Dartford Road Allotments Association: Management Policies

1. Lease and Management Committee

We obtained a comprehensive lease from April 1992 that gives us full rights as the landlord for plotholders on the site. The only information supplied to the Borough Council is the total rental income each year, on which we pay to the Council 2% or £50, whichever is the greater. This gives us the power we need to implement improved management policies, and to act swiftly and positively in response to opportunities when they appear. Plotholders are protected against abuse of that power (a) by the terms of the lease and rental agreements and (b) by the fact that the trustees are drawn from members of the Association's committee, half of whom have to stand for re-election each year. To prevent that re-election becoming automatic we require each candidate to be elected separately, and nobody is allowed to serve in any combination of the posts of Chairman, Secretary, Treasurer or Trustee for more than ten years. The lease is subject to renewal every seven years, and when it is renewed in 1999 an entirely new set of Trustees will take office. We have tried to add at least one new member to the committee each year, usually someone who has only just come onto the site and who therefore appreciates the problems which new tenants are facing. We have tightened up the rental agreements slightly - by banning bonfires during the summer months (for the sake of asthmatics), prohibiting dumping anywhere on the site, restricting herbicide use near paths, and establishing priorities for users of the water supply system. Waste produced on site is managed through the encouragement of composting, bonfires in season, and a skip service for non-compostable and non-combustible waste, which commenced at the rate of a skip every two months, but now operates only once a year because most of the rubbish inherited in 1992 has been cleared. The public areas of the site are regularly mowed, and all rubbish is removed immediately before there is any chance of it encouraging further accumulation.

2. Reclamation

The site was about 35% derelict when we took it over. Where there were contiguous blocks of vacant plots we cleared away all the metal and other debris and then paid a local farmer to rotovate the land. It cost us £50 to rotovate 9 plots, and all were rented (at £20 per plot) within three months. Prior to achieving full tenancy of the site we attempted to keep at least two plots vacant but in tenantable condition at all times, using old carpets covering half of each vacant plot to enable cultivation and planting on the same day that plots are rented. Vegetation on vacant plots was strimmed each summer to avoid nuisance to plotholders from seed dispersal. Some of the carpets on site have been used on more than a dozen different plots since 1992. We store surplus materials in our own concrete garage, supplied free of charge by a builder who had to get rid of it before he could put up a side extension. We have widened suitable paths wherever possible to accommodate a tractor and trailer, and installed 10 meter square bays built from pallets at intervals along the main track through the site to allow for deliveries of manure and building materials. Additional assistance in reclamation work has been obtained from the Probation Service, who rent a plot on the site which is worked by persons serving community service orders. Assistance from this source is also made available to plotholders who are no longer capable of undertaking the heavier physical tasks on their plots.

3. Promotion

We have never advertised vacancies - we have done everything by word of mouth, which is possible if you enjoy a good reputation. We have made no concessions on rents - which we raised from just under £12 per plot to £20 when we took over. We have, however, reduced plot sizes to 4 or 5 rods where appropriate, to give newcomers a better chance, and to accommodate people who are just too busy to keep a full 10 rod plot under control. All new tenants are given a free copy of the PBI Vegetable Jotter and a leaflet on composting. We have upgraded the water supply, provided barrels (donated to us by a local company) as water butts for £2 each, and provided unlimited numbers of pallets for building compost bins, sheds, frames and raised beds, again through contacts in industry (and more recently through the QED Waste Management Group), and free of charge. In dealing with applicants we have gone out of our way to be friendly and helpful, and to encourage groups who have not traditionally been involved in allotment gardening, such as young mothers. Full minutes of committee meetings are posted on site the same day they are held, and include information on major expenditures. We issue a newsletter twice a year that is delivered by volunteers to the homes of all plotholders. The Spring issue goes out with the rent demands, and gives advance warning of any rent increase in the following year (so far, however, we have never had to raise the rent). Information on vacancies are regularly exchanged with other sites, and the Association has entered into a number of formal overspill agreements with other sites, under which a prospective tenant on our waiting list agrees to take a plot elsewhere on condition that his/her place on our waiting list will not be affected. These agreements have contributed to the reclamation of other sites in the Borough, and complement the advice on self-management which the Association has regularly provided to other Associations.

4. Helping Plotholders in Difficulty

We have been fully tenanted on and off since January 1993, and this is unhealthy, because you need new people all the time to bring in new ideas and new talents. It is imperative, therefore, that we have ways to free up land that is not being used, and to do so as quickly as possible, but without undermining our reputation in the community for fair dealing. We review the state of cultivation of each plot at every quarterly committee meeting, and plotholders in difficulty are contacted as soon as possible, preferably by phone, to determine what the problem is (if this is not already known), and to discuss remedial actions. The latter are then confirmed in writing, immediately. Let's consider a typical example. A tenant with a ten rod plot has been unable to keep it under full cultivation. The tenant is offered a number of options, and a recommendation will be made depending upon the circumstances. In this case, the options will be:

(i) To terminate the tenancy voluntarily, and accept the tenancy of half the current area (or some other agreed proportion). This creates a new tenancy, and thus affords the tenant special protection under the Allotment Acts for the first year of the new tenancy (3 months to get one quarter cultivated, etc). This would free up land for a new tenant, of course, or for someone who has less than a full plot to expand.

(ii) To terminate the tenancy voluntarily (at once, or on a pre-arranged date), and ask to be placed on the priority reapplication list. This is a list of former tenants who have given up their tenancies voluntarily and who remain in good standing with the Association. If you are on this list and you apply for a new plot at a later date, you will go to the top of the waiting list (once the terms for priority allocation of plots within the lease have been satisfied), and are thus virtually assured of a plot in better condition than the one you are vacating. This has been a very popular option, and we have several plotholders on site today who previously gave plots up because of illness or lack of time, and are now active gardeners and strong supporters of the Association.

(iii) To bring the plot to a required and specified standard of cultivation within one month (or a longer period when special circumstances such as illness require it), with the warning that failure to achieve this standard will result in notice to quit. This option constitutes a "non-cultivation notice", and when such notices are sent out they are accompanied by a copy of our code of practice, which explains how you should appeal if you think you have been treated unfairly (we include a provision for an outside adjudicator, who is the secretary of another site, but we have never had to use this provision). The specified standard of cultivation may range from fully dug and planted to simply being strimmed and/or covered with carpet, depending on the circumstances of the tenant and also the number of times there have been problems before.

(iv) To do nothing, and face 30 days notice to quit immediately the non-cultivation notice expires, the notice period provided for in the rental agreement. We always issue notices to quit as soon as the other options have been exhausted, either through the action or inaction of the tenant. This means that in extreme (and fortunately rare) cases we are able to regain possession of the land just two months after the problem has been identified - and normally we regain it even faster than this.

Sometimes plotholders run into financial difficulties, and we help out by taking quarterly payments. But when the rent is overdue we give fourteen days warning in writing that a notice to quit will be issued if the money isn't paid in full, and once a notice to quit has been issued we do not revoke it - a fact, once again, of which tenants are forewarned in writing.

5. Community-Building

Allotment gardening is a leisure pursuit and tenants have a right to enjoy their plots in peace. For those who want it, however, we do provide a number of organised activities which help to bind the site together as a community. There is a Borough-wide best-kept allotment competition, which the Association helps to organise, but this is very low-profile and appeals only to the minority of the more traditional allotment gardeners. There is also a cup awarded to the best newcomer by the Association. More popular are competitions for children - for example, an ornamental gourd competition (using plants provided by the Association) judged by weight, attractiveness, and best decoration (turn your gourd into a model of humpty-dumpty, etc), which is judged at our local horticultural show. We had a very successful open day (with tea and cakes) in our second year, which was advertised by leafleting local houses, and we have two or three barbecues a year, organised not by the Association but by spontaneous groups of plotholders. The most important barbecue is on November 5: we ban all bonfires from April 1 until November 5, so there are always plenty of good fires and plenty of fireworks to enjoy for free in the night sky. We ran a coach to Brogdale (and a pub nearby) in Autumn 1996, and plan another to the Organic Gardens at Yalding in the not too distant future.

6. Participation in Local Agenda 21

The launch of Dartford's Local Agenda 21 Initiative, QED (Quality Environment for Dartford), has offered a unique opportunity to improve the public image of allotment gardening. The Association was a founder member of the Dartford Allotments Steering Committee (DASC) which in January 1997 gained recognition from the Borough Council as one of the Issue Groups within QED. DASC also handles activities and areas of communication between sites which do not fall within the orbit of LA21; those which do, however, are collectively referred to as "QED Allotments". Membership of DASC is entirely voluntary, and currently includes associations representing about a third of all allotment gardeners in Dartford.

[Richard Wiltshire: May 1998]

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