Below you will find the text of a presentation delivered to a full Meeting of Aberdeen City Council by Drew Levy on behalf of Frank Taylor on 12th February 2009
Start here.
The matter of allotment charges was carried forward from the December budget meeting. After that meeting, I was told by Councillor Neil Fletcher that a report had been requested from Council Officers and that there would be a consultation. I was assured I would be contacted by Council Officers but was not. Until 36 hours before the Resources and Management Committee meeting last week, I had still neither been able to establish the purpose of the report Councillor Fletcher mentioned nor was I able to establish what the consultation was to be about despite asking several times. In the event I only discovered the existence of the Officers report during a telephone conversation with Mr Orchard, the Committee Services Officer, late on the afternoon of 3rd February. Of course there has been no consultation. Had consultation taken place, I’m sure some of the issues would have been resolved, I would not have had to bombard Councillors with emails and the Resources Management Committee would have been supplied with meaningful information instead of questionable data. One of the Council Officers involved in compiling the data in the Report said to me in an email the other day 1 yard is not far off 1 metre. Multiply the difference by itself to get the correct unit of area and then multiply that by 300. The difference then becomes substantial.
Councillor Fletcher told me he was briefed by Council Officers prior to last weeks meeting and the information he was given was that whilst it has been pointed out that Aberdeen's charges are higher than Edinburgh's and Glasgow's, our allotments are twice the size, and compare favourably when this is taken into account.
I will shout this out loud and clear . Aberdeen Allotments are most certainly not twice the size of allotments in other Scottish Cities neither are they cheap when compared to other Scottish Cities. There is no credible evidence to support the opposing view, in fact quite the contrary. I have given all of you the detail by email.
Councillor’s can only make good decisions if Council Officers supply them with good information. What was supplied in the report last Thursday and clearly also in briefings before the meeting can at best be described as incomplete. It was most certainly not factual. It was most certainly misleading and the data was presented using the worst possible interpretation of the information available and has all the appearances of being made to fit the conclusion and not vice versa.
I have been stressing to the Council for some months now that Local Authorities must administer allotments in accordance with the allotments legislation.
Nowhere in the report is there mention of the allotments legislation.
Nowhere is there mention of the criteria local authorities must take into account when reviewing allotment rents.
Nowhere is there any mention of the procedures Local Authorities must follow to secure any rent increases for allotments.
Seeking a rent increase simply because a Local Authority wants to raise £10k from it’s allotments simply does not sit with the requirements of the Allotments legislation.
On a procedural note, at item 1. in the report document under the heading ‘Purpose’. It is stated that the proposed increase was already approved. It is my understanding that no decision has been taken and the matter was deferred to the full Council Budget meeting for a decision.
In one of the emails forwarded on my behalf to all Councillors I referred to the figures shown in the report reflecting Capital Expenditure on allotments in Edinburgh and Glasgow over the last five years. Half a million pounds in both cities yet Aberdeen spent only £70k.
Aberdeen has been described publicly by a senior member of The Scottish Allotments and Gardens Society as having some of the worst allotment facilities in Scotland. That is shameful. Some of our allotment sites including that at Sclattie Quarry where I have my plots don’t even have boundary fencing. Any fencing there has been erected at the expense of plot holders. At the end of last season we had a water supply installed. A 50.3metre run of piping at a cost of over £5000 or over £100 per metre. If savings are to be made it should be made by getting competitive prices for such works. Ask yourselves, how many of you would have accepted such a price for that work at home.
I have appraised you all by email of our concerns about the Equality and Human Rights Impact assessment carried out last November.
I have appraised you all by email about our concerns about the inaccurate data and information provided by Council Officers.
I have appraised you all by email that it may cost more to secure the proposed increase in allotment rents than may be generated by the increase.
I have appraised you all by email that this proposal is not in accordance the Council’s published Allotments Management Policy.
I have appraised you all about your obligations under the allotments legislation.
I have repeatedly been banging at the Council’s door stressing that the Council must adhere to the allotments legislation. The Allotments legislation affords a very real and almost unbelievable level of protection to allotments and allotment holders and I will remind you all at this time that Local Authorities have a statutory obligation to provide Allotment facilities. There is no opt out.
To summarise
I submit, that the proposed increase of £20 for a full sized allotment is not legally justified for the following reasons.
1. It does not fall within the Council’s published Allotment’s Management Policy
2.
a) It fails the proportionality test at item 18 on page 7 of the ES4-Increase Allotment Charges Equality and Human Rights Impact assessment.
b) It fails that assessment because there is no legal basis for the proposed rent increase in domestic law.
c)It fails that assessment because the stated aim of the proposed increase will not be met by it’s implementation.
To vote in favour of the rent increase will be to vote to breach the human rights of the 214 full plot tenants.
3. It does not fall within the requirements of the Allotments Legislation
4. All other matters apart, it simply is not fair or justifiable to impose 80% increases and then, before such increases are even implemented, before allotment holders were even informed about them, to try to increase rents further. This time last year, the rent for a full plot was £27.75. If this proposed increase is approved, and the rent for full a full plot is increased to £70, allotment rents in Aberdeen will have increased by a staggering 152% yes that is the overall percentage increase. These increases have been accompanied by a reduction in grounds services to allotments from a total of almost £70k in 2007/8 to £36k in 2008/9. A reduction of 48%. What other statutory service in the City has been hit by such price increases?