The Allotment Officer has shared a new proposed allotment rule book with BDAC. We are now seeking feedback from individuals and associations on the proposed changes.

You can download a copy below.

Proposed changes and additions are shown in blue.

To contribute to the discussion please email secretary@bdacallotments.co.uk with the Subject line: Proposed Rule Changes

Prior to being able to canvas opinions BDAC has already made an initial response.

Thank you for sending the proposed revisions to the existing Council Allotment Rules. We understand that you wish to report to a meeting on the 30th with Property and Legal Services and want to include the Rules in the agenda.

First of all, it’s not clear what is the status and remit of this meeting and how much time is allocated to this item. If it is to follow up on our request for 3 areas of management to be looked at, in the context of developing a new Management Agreement to start next year, then it makes sense to look at the Rules in that light – and that applies to BCC as well as BDAC. We did agree to review the Rules when we met you, Val and Simon in February at Kings Heath House, but this cannot be a quick fix because we need to consult with our membership – the Associations, their committees and the tenants AND we/they cannot give informed feedback without having an idea of the following – and these are just examples of how complex the situation is now and could be in future:

• If existing rules continue or are revised, what resources, training and back-up will there be for volunteer-run committees to undertake the practical management of sites and enforcement of Rules? If there are no committees (Directly managed sites) or committees/officers are not able to function effectively especially on very small sites, what then?
• Whether some of the old or amended Rules can realistically be enforced – by Association Committees or BCC. Even if there is statutory law and regulations behind some of the Rules, can they be enforced on allotment sites by associations, BCC or BDAC if they are being ignored routinely by the public without any repercussions eg bonfire nuisance, dumping, with few or no prosecutions taking place in the city, let alone on allotment sites.
• Some Rules (old and new) may be controversial – for example, we don’t all share the same views on what are legitimate activities on allotment plots and it may be difficult to get agreement between Associations and tenant members.  Is it advisable to create more instances of Rules which some Committees and tenants may not agree with, so encouraging disrespect for Rules and turning a blind eye to non-compliance?
• If we are going to overhaul the Rules, isn’t it better to do a thorough job and not just tinker with individual ones, so we have more chance of ending up with a set of Rules which are as clear and simple as is possible, easy to understand and explain to tenants and other people who come on allotment sites? They need to be general enough to cover the full range of situations which might occur, and specific enough to define what’s included or excluded. The ideal is to avoid the possibility of a Rule being interpreted in a variety of ways by different people. The danger in making changes to try and clarify existing Rules, is that we can end up with ones which people who don’t like them will still ignore and try and get round – if challenged – and that could make the situation worse, for BCC officers, for Associations and the BDAC.

So our overall response is that we do want to review the Rules, in the context of the other matters we wish to progress with BCC, as mentioned above. Bear in mind BDAC is still not yet incorporated and the process is not likely to be finished for a few more months. In view of the complexity of this task, it makes sense if we don’t change the Rules to serve for just a few months, but look at what has got the best chance of working in the future irrespective of who is managing at site and city-wide level.

A last point, we have looked at the proposed specific amendments and there are only 3 which we could agree to without reservation or consideration of other factors – where they match what’s already happening, what seems to work without a hitch, or what’s in the Management Handbook. The rest need some if not a lot of work, and some whole sections of the Rules need a thorough overhaul and updating and we could start on these if we had a better idea of BCC responses on the points above