Anyone with an allotment?

What kind of rates does everyone pay the council for their plot? Not the payment to the allotment itself but the rent?

Our council rent in Glasgow just went up from £39pa to £179pa, in one go.

For our full size plot in Birmingham we pay £93.46pa rent. No other charges.

Greenwich - £210pa for full 10 rod plot - £120 over 65s concession
Out of borough residents - £440

It went up from £60 to £200 in one go about 8 years ago.

Was £25 last year, £30 this year. Smaller plot, don’t know about rod size.

Same, £30 for a half plot (5 poles). Some of those price hikes ^ are insane.

Yeah our allotment forum is going to kick up a big fuss about it but just wanted to check some other prices to see what's going on elsewhere in the UK.

Most allotments are run by local councils who’ve seen their revenues slashed over the past 13 years. I imagine all of them are looking at how they can raise prices for other services they provide, and allotment fees are an easy one to do.

I think we pay about £80/yr in E17.
Can’t remember rods, it’s considered a half plot but it’s considerably bigger than most on the site.

big plot in Liverpool - i pay £80 / year - its a steal. i love spending all summer down there

Full size plot in Ealing £90 plus 4 mornings a season "volunteering"
Helping build toilets, planting trees ,pruning the fruit trees and grape vines on the communal plots.,general tidying up.
Half price for concessions.
Allotment shop offering supplies at cost.
Self managed but council owned.
Absolutely love it,would probably pay more.

.https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/apr/21/uk-allotments-rent-hikes-400-per-cent-councils

Just came to post that too. I thought there was some law that kept allotment rents low but doesn't look like it.

The fear that cash strapped town/borough councils are itching to sell and build on allotment land is always there ...

https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm199798/cmselect/cmenvtra/560/56010.htm#:~:text=Only%20'statutory'%20allotment%20sites%20have,of%20by%20a%20local%20authority.

Looks like I'm getting an allotment. Local society has new management and they're kicking out anyone who does nothing with their plot, just got to wait for the admin of them clearing people. Cost wise it's only £29 a year for half a plot, in Peckham.

That’s a great deal.

I do understand there will be genuine reasons for not giving up a plot. But those people who hang on to them, to only let them get overgrown with weeds really irritate me.

The allotment association at our plot has a petrol strimmer and I offered to go round all the abandoned plots and strim them. They weren’t interested

Yeah they had around 5 full plots that are in that state. They want to split all of them in half and there were only four of us there to register for a plot.

Finally got down to the plot after a week away. I’ve now got two raised beds in the greenhouse. Also dug down into the soil inside just to give myself some more head space.

Bonfire tomorrow and that will hopefully clear a lot of space.

Glad to hear it! Good rent price too by the sounds of things.

Got up the plot again with the kids today. Stuck in another 4 rows of potatoes and not a lot else.

1 row of spuds in for me plus shed roof tarp replaced as the old one shredded in the wind. I need truck side panel or old bouncy castle really.

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I can never grow potatoes in the soil they get eaten by slugs

Some have better slug resistance, Sarpo Mira for example.

I also found a spot today where I'd not dug up all the spuds last year, will plant beans/ squash around them and see what's there to eat at the years end as a bonus spud haul.

What do you mulch with? Considering trying wood chip as it's readily available.

Edit: I assumed you meant you grow them in another medium, or do you mean you just don't bother at all?

Isn't there something that wood chop removes nitrogen?

Yes was reading up on that, some seemed to think it was ok if you don't mix it in with earth. I'll plant them in soil and then just hill them with woodchip.