It’s been a very difficult year for us all in terms of managing our allotment sites. We were lucky enough to be allowed to visit our plots throughout lockdown as part of our permitted exercise but plot letting was suspended by the Allotment Service at the beginning and hasn’t properly started again.
Inspections have also not happened this year. BHAF had to cancel our AGM and subsequent allotment forum meetings and local associations have had to cancel theirs as well. The management of the cities sites has been operating at a lower level at exactly the same time that many more people are trying to access plots. Over 700 applied for a plot over lockdown!
There are definitely problems now with plots which have been left untended all year becoming more and more overgrown. These will become more difficult to let as a result which is a worry. The Council has still not given a widespread go ahead for plot letting to start again. However some site reps have been told they can start letting and other have started letting off of their own backs.
Government cuts to the Councils budget had already left many services threadbare and the staff restrictions meant there seemed to be even less manpower on the ground this year.
To be fair to the Council, emergency works were carried out fairly promptly but we do seem to be in an increasingly worrying situation going forward. Communications are not as good as they should be and non emergency works do not seem to be happening. Increasingly people are feeling the need to take on some of this work themselves.
We are aware this is already happening on many sites and want to acknowledge the significant amount of additional work that site reps, plot-holders and Associations are already doing to deal with these issues.
We are keen to find out your experiences with site management currently. Are you letting out plots – with or without support from the Allotments Service? What other issues have you faced with site maintenance and how have you managed them? If anyone has any ongoing problems please let us know. We may be able to help. Even if we can’t immediately it is good for us to know so that we can relay these to the appropriate people.
Lets hope 2021 brings some normality back to our lives. Thanks for all your work and Best Wishes for Christmas and the New Year!
