New rents for allotment holders agreed

allotment

Alderley Edge Parish Council has agreed the new rents for allotment holders across all three sites in the village for the year which runs from October 2015 to October 2016.

All allotment holders will pay 15p per square metre for the year. The plots vary in size which means that the cheapest will cost about £25 per year whilst the dearest is about £43 per year.

There will be no reduction for senior citizens and the water charges will be passed on the Alderley Edge Allotment and Gardens Society (AEAGS) separately, they are not included in the 15p per square metre.

This new rent only represents a change for the Heyes Lane allotment site where the rent had been 12p per square metre.

Speaking at the Parish Council meeting on Monday, 8th February, Councillor Craig Browne said "Previously it's been the practice to increase by 3% each year the amount on each but we've not done that in lieu of bringing each of the sites in line with each other. Previously Heyes Lane was 12p per square metre but an allotment is an allotment after all and I cannot see any rationale for an allotment being 3p per square metre than an another allotment."

The Parish Council also agreed to now go ahead and collect all the rents for 2015/16, however they deferred an earlier agenda item to formally accept the new tenancy agreement between AEPC and AEAGS until the March meeting because their lawyer has not come back with a definitive decision on the agreement and could well make some changes to the document.

Cllr Craig Browne said "I proposed a single agreement for all three sites but actually he wants an agreement for Heyes Lane minus six and then an agreement for the other six" (the six plots referred to are those that would be affected should the Parish Council go ahead with plans to build a car park on part of the site).

When asked why they should not defer all three resolutions* and deal with them as a package next month, Craig Browne said "We deliberately held off doing this until we had carried out the parking survey and review because we didn't want to prejudice any proposals that came forward and any feedback from the community on them but as of 5 o'clock this evening we are at the end of that process so I think it was appropriate to go ahead - given that even if the proposal for the car park at Heyes Lane does go ahead its unlikely that anything physically will change within the current growing season."

Cllr Geoff Hall commented "I sort of feel slightly uncomfortable about dealing with two of them without the third, I feel like they're a package, but I'll bow to your judgement but I just want to be clear there is a gain by passing resolutions 8 & 9*. What do we gain by doing it now rather than March when we can do the whole thing as a package?"

Cllr Browne responded "It's a question of trust. I wish not erode that trust any further than has been done already."

Alderley Edge Parish Council agreed at their meeting in July 2015 to issue new tenancy agreements to allotment holders on all three sites and also that the Alderley Edge Allotment & Gardens Society would continue to manage the sites and collect the rents.

This represented a u-turn on the decisions taken by the previous Parish Council who issued the Alderley Edge Allotment and Gardens Society with a Notice to Quit the Heyes Lane allotment site in February 2014. The notice was issued under the terms of the Tenancy Agreement, which dates back to December 1976, on the grounds of development needs.

Tenants were been given three months notice to quit the site by 28th May 2014 because the land was required for a new car park. However, allotment holders at Heyes Lane stood their ground and refused to quit the site.

A second notice was served in the autumn of 2014, giving 12 months notice to end the Allotments Society's current tenancy agreement on all three sites: Beech Close, Chorley Hall Lane and Heyes Lane. The intention was for Alderley Edge Parish Council to take over the running of the sites.

However, the current Parish Council were advised by their lawyers, Slater Gordon, that, in the absence of planning permission, it would be very difficult to take back any of the allotment sites for alternative use.

Speaking back in July 2015, Councillor Craig Browne told me "The existing leases date back to the 1970s and again, Slater Gordon advised us that rather than attempt to withdraw the notices to quit, it would be better to start with a clean slate and work with the Allotment Society to negotiate new leases."

During the conversation at the Parish Council meeting on Monday 8th February councillors Ruth Norbury and Mike Dudley-Jones, who are both allotment holders, left the room.

*

7. Resolution: to formally accept the new tenancy agreement between AEPC and AEAGS. - deferred until the March meeting.

8. Resolution: to agree rents across all three sites for 2015/16 as per tenancy agreement. - approved unanimously.

9. Resolution: to collect rents across all three sites for 2015/16 - approved unanimously.

Tags:
Alderley Edge Parish Council, Allotments
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