Minutes:
“I recently attended a meeting with many allotment holders in my ward of Panshanger at Moneyhole park, where concerns were raised about the increase in allotment fees.
Recognising these are tough economic times for councils across the country. And bearing in mind no alternative budget was proposed by any of the opposition councillors at earlier budget meetings or the full council where the budget was voted on – with the Lib Dem leader saying his “party had ideas but did not want to share them”.
I would like to ask the portfolio holder for the rationale behind the increase in allotment fees.”
Answer
Councillor Samuel Kasumu, Executive Member Environment and Climate Change, answered:
“Thank you for the question.
As we have heard from Councillor Boulton, the council has had a challenging time in balancing the budget this year, for the reasons he explained. The council was experiencing significant increases in costs in supplies, utilities and contracts. Similar challenges are being felt by councils across the country and by households alike.
I'm sure we are all also aware of the demands in the public sector for wage increases, whatever your thoughts on the merits of this the costs have to be found within the resources available. As many will know Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council has regularly operated at a budget surplus whilst being able to simultaneously keep our council tax precepts as low as possible, this is not something that all councils have been able to do. However, we found ourselves in a position this year where we were facing a budget shortfall of up to £4m and had to take decisive action in order to fulfil our legal duty to provide a balanced budget.
There were no easy choices, we had to consider all 120,000 residents, difficult as it may be. I fully appreciate why our allotment holders, or many of our allotment holders, are concerned by the increases in allotment fees. I would like to personally apologise for any distress that has been caused in recent weeks. Though we have been in regular communication with officers and have had to deal with a number of challenges to achieve a balanced budget there was no doubt in my mind that we could have engaged better with allotment holders during this process.
I would like to offer to meet with allotment holders to discuss the situation and available options. I am happy to share the rationale behind the fee increase, but before I do, let me be absolutely clear, this budget went through multiple stages of scrutiny through various cross-party panels, at no point did any Member of the opposition either raise an objection to the fee increases and/or propose alternative ways for us to fulfil our legal duty to present a balanced budget. I am very disappointed to see how they have chosen to play politics with this situation, despite being fully aware of the context that we are operating within.
The allotment budget has operated in deficit for some time, and this has been exacerbated forever by an increase in our costs last year. To give further context we have 443 allotment plots rented by 381 of our 120,000 residents, we know that allotments are really valued for health and wellbeing benefits, as well as for growing food, they are very much in demand as there is a waiting list of over 220 residents.
The majority of the allotments are with water provided and sized between 25m2 and 125m2. Almost 95% of these allotment holders will be paying up to a maximum of £187.50 per year, or £93.75 at the discounted rate. The most common sized plot is 75m2, and so almost 50% of all allotment holders will pay £112.50 per year or £56.25 per year at the discounted rate. We do not charge any additional fees to our allotment holders as many other boroughs do, such as the set-up of allotment tenancy agreements offer replacing keys clearly the fee increases likely to be difficult for some, especially for those with lower income, but over a third of those who have allotments access are 50% discount. We are one of only five boroughs in the county that offer this discount and our discount is more generous than many of those five.
If allotment holders are concerned, we are encouraging them to contact our allotment teams so they can discuss options such as whether they are eligible for the discount, if they are not already accessing it, or possibly whether reducing the size of the plot will make the situation more conducive. Once again, I recognise this situation has been distressing for many allotment holders, but I must also stress that this decision was not taken lightly, and we have tried to strike the balance between offering support for those on low incomes and protecting important services for all 120,000 residents.”