A decision on how much allotment rents in Bristol will increase by has been delayed until after the May local elections. The cabinet member responsible agreed to withdraw her controversial plan to massively hike the rents, ahead of a confusing and chaotic scrutiny session about allotments.
Allotment holders welcomed the scrapping of the plan, and urged Bristol City Council to consult and negotiate with them further for more manageable rent increases. But many criticised the nature of how the scrutiny meeting was run.
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.
Read more:Allotment holders urge Bristol City Council bosses to rethink massive rent increases
Read more:Greens promise to revisit controversial decision to hike allotment rents
Allotment rents were due to be discussed by a call-in sub-committee on Wednesday, March 27, after five Green councillors said the controversial decision needed extra scrutiny. But the committee was 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 haven’t 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.
She added: “Doing nothing is not an option. I want us to have good quality public services that we can be proud of. I believe in the decision taken, which was evidence-led and undertaken in good faith.
“This is an opportunity to embrace the collaborative potential of the committee system, and to enable cross-party members to take ownership of the policy. I particularly look forward to the proposals by members of the call-in group, and would welcome the opportunity to work together on this.”
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. The chair of the committee, Labour Cllr Amal Ali, appeared to be unaware of how the meeting should be run, with councillors and members of the public saying the session was “perplexing”.
Mal Sainsbury, one allotment holder, said: “This is the first time in three years that a call-in has questioned a decision. Now the mayor is losing his powers to overturn all decisions and his cabinet is dissolving, let us hope that scrutiny will continue to question all other decisions that affect so many that have been made by so few.
“A catalogue of errors started with the so-called consultation with Jon ‘anyone for tennis’ James [the council’s head of service for natural and marine environment], asking us allotment holders how often we play tennis on our allotments. And it went on and on from there — it was an absolute disgrace, shameful and embarrassing.”
It's 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, Dom Francis said: "As an energetic grassroots campaign, it has been exhilarating to see how creative, passionate and caring allotmenteers can be. We are packed full of ideas to improve the provision and get Bristol growing to meet our multiple needs for the 21st century.
"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."
