As mentioned earlier in December, Glasgow City Council is proposing to put forward new draft rules and regulations for allotment sites and a first draft scheme of delegation of management to site Associations in January.
A short window of two weeks for consultation with allotments (full timeline at the bottom of the page).
It’s crucial that each council allotment site in Glasgow gets a chance to be heard, and it’s up to all of us to make sure it happens.
GAF therefore invites you to a discussion on 12th January at 7pm in the city centre to:
- find out the background to these proposals
- hear about the work GAF members (i.e. other interested plotholders like you) have been doing on this topic over the past couple of years
- think about how you might respond to the consultation from the perspective of your own site
Let us know you’re coming:
- We aim to help associations to prepare for the consultation on new regulations for allotments in Glasgow – in particular:
- To clarify what is at stake in the consultation process
- To identify what the current difficulties are in relation to site management.
- To think about how new rules could improve the effectiveness of site management in future.
What’s happening to my site?
Whilst Allotment Associations have been managing their sites for many years now, there is no documentation that spells out for council site members and their committees exactly what management functions they are personally responsible for, and what management functions are retained by Glasgow City Council.
Under the terms of the new Community Empowerment Act (2015), this relationship needs to be formalised as a written agreement between each Association and the Council.
Glasgow City Council is obliged under Section 123 of the Community Empowerment Act (2015) to:
- Respond to a written request for delegation from each allotment association.
- Agree with the association what the terms of delegation are.
- Make the agreed arrangements with associations transparent and open to scrutiny.
We are now, in 2023, at the point where we are being consulted on the issue of delegation of management.
Our previous work raised a number of issues that need to be addressed in this process:
- The need to sort out the legal position in a way that is clear and unequivocal with regard to the current overlap of association membership with the entitlement to plot tenancy.
- The requirement of a clear statement of those functions which are being retained by the local authority as well as those that are being delegated to associations – including issues such as boundary maintenance.
- The need to reach an agreement on the disciplinary procedures that are to be practised across all the Glasgow allotment sites for both cultivation and behavioural issues.
- Clarification of financial delegation i.e. the collection of rents and signed missives, and the link between rental fees and services.
When is it happening?
Our discussion was scheduled for a few days after the planned release of the Council’s draft scheme of delegation.
The timetable we were given by Glasgow City Council was originally:
- Drafting documents will be completed by January 7th
- Associations will have until January 21st to consider these drafts.
- Re-drafts will then go out for public consultation from January 28th until March 11th
- Final versions of the rules and regulations and the scheme of delegation will be published on March 25th.
Update: As of the 11th January we are awaiting the release of the council’s draft documents, and we will update the timeline above after this event on 12th January, at which a council representative will be present.
What should I do?
Come along to the discussion, then use the Council’s consultation time to respond with others on behalf of your allotment site (before 21st Jan) or as an individual member of the public (on redrafted documents from 28th Jan to 11th March).
Optional background reading
A working group of GAF members have already drawn up a draft framework for a scheme of delegation (and a draft set of rules and regulations for a modern allotment site) which was circulated to our members for comment and amendment in 2021.
GAF documents
Council / government documents
The Community Empowerment Act (2015) at legislation.gov
- see Part 9 (Allotments) Section 123 (Delegation of management of allotment sites)
Guidance for Local Authorities on interpreting the Community Empowerment Act (2015)
- written in plain, non-legal English
- gives advice on how to split the responsibility of managing allotment sites between the Council and each Association’s own members / committees
- see page 24, which covers Section 123 of the Act (mentioned above)