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Greens ‘call in’ controversial allotments decision
A controversial decision to rubber stamp an increase to allotment rents and charges is being challenged by Green councillors.
Labour cabinet member Ellie King likened allotments to “gated communities” when the price hike was approved at a meeting earlier this month, saying many of the rises are “the price of a coffee a week”.
She said the rise is necessary as current prices do not cover the cost of running allotments, so council taxpayers have to make up the shortfall and subsidise allotments.
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The plan is to stagger the rent increases over two years, with the first half taking place next April, and the second half in April 2026. It could see some rents more than double.
The decision followed a partial u-turn on a whole raft of proposals that could have seen allotmenteers also forced to remove trees, fences, hedges and large play equipment.
Now, the Green councillor group is questioning the cabinet decision to approve the increase to rents and charges, arguing it was not made following the decision-making principles laid out in the council constitution.
The ‘call in’ means the decision will be open to further scrutiny from a cross-party sub committee, which will meet on Wednesday next week to examine the process.
A controversial decision to rubber stamp an increase to allotment rents and charges is being ‘called in’ by Green councillors – photo: Rob Browne
Setting out the reasons for the ‘call in’, Martin Fodor says: “Allotments serve key functions to communities across Bristol, providing an outdoor space to not only grow food, but for education and community, all of which can improve quality of mental and physical health.
“Whilst we recognise that fees may need to gradually increase to restore the smooth running of the service for plot holders, the decision from cabinet to increase rents was deeply flawed.
“The consultation was a complete muddle, survey results were ignored, key information like the real budget of the service was presented late and totally inadequate, and the equalities impact assessment was not fit for purpose.”
The Green councillor added that the proposed “shock rent increases are the result of an ill-judged freezing of rents by the Labour administration, which has created a failure to invest in the service for many years”.
In 2022, the council agreed an inflationary rent rise of 25 per cent to cover the period 2018-2025, which was never implemented. The Greens’ say the administration and King, the cabinet member with responsibility for public health and communities, must also answer why this was never put in place.
“Allotments serve key functions to communities across Bristol,” says Martin Fodor – photo: Martin Booth
Holly Wyatt, who presented a petition in City Hall, said: “For low income households such as ours, a takeaway coffee a week is a luxury that’s already beyond our finances. These increases would come out of far more mundane items, such as food, fuel and heating.
“Access to space to grow your own food should be for everyone, not the reserve of the more affluent. Mitigations such as letting tenants pay their rent monthly, quarterly or annually, do not go far enough to support this. Even with the extension of eligibility for 50 per cent rent reduction, in many instances the reduced rents will still be higher than the current full price rates.”
King said: “We want our allotments to be the best they can, and that means bringing more empty plots into use, and more frequent preventative repairs programme and collective growing opportunities.
“However, the rents from allotments do not cover the costs of running the current service, let alone the service we all want to see.
“As a result, council taxpayers have to make up the shortfall and subsidise allotments. Money that needs to be spent on improving our public parks is instead spent on maintaining allotments. We need to ask if that’s sustainable or fair.
“Local government continues to bear the brunt of Tory austerity cuts. Councils are going bust, and we’ve had 65p of every pound cut from our budget in Bristol since 2012, which means councils have to find ways to make their services sustainable.”
The call-in is the first since a failed bid to challenge the controversial arena decision.
Emma Edwards, leader of Bristol’s Green councillor group, said: “As opposition councillors, although we are limited with the information we can get and the influence we can have, we have enough information to believe that this decision was in breach of the decision-making process as laid out in the constitution.”
Alex Seabrook is a local democracy reporter for Bristol
Main photo: Rob Browne
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