A report updating Members of the Committee on the progress towards establishing self-management as an option for managing the Council’s 20 allotment sites.

Further to Minute 24 of the meeting held on 10 November 2021, the Executive Director of Economic Growth and Neighbourhood Services submitted a report which updated the Committee on the progress towards establishing self-management as an option for managing the Council’s 20 allotment sites.  The following documents were appended to the report:

Appendix A:  Allotment Action Plan 2022;

Appendix B:  Allotment Self-Management Plan and Case Studies.

The report explained that project implementation had increased since the temporary appointment of an Allotment Project Officer in October 2021.  Progress and further action would be split into three Plans: Self-Management, Site Maintenance, and Tenancy Management.  These Plans overlapped and were inter-related but had been split to provide a clearer picture to specific stakeholders of activity that was relevant to them.

The report added that to date 14 of the Council’s 20 allotment sites were currently engaging with the self-management programme and the Allotment Project Officer would working with the remaining six during Spring 2022.

The report also explained the activities that would count as acts of self-management that each site was either currently carrying out or was expressing interest in doing.  The first steps a site group must take would be to collate its own tenant contact list and enhance their on-site communication, then appoint a Council Liaison Rep through whom communication would flow.  Appendix B to the report also set out three case studies from Goddards Farm, Scours Lane and Newcastle Road, which were sites that were advancing well.

Resolved:     That the progress of the Allotments Action Plan and Allotments Self-Management Plan, and the further work required to develop greater levels of self-management across all Council allotment sites be noted.