Agenda item

Cllr Steele to present.

To receive an update on progress to transfer Council-owned allotments to a borough wide self-management body.

The Chair of the Rotherham Allotments Alliance Board, Cllr Brian Steele introduced the briefing paper along with the Cabinet Member for Waste, Roads and Community Safety, Cllr Hoddinott.

The Cabinet and Commissioners’ Decision Making Meeting on the July 9, 2018 agreed to recommend to the Council the transfer of Council-owned allotments to a new borough wide self-management body.

Officers have been working with the Rotherham and District Allotment Association (RADAA) as the main umbrella organisation for Rotherham’s Allotment Community. Work was also undertaken to examine if there were similar operating models adopted by other Local Authorities.

Following early discussions with RADAA representatives, Co-operatives UK were employed from August 2018 to help register a new Community Benefits Society to be known as Rotherham Allotments Alliance Ltd (RAA).

The RAA Board was established in January 2019 and RAA became a legal entity on April 2, 2019. Of the Board’s eight members, three were RADAA representatives and two were Borough Councillors: Cllr Steele and Cllr Hoddinott. The requirement for two Councillors (one being the Cabinet Member with responsibility for allotments) was included in the new company’s rules.

The transfer of Rotherham’s Allotments from the Council to RAA was postponed to January 1, 2020. This later target date allowed Officers more time to undertake survey work and determine the heads of terms for the transfer lease to allow the RAA to take legal responsibility for the allotments sites and sub-let them either directly to tenants or to site societies.

An action plan has been prepared to guide the process and was updated regularly. Prior to transfer of the land holding responsibility a pro–rata share of the 2019/20 income already collected by the Council was needed to be transferred (£15,181) from the Council’s revenue budgets.

A capital amount of £100,000 had also been made available to the RAA by the Council from 2019/20 for the benefit of improving allotments. It was envisaged that this funding was monitored by Green Spaces in a legacy role. Green Spaces had retained the Statutory Allotments Authority function under the Allotments Act. This function could not be transferred to the RAA.

All tenants and chairs and secretaries of allotment societies had been consulted on the transfer. RAA had set up its own finance and legal team and the Council had transferred a small revenue grant which would be used to fund an administrative post.

Cllr Hoddinott commented on the commitment and expertise of the alliance members in setting up this new entity and recorded her thanks to Cllr Steele for his work as Chair.

The following points were raised and clarified:

·       Assurance was given outlining that RAA had obtained public liability insurance. In response to an offer of assistance from Rotherfed, the Chair thanked the co-optee and indicated that RAA were open to such discussions.

·       The status of the allotments was clarified. It was reiterated that management of the allotments was undertaken by RAA however, the Council still retained ownership of the sites and statutory responsibility for provision of allotments.

·       It was anticipated that there was no additional administrative burden on self-managed sites or individual tenants.

·       A query was raised in respect of frequency of reporting to the Commission. Cllr Steele outlined actions taken by the Board to monitor progress and ensure due diligence was in place.

·       Allotment rules had been adapted from existing Council guidelines and those issued by the National Allotment Society; these promoted what was allowed on sites and also gave guidance on how to be a good neighbour to local housing and amenities.

·       The Chair expressed confidence in the action plan and the progress that had been achieved.

Resolved:

1)    That this briefing is noted and a further update be reported in December 2020 following the transfer of the allotment management responsibility to the RAA.