PLANNING chiefs have agreed to freeze allotment rents for 2017 after eight years of increases.
Councillors approved the plans at Monday’s (November 2) Evesham Town Council planning committee meeting which will see rents held at £46 for plots without water and £58 for plots with water.
Demand still remains for allotments in Evesham with 50 people still on waiting lists for a plot
One town resident, Neil Cartwright, who rents a plot on Inches Lane made a plea to councillors to make them think again about putting rents up.
“I’ve had a plot since 2008 and since then plots rents have risen 10 per cent a year on average, they have doubled in the eight years since I’ve had a plot, this if for 2016 where the numbers are slightly higher than you read out, another £5 has been added for next year,” Mr Cartwright said.
“It all seems a bit arbitrary, there doesn’t seem to be any justification for why the rents have to go up for year after year after year.
“We just get a bill two weeks before the plot rents go up saying next year’s rent starting in two weeks will be.”
Town Clerk Stuart Carter responded by saying about £4,400 had been allocated for maintenance of allotment plots in Evesham, with the majority of the cash being spent on considerable clearance work at Common Road allotments.
Chair of the Planning Committee, Coun Alan Booth said: “It costs a lot, it costs a lot of the taxpayers in the town a bit and we have a duty of care to residents as well.
“These costs have to be met somehow. I appreciate what Neil is saying, Inches Lane is a bit different and they have to cart their water down one way or another.
“We do need money to run them, it’s as simple as that.”
