Introduction

This document is the response of the QED Allotments Group to Dartford Borough Council's Draft Best Value Performance Plan, as agreed at the Group's Meeting on February 7, 2000, and is supplementary to the consultation questionnaire, which is appended. The QED Allotments Group welcomes the opportunity to comment on the Performance Plan, and is wholly supportive of its contents..

Values

The Council's Performance Plan is based upon a statement of values (p. 2), all of which are values shared by the QED Allotments Group. To be specific:

1. Promotion of social justice and an inclusive society: Member associations of the Group have striven to ensure access to the land for all, regardless of background, and to manage their affairs in an open and accountable manner.

2. Public/private sector partnership in the development of the community: Member associations are in partnership with the local authority in making schemes for devolved management of allotments work, and have developed links with local private sector organisations (such a B&Q and National Power) in support of all members of the allotments community, and especially persons with disabilities.

3. Enabling action to empower people within the community: The Group has actively encouraged plotholders to take a more active role in the affairs of allotment sites and in wider community issues, such as health and recycling.

4. Advocacy on behalf of the community: The Group has put forward representations on behalf of the allotments community in response to local consultations such as this, and also to important national consultations, including representations to Parliament and the DETR.

5. Good quality, value for money services: Member associations with devolved management powers are striving to make allotment sites across the Borough as attractive as possible to all sections of the community, at a reasonable cost to users.

6. Environmentally sustainable development within the community: As a part of Dartford's Local Agenda 21, the QED Allotments Group is dedicated to achieving the highest possible standards of sustainability in the use of allotment sites, and to working with other QED Groups, the local authority and others in maximising the contribution of allotments to the realisation of broader sustainable development objectives.

7. Participatory democracy - community involvement in policy-making and service provision: The schemes for devolved management under which member associations have operated for close to a decade represent a successful, and democratically accountable, example of community involvement in policy-making and service provision.

Principles of Best Value

The principles of Best Value elaborated on p. 4 of the Performance Plan, namely continuous improvement, cost effectiveness, partnership with local people and users, and delivery by staff who are committed and well trained, are also fully supported by the QED Allotments Group and have been implemented by members of the Group for many years under schemes for devolved management of allotments in Dartford, an experience of community-based management upon which our on-going advice to the Local Government Association has been based (see Footnote 1) .

Delivery of Best Value

The QED Allotments Group has promoted the formal statement of performance indicators and targets to local allotment associations through the diffusion of best practice, which we have identified through our own comparative review (p. 22) as the forward planning scheme in operation in the London Borough of Bromley. The Group will continue to advocate the implementation of indicators and targets within schemes for devolved management locally, in recognition of the fact that under devolved management it is local allotment associations which actually deliver the allotments service listed in Annex One (p. 31) of the Performance Plan, and will seek, through cooperation with the London Borough of Bromley, the Bromley Allotments and Leisure Gardens Federation and the Local Government Association, to develop practical guidelines for the integration of Best Value into devolved management schemes at the national level.

Local Agenda 21 and Best Value

The QED Allotments Group welcomes the inclusion of Local Agenda 21 within the statement of local performance indicators and targets (p. 8) and the Council's approach to consultation on Best Value (p. 27), and look forward to the adoption of a Local Agenda 21 Plan (p. 12). Members of the Group will strive to ensure not only that these meetings are held, but also that they continue to be effective in the delivery of a Quality Environment for the Borough of Dartford. The Group has already affirmed its commitment to the Green Grid network (p. 11) and to the provision of allotments and community gardens as part of the additional green space (p. 11) required within the major new residential developments under way within the Borough in its earlier responses to the Borough's Corporate Strategy (see Footnote 2) and Environment Plan (See Footnote 3) consultations. The Group also welcomes the commitment within the Performance Plan to the safeguarding of "greenfield" sites from inappropriate development within the planning process.

________________

(1) QED Allotments Group, Devolved Management for Allotments: Models and Processes (December, 1998).

(2) Response of the QED Allotments Group to Dartford Borough Council's Corporate Strategy Consultation. (September, 1999).

(3) Response of the QED Allotments Group to Dartford Borough Council's Environment Plan. (September, 1999).

End: Return to the QED Allotments Group Home Page