Allotments Fee decision put off until after election
A DECISION on how much allotment rents in Bristol will increase by has been delayed until after the May local elections.
Allotment holders have welcomed the scrapping of the plan, and urged Bristol City Council to consult and negotiate with them further for more manageable rent increases.
The decision on increasing rents will now be deferred to the first meeting of the public health and communities policy committee, after the local elections on May 2. This policy committee will take over responsibility for running the parks and allotments services from the cabinet member, as part of the upcoming switch from a directly elected mayor to a committee system.
Allotment rents were due to be
discussed by a call-in sub-committee on Wednesday after five Green councillors said the controversial decision needed extra scrutiny. But they were emailed an hour before
the meeting began, with an offer to revisit the rent hikes after May.
Labour Councillor Ellie King, cabinet member for public health and communities, said: “My approach to allotments has had two key principles: halting the decline of the service by delivering improvements, and protecting the struggling parks service by continuing to invest in them so that all of Bristol’s residents can continue to enjoy their benefits.”
One reason for the sharp proposed hike in rents is because they have not been increased since 2018. Cllr King said this was partly due to the pandemic, and then the cost-of-living crisis, both of which “weren’t the right time” to increase rents. But at the same time the council’s finances have been “increasingly battered and bruised”, so the extra cash from higher rents is needed.
The five Green councillors who called in the decision were repeatedly denied the opportunity to speak or ask questions during the meeting, although afterwards they welcomed the deferral.
It is now unclear how much the rents will increase by. The increases were due to be introduced in two stages in April next year, and then April 2026, with some rents more than doubling. Campaigners from Bristol Allotmenteers Resist welcomed the deferral, and said they were planning to hold an assembly in late April to discuss next steps.
Speaking after the meeting, campaigner Dom Francis said: “As an energetic grassroots campaign, it has been exhilarating to see how creative, passionate and caring allotmenteers can be. We hope the local elections give us an opportunity to collaborate with councillors who value our experience and contributions, rather than make snide comments about us and ignore us.
“We’re interested in how to link up different growing projects across the city, as well as how we can create new publicly owned allotment sites.”