Future of council allotments

We have received the reply from Mr Derek Stevens, Chief Executive of Rother District Council, which appeared in the last edition of the Observer.

While Mr Stevens prompt reply is appreciated, we regret it has done nothing to allay our concerns about the future plans for the 12 allotment sites owned by the council and in particular our position at the Ingram’s Farm site.

In his letter, Mr Stevens speaks of his experienced officers feeling that a single management option will be best placed to keep costs to a minimum for all service users rather than having 12 individual site based groups.

This is a decision that has been taken without any prior consultation with tenants and has ridden roughshod over any proposal we at Ingram’s Farm wish to put forward.

Surely we have every cause for concern that we could be sold down the river to any enterprise (whether profit making or not) that agrees to take over the running of the twelve sites.

All we are asking is for our proposals to be considered and if need be for the council to consider our business plan.

It is rather presumptious for the “experienced officers” of the council to assume that they ultimately know best about costings, administration etc, when one considers the wealth of experience readily available within the tenant group at Ingram’s Farm alone, and presumably among the remaining 11 sites.

It could be argued that as people who actually cultivate the land and know how things are managed the tenants might well possess a wealth of experience equal at least to that possessed by Rother District staff?

While the tenants at Ingram’s Farm note the proposal each site could provide a representative to work with the selected management organisation, one has only to look at previous examples where this has been attempted, ie, in the housing sector and experience has shown just what a hollow gesture this is with frequent changes in service providers.

In Mr Steven’s final paragraph he speaks of all tenants being contacted once a management option has been chosen, in other words, once Rother has chosen the management provider and the die has been cast then the tenants will be told!

So much for total inclusion and being part of the “big picture” much advocated by the current national leader of the ruling political body on Rother District Council,

Keith Bridger and

Ben Littlejohn

Tenants

Ingram’s Farm Allotments, Crowhurst Lane