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 - Article 003
New North Lincolnshire Federation
The inaugural meeting of the new federation took place on Thursday 12th February at the St Andrews Methodist church hall at Cleethorpes.
The meeting was well attended with representatives from sites around Humberston, Grimsby, Cleehtorpes and Louth.
An introduction was given by Shirley Fieetwood the East Midlands Regional Representative who outlined the need for a federation in view of the recently proposed massive increase in allotment rents by the North East Lincs Council and the fact that they had only given the allotment holders two weeks notice of the increases instead of the legal requirement of twelve months notice as stated in Section 1 of the Allotments Act 1922 as amended.
The council had proposed rent increases for 2004 from £ 9.05 to £ 22.68 for a standard plot with an increase in concession rates from £ 2.66 to £ 6.65 plus water charges to be levied at cost, for 2005 they proposed increases to £ 71.00 per year with concession rates at £ 40.00 plus water charges levied at cost PLUS a maintenance cost of above ground repairs to the water supply to be capped at £ 25.00 per plot.
This means that plot holders would be paying something in the region of £ 100.00 plus for a standard plot and without any guarantee that other necessary repairs and refurbishments would be undertaken. The council also refused to give any assurances that rents would not continue to rise at this level after 2005.
Since the initial notification of the proposed increases was given in December 2003 for implementation from 1st January 2004, a series of meetings had been held by plot holders from a number of sites to decide on what action to take. Local Councillors were being lobbied including the elected M.P.for Cleethorpes Shona Mclsaac, who was arranging to introduce a debate on allotments in the House of Commons on Thursday 12th February.
Mrs Fleetwood stated that the national society were taking legal advise on the matter not only on the lack of notice but also whether the proposed increases could be regarded as reasonable. Information was needed as to what increases if any, were being proposed for all other recreational activities.
A meeting had been arranged between the site Secretaries and Council members for Tuesday 17th February to discuss matters further.
Elected Officers of the new federation are as follows:
Mr Robert Wilkinson elected as Chairman,
Mrs Ruth Wilkinson elected as Secretary,
Mr Charles Reading elected as treasurer.
It was further agreed that the committee would be made up of one member from each site to act as site representative.
Initially there would be four meeting per year one of which would be an AGM, however it was felt that more frequent meetings could be arranged if thought necessary.
[Shirley Fleetwood]
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