This website is run for the allotmentholders and gardeners of the Ashford area. It isn't connected with the council. If you have a problem or enquiry which needs an answer from the council, you should contact them direct. This includes any matter to do with your tenancy or rent. There are a number of sites within Ashford and Wye which are run by Ashford Borough Council, who have a dedicated Allotments Officer and a page about allotments on their website. Other sites (inclucing another one in Wye) are run by Parish Councils, who will usually not have an allotment expert; the clerk usually deals with the admin.
There are other allotments in the Ashford area, run by community groups on behalf of the plotholders. These will be self-contained. new housing developments are also required to provide allotments, and the arrangements for running these may vary.
There are other allotments in the Ashford area, run by community groups on behalf of the plotholders. These will be self-contained. new housing developments are also required to provide allotments, and the arrangements for running these may vary.
Click the green box above to go direct to Ashford Borough Council's Allotments page on their website. Below are their conditions of tenancy - the regulations you should abide by as an allotment tenant. For some explanation and advice about the regulations, click here to go to the 'your New Allotment' page.
Results of the survey June 2015
The results of the survey carried out by the Council in the spring of 2015 are in the box below. Please use the controls at the bottom to magnify the print and scroll up or down. This survey was carried out by Ashford Borough Council and the document below has been sent to us by Jonathan Longley at The Environment department for reference on the website. Any queries about survey or the findings should be directed to the council. You can contact Jonathan Longley at [email protected]
The survey is the first stage in the Council's consultation process.
The survey is the first stage in the Council's consultation process.
Tenant's contract -
these are the terms you agree to when you take on an allotment.
How the current financial climate affects us.
The council's budget is being put under more pressure each year. The money received from Westminster is reduced each year, and the council is prevented by law from increasing the rates beyond a small percentage. That means that, while prices are rising, the council has less money to spend. Allotments themselves bring in very little money from rent. A lot of people - pensioners especially - get their allotments free. The money the council receives doesn't even cover the bill for water supply.
Any way you look at it, allotments are lower on the priority list than nurseries, schools and care of the elderly. Most people would say that repairing nasty potholes or broken streetlamps comes higher too. Whatever we might like in an ideal world, we must accept that getting the council to spend any money on improvements to allotments is going to depend on us making a very good case indeed.
At the Annual General Meeting on 25th of September 2013, Site Officer Christine Harrison (who was at that time also an allotmenteer), representing the council, read out the statement that, until further notice, the only works the council will be carrying out on the allotments are those which are required as a matter of health and safety.
Any way you look at it, allotments are lower on the priority list than nurseries, schools and care of the elderly. Most people would say that repairing nasty potholes or broken streetlamps comes higher too. Whatever we might like in an ideal world, we must accept that getting the council to spend any money on improvements to allotments is going to depend on us making a very good case indeed.
At the Annual General Meeting on 25th of September 2013, Site Officer Christine Harrison (who was at that time also an allotmenteer), representing the council, read out the statement that, until further notice, the only works the council will be carrying out on the allotments are those which are required as a matter of health and safety.
In the light of this, we tenants should ask ourselves how we can achieve what we want.
Various things may need doing. Some of them cannot easily be done without council input - a whole new fence, say, or a new water point. Some can be done by plotholders getting together, as long as the council gives permission - cutting back an overgrown hedge, for example. Others do not need to involve the council at all and could be tackled by plotholders, such as clearing up rubbish or making running repairs to chainlink fencing.
The first point of call, ideally, should be your allotment rep. If you haven't got one, you may need to get together with some of your fellow allotmenteers to decide what to do. Or alternatively, it may be a thing you can fix quickly without fuss by yourself.
For example, one weekend last summer the brass tap was stolen from a water point in one of the sites, by someone reaching over the fence from a footpath. This could have been referred to the council as urgent - water was squirting with great force over one of the plots from the unimpeded mains. Instead, the mains was turned off and a plotholder who was a plumber found a suitable tap in his kit and fitted it. The new tap was wired on firmly so that it could not be easily stolen again.
Can you imagine what this would have cost to fix if the council had been required to call out an emergency plumber out of hours?
Before you ring the council with a small problem, ask yourself how easy it would be to fix. You should also consider how much it would cost if you were to employ someone to do a similar job at your own home. If the council sends someone out, that money comes out of the budget. No-one is suggesting that plotholders pay contractors out of their own pockets. Just that you consider a little common-sense DIY before you phone.
The first point of call, ideally, should be your allotment rep. If you haven't got one, you may need to get together with some of your fellow allotmenteers to decide what to do. Or alternatively, it may be a thing you can fix quickly without fuss by yourself.
For example, one weekend last summer the brass tap was stolen from a water point in one of the sites, by someone reaching over the fence from a footpath. This could have been referred to the council as urgent - water was squirting with great force over one of the plots from the unimpeded mains. Instead, the mains was turned off and a plotholder who was a plumber found a suitable tap in his kit and fitted it. The new tap was wired on firmly so that it could not be easily stolen again.
Can you imagine what this would have cost to fix if the council had been required to call out an emergency plumber out of hours?
Before you ring the council with a small problem, ask yourself how easy it would be to fix. You should also consider how much it would cost if you were to employ someone to do a similar job at your own home. If the council sends someone out, that money comes out of the budget. No-one is suggesting that plotholders pay contractors out of their own pockets. Just that you consider a little common-sense DIY before you phone.
WHEN YOU SHOULDN'T "D.I.Y"
Council contractors are insured. And trained. The insurance situation regarding allotments is something this website will be looking into soon. However, as general good practice:
DON'T do anything which could easily be dangerous.
DON'T do anything you wouldn't feel comfortable about doing at home.
DON'T do anything involving electricity.
DON'T do anything skilled which you haven't been trained to do.
DON'T do anything which impinges upon areas outside the allotments - for instance, dealing with boundaries with householders. It might be perfectly safe but there might be legal ramifications which you don't understand. Consult the council first.
DON'T do anything which could easily be dangerous.
DON'T do anything you wouldn't feel comfortable about doing at home.
DON'T do anything involving electricity.
DON'T do anything skilled which you haven't been trained to do.
DON'T do anything which impinges upon areas outside the allotments - for instance, dealing with boundaries with householders. It might be perfectly safe but there might be legal ramifications which you don't understand. Consult the council first.
The Council structure
It is too easy to talk about "the council" as if it was one thing. Here is a brief analysis of what "the Council" actually is.
The COUNCIL DEPARTMENT DEALING WITH ALLOTMENTS ("Streetscene") is also responsible for a number of other areas, including bin collections and footpaths. Three site officers and an Admin officer handle enquiries, deal with applications and process all the various things to do with sending out posters, getting grass mowed and collecting rents. They liaise with contractors such as Landscape Services, and arrange for plumbing work to be done.
This department is currently under a lot of pressure and resources are very tight. Bear in mind that every time someone is off sick or on leave, someone else has to pick up their workload. Staff covering allotments don't only work on allotments; they have other tasks which all have to be fitted in. This makes for flexibility, but that flexibility can count against allotments when other things are placed higher up the priority list - such as rolling out the new dustbin system. This is not making excuses for the people who handle allotments; clearly we can ask them to do their job, but you should also be aware they are not sitting around in the office drinking tea waiting for you to call!
OTHER COUNCIL DEPARTMENTS may deal with other things that affect us. Ideally, the officers in the allotments department should put hem on the case as necessary. However, staff are only human and your request may end up in their 'pending' tray if they have 12 hours work to do in an 8 hour day. Ask yourself if you can target your enquiry straight to the department concerned. Look at the Ashford Borough Council website to see if you can work out who to contact.
All these people are employed by the Council. They are not, themselves, "the Council". Ashford Borough Council is, more accurately, the COUNCILLORS we elect at our local elections. If you are having problems with a council department,and you have done everything reasonable without success, you should contact your local councillor. They are your democratic representative. It doesn't matter if you didn't vote for them, or if you are a lifelong supporter of a rival political party, they are you voice on the council and they will do what they can for you, as long as your request is reasonable.
The COUNCIL DEPARTMENT DEALING WITH ALLOTMENTS ("Streetscene") is also responsible for a number of other areas, including bin collections and footpaths. Three site officers and an Admin officer handle enquiries, deal with applications and process all the various things to do with sending out posters, getting grass mowed and collecting rents. They liaise with contractors such as Landscape Services, and arrange for plumbing work to be done.
This department is currently under a lot of pressure and resources are very tight. Bear in mind that every time someone is off sick or on leave, someone else has to pick up their workload. Staff covering allotments don't only work on allotments; they have other tasks which all have to be fitted in. This makes for flexibility, but that flexibility can count against allotments when other things are placed higher up the priority list - such as rolling out the new dustbin system. This is not making excuses for the people who handle allotments; clearly we can ask them to do their job, but you should also be aware they are not sitting around in the office drinking tea waiting for you to call!
OTHER COUNCIL DEPARTMENTS may deal with other things that affect us. Ideally, the officers in the allotments department should put hem on the case as necessary. However, staff are only human and your request may end up in their 'pending' tray if they have 12 hours work to do in an 8 hour day. Ask yourself if you can target your enquiry straight to the department concerned. Look at the Ashford Borough Council website to see if you can work out who to contact.
All these people are employed by the Council. They are not, themselves, "the Council". Ashford Borough Council is, more accurately, the COUNCILLORS we elect at our local elections. If you are having problems with a council department,and you have done everything reasonable without success, you should contact your local councillor. They are your democratic representative. It doesn't matter if you didn't vote for them, or if you are a lifelong supporter of a rival political party, they are you voice on the council and they will do what they can for you, as long as your request is reasonable.
CLICK HERE to go to the council's full list of councillors, which you can search by name or ward name. PLEASE NOTE - I couldn't load this on Firefox, it was blocked - it came up fine on Internet Explorer. If you have difficulty, try another browser.
