this matter has been conducted has resulted in a decision by the Council to accept a strategy without full consultation with the end users. Such consultation would undoubtedly have enlarged upon the information available to Councillors when making their deliberations and may well have resulted in them arriving at a different conclusion.

I should say that yesterday, Sinclair Laing e-mailed me a copy of the final document .

I say to the Councillors present, please make sure that in future that we are consulted at every stage, that our views are taken into account and that all times we are kept in the loop. Full consultation with local stakeholders by the Council in the weeks and months before the policy and strategy meeting on 7^th October and indeed before the budget meeting in February before decisions were taken would have been valuable exercises.

I know that the obvious reason for increasing plot rents in Aberdeen is that the finances of the City are in a mess and that accordingly the Councillors must look at all budgets and make difficult decisions.

80% increases across the board in one fell swoop are however neither warranted nor acceptable.

I for one would be extremely interested to learn what factors the City Council took into account when determining the new rents which incidentally are associated with a reduced level of services.

At worst, I would have expected that, in the event of any increase, the level of rent would have been fixed at something approximating the average for Scottish allotments. This, according to a survey conducted by SAGS (Scottish Allotments and Gardens Society), the results of which were published in 2007 was just under £30. If there is a need to impose a new rent at a figure which is not just substantially greater than the average but now set at the highest of the main cities in Scotland what is the reason?

If the main reason is financial, and a simple need to balance the books, then we would still expect the end result to be around the average. As the existing rent for a full plot in Aberdeen was just below the average at £27.75 and the Council saw a need to go hugely above the average then we must conclude that there is a problem on the expenditure side.

If the expenditure has in the past proved to be high then a serious look should perhaps have been taken at the allotment accounts in detail and not just at the totals to see if any extraordinary expenditure was incurred. I can only speak for the Sclattie Allotment site. I know that there for instance the cost of the removal of rubbish from the plot tip over the last three years must have been astronomic. Firstly, a tenant of one of the pigeon plots vacated his allotment leaving a mountain of rubbish. This was brought to the attention of the Council because of fears of vermin feeding on feed left exposed. The council did nothing about it. When a new tenant took the plot over, he threw the rubbish out onto the rubbish tip. There was an extraordinary amount of it. Eventually we managed to get the tip emptied but only after many many phone calls. There were at least three cartloads of rubbish taken away to landfill at a cost to the council. The outgoing tenant should have been made to pay. The following year that same tenant disposed of a rotten shed left by the outgoing tenant and again the tip was filled with rubbish from his plot.

This year, an extraordinary amount of rubbish was placed in the rubbish tip by a plot holder who had hardly been seen on the site for a couple of years but had now returned. That plot is planted in shrubs and trees and there was a large amount of prunings. This year, there has also been a problem with fly tipping in the new rubbish area and so more rubbish generated that would be usual.

Also, at one stage, at Sclattie, early in 2007, a tractor driver when removing rubbish, removed not only that but dug out a couple of cart loads of soil. Again this went to landfill with associated costs. Again also at Sclattie when constructing the new Rubbish tip a load of soil belonging to an allotment holder but waiting for a suitable time to barrow it into his plot was removed and disposed of to landfill. Had there been consultation with the plot holders, these situations would have been highlighted.

As well as the expenditure side though, surely there should have been a look at what could have been generated on each allotment site by way of additional income before considering increases in rent.

At Sclattie Quarry, two allotments have already been allowed to return to nature. These two allotments could be generating rent. Another two are well on the way to being in the same condition. At Garthdee Field, a large area of ground has been taken out of cultivation and has been planted in grass and trees. Again there is a loss of rent to the allotments account which could have obviated at least part of the rent increase. If that is the pattern throughout the city allotment site then just how much of the rent increases could have been unnecessary? Also on the Garthdee site, there is at least one example of an allotment being worked on a grace and favour basis because the tenant brought an untidy plot back into production. Had the Council kept that plot tidy while vacant, it would now be earning rent.

Basically, what I am saying is that there has been a loss of income and there has been un-necessary expenditure because of poor, ineffectual or non existent front line management of the Allotment sites.

Also, there has already been a loss of rental from the closure of the allotment site alongside the old railway line at Auchinyell and of course from the Allotment site in Seafield Road which was sold along with the Seafield Club and these allotment sites have not been replaced.

Council Plot rents in Aberdeen will now be the highest in Scotland.

£50 for a full plot and £34 for a half plot. I will confess to having been unofficially told that the rent for a full plot was to go up to £50. At the time, I thought that the rent for a full plot was £38 being twice what I was paying for a half plot.

Not so, part plot rents in Aberdeen are not calculated on a pro rata basis. In other words, I expected the rent for a half plot to be £25 and not £34. Aberdeen is the only local one of the four major cities not to apportion rents on a pro rata basis. As matters stand, part plot holders are subsidising whole plot holders hugely. I put my hand up, I have three half plots so I must declare an interest here. A whole plot will cost £50. Two half plots will cost £68. That just isn’t fair.

As a matter of urgency, I would ask the Councillors present to press for a change to be implemented before the rent notices are issued at the end of November.