The leases for the three allotment sites in Alderley Edge have been signed and exchanged between Alderley Edge Parish Council (AEPC) and Cheshire East Council (CEC).
Therefore, AEPC has now taken over the management of the sites on Chorley Hall Lane, Beech Close and Heyes Lane from CEC, by way of a long lease with restrictive covenants preserving their use for allotments.
However, the allotment holder's tenancy agreements are now being put under scrutiny to determine how these agreements with individuals will be managed in the future.
Speaking at the Parish Council meeting in February, Cllr Frank Keegan said "The Parish Council firstly propose to run the allotments themselves, we will collect the rents and inspect the allotment sites to make sure they are properly kept.
"We will also deal with each site independently, the three sites may in turn agree to establish themselves as a committee to run things like the Allotment Annual Show, that's fine, that's not the function of the Parish Council.
"The function of the Parish Council is to provide and maintain the allotments and we would prefer to deal with three separate sites, we have no intention of dealing with an allotment group covering all three because we don't think that works."
However, John Sanderson the Chairman of the Alderley Edge Allotments and Gardens Society (AEAGS) has a different view of how things should be managed between AEPC and the plot holders.
Mr Sanderson has recently written to AEPC to draw their attention to the tenancy agreements between CEC and Alderley Edge Allotments and Gardens Society in respect to the three allotment sites.
These tenancy agreements, dated 3rd December 1976, were transferred to CEC following the demise of Macclesfield Borough Council and Mr Sanderson says the Cheshire East Borough Solicitor has confirmed that these agreements are still in force.
John Sanderson wrote "The plot holders continue as before as tenants of Alderley Edge Allotments and Gardens Society and AEPC has no contractual relationship with individual plot holders. AEAGS will continue to pay rent in accordance with the tenancy agreement of each of the three sites, will secure payment of a rent from its members who hold plots and will secure the reletting of plots as they become vacant in accordance with tenancy agreement clauses. AEAGS will pay monies to AEPC rather than to Cheshire East."
He continued "In light of this we ask you to acknowledge the contractual role of AEAGS, in particular that the role means that communication between AEPC and plot holders should be through the society and not directly by letters to those individuals.
"Now that the lease is in place we hope that we will be able to develop a constructive way of working together in the interests of allotment plot holders and the village as whole. As a first step to that end we suggest a meeting between officers of Alderley Edge Allotments and Gardens Society and duly authorised members of AEPC."
Speaking at this week's Parish Council meeting, Cllr Frank Keegan responded "The first thing we need to do is see the agreement because what happens now is not that life carries on as before and nothing else, what happens now is that the right that Cheshire East, and before that Macclesfield had, about monitoring the agreement has transferred to AEPC.
"Now we have to see the agreement and then we determine whether the agreement from 1976 has been properly implemented and maintained all the way through. Until we have done that audit I don't think we should have any meeting with them. I think we need to do that piece of work first and establish that there has been a satisfactory maintenance of the agreement.
"The one critical part which has been missing is that they have had a waiting list for some time which has been badly maintained, Cheshire East blames the society and the society blame Cheshire East but clearly, as we heard from the North West Allotment Director when he came here, there is a statutory duty where more than six rate payers requested an allotment for the society to badger the council to provide more allotment land and clearly that has not happened so there has been a fundamental failure in maintaining the agreement."
Cllr Keegan continued "There are other things which are clear which were part of the agreement, which have not been implemented or maintained so we need to secure that audit first then we will revert to Mr Sanderson about the meeting."
AEPC expect to get back to the Alderley Edge Allotments and Gardens Society before the end of April.
Cllr Nigel Schofield commented "I'm not aware of any tenancy agreements that exist in perpetuity without a review process or cut off process."
Cllr Frank Keegan responded "It's one of those agreements that has been let go year by year rather than renewed year by year."
Cllr Sue Joseph said "It's an opportunity for us all to start afresh, get things sorted out, read the agreements, sort them out and then meet and clear the air and go from there."
At their meeting on Monday, 11th March, the Parish Council approved three motions confirming their plans for the future use of the allotments which include operating Beech Close and Chorley Hall Lane as allotment sites and seeking approval from DCLG to convert the Heyes Lane Allotment site into a car park for the Medical Centre and Festival Hall.
The Parish Council also agreed to enter into discussions with Alderley Edge School for Girls, who own the site at Lydiat Lane, with a view to establishing a new statutory allotment site at Lydiat Lane, and establish new lists of tenants and those waiting for an allotment.
Following the approval of the motions, Councillor Mike Williamson, Chairman of Alderley Edge Parish Council, issued a statement about their plans and addressed comments which had been made by members of the public.
Comments
Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.
The 1976 Tenancy Agreements between AEAGS and the then land owner Macclesfiled Borough Council were transferred to the present land owner Cheshire East Council. They remain tenancy agreements between AEAGS and Cheshire East. They were not transferred to Alderley Edge Parish Council because they are not now the land owner. They are the leasee. I understand that AEPC think otherwise but they are wrong. My observation here is that when an agreement is drawn up, it is for the buyer to do his homework. When the agreement is to buy a house, it is for the buyer to determine that the title is good and there are no commitments to build a by-pass or dig a coal mine or do anything else adverse to the enjoyment of the house. When one business is bought by another, it is for the buyer to determine there are no hidden commitments to a pension fund or any other kind of pre-existing agreement. The investigation work is called, very appropriately, due dilligence. When AEPC planned to take on the lease for the allotments, it was up to them to do the due dilligence. It seems they knew about the Tenancy Agreements but they did not take the trouble to read them.
There is no mention of a waiting list in the Tenancy Agreements. AEAGS does have access to the list maintained by Cheshire East and has learned how to use it - it is not easy but it is possible. When plots are vacated, new plotholders are invited from the derived list maintained by AEAGS.
The subject of lobbying for additional allotment sites is not in the Tenancy Agreements either. The 1908 Allotment Act does not say that if 6 electors ask for allotments the local authority must provide them. It must however "take their representations into account” and apply a reasonableness test. So, if 6 AE electors on the waiting list said they wanted an allotment now, the local authority would not have to buy land immediately at whatever price to satisfy that demand.
When Cllr. Keegan says 'We' who does he mean? I am not aware of any delegation by the Parish Council. Surely some resolution of the Council is necessary before these sweepng statements can be made.
So sad to see that there are some councillors at least who have absolutely no interest in trying to build or maintain good will or relations. For them, it is 'win at all costs'. What a travesty.
The Parish Council had a meeting, properly recorded by the Clerk, where the Parish Council went through the Leases before authorising two signatories to sign the leases. When the whole Council is involved there is no question of delegation.
Mr Sanderson is wrong in his comments; the Parish Council has letters ( one per site) from the external Solicitors of CEC which state that as from 28 March 2013, AEPC inherits the rights of Cheshire East to collect rents and to enforce the covenants per site.
This is consistent with what we have said to date. At the April meeting of the Parish Council it was stated that the next step was for the Parish Council to inspect the detail of the tenancy agreements and then we would convene a meeting with AEAGS to outline how we move forward.
AEPC, through myself, have actually requested 3 meetings with AEAGS in the past and each time we have been rebuffed. That doesn't include the request at the Festival Hall presentation re the Medical Centre where Mr Sanderson said a meeting would be "over his dead body" - I know he has subsequently denied that on this site, nonetheless he said it.