GAF Waiting List Survey

We are asking you to complete this survey because the City Council is going to have to establish a central waiting list for allotments covering all your sites. We think that we need to do everything we can to make sure that sites end up with a system that fits the needs of their associations rather than something that adds extra work and aggravation to the job of managing the enrolment of new members and the allocation of plots.

The survey will help GAF:

  • gain a reasonably accurate view of how waiting lists are managed by GCC site
    associations
  • identify key issues which need to be considered if a central waiting list is to be
    established

Background

According to the Community Empowerment Act 2015 (Section 9 123), if associations want to
keep their own waiting lists they have to apply in writing to Glasgow City Council (GCC) to have that
function delegated to them.

Thereafter, GCC has to satisfy itself that the association is fit to carry out this task and then make a written agreement with the association that it will be managing its own waiting list in future.

However, even if GCC establishes waiting list agreements with all its individual allotment associations, this will not override the GCC’s duty to keep a central waiting list. The Act establishes local authorities’ central waiting lists as the means of ensuring that any resident who wants an allotment waits for no more than 5 years to be offered one. The centrally kept waiting list is the means whereby the authority’s duty to offer an allotment to any resident who wants one is to be fulfilled.

These legal prescriptions about waiting lists contained in the Act raise a number of ‘interesting’ issues about how the matter of site-based and centrally held waiting lists is to be managed because it requires the effective sharing of both data and responsibility on the part of all concerned.

The survey

Please send your answers to the following questions to judy@atlas.co.uk

  1. Data
    What contact data do you collect from people who want to sign up?,
    How do you collect it?
    How do you store it?
    Do you ask people other questions – e.g. size of plot, previous experience etc?
    Do you charge people for going on the list?
  2. Use of the list
    Do you have any other communications with individuals other than letting them know
    when a plot is available – e.g Do you inform people of their position on list? Send out
    information – e.g about open days etc.
  3. Review of list
    How often do you review the list?

Supposing there was a central waiting list kept through a common standard
application form:

What benefits do you see?
What would worry you about being part of such a system?
What responsibilities would you like to retain?
Useful data – just rough numbers giving average per year don’t spend time on
accurate information at this stage
Time involved – how much time per year do you reckon you spend on waiting list issues?
How many people (individual, joint, groups) apply to go on your list in a year on average?
How many inquiries about position on the list do you receive?
How many people are removed from the list when you review it?

Glasgow’s Consultation on New Allotment Regulations and Delegation of Management

Some of you have written into us enquiring about what is happening about the consultation process we outlined earlier in the year.

Whilst there has been no official communication with us, we have reason to believe that the original timeline and sequence of events will be altered.

As far as we know, the Food Growing Team intend to start with individual negotiations with each Allotment Association about the terms of delegation laid down by the Community Empowerment Act Section 123.

This section requires that each allotment association applies in writing to manage:

a) their waiting list
b) notice of termination and renewal of tenancy
c) spending of monies given for training or promotional purposes.

GCC’s Officers are then required to satisfy themselves that the association is capable of carrying out these functions and both parties must then sign an agreement to that effect which is to be regularly reviewed. They are currently discussing this matter with their legal team.

The implication at the moment seems to be that only once this negotiation has been completed for all the local authority’s allotment sites will the process of consultation on the new allotment regulations be carried out.

At present, GAF does not have any information about the revised timelines for all of this.

Meeting to discuss

Add this date to your diaries. We’ll add a sign-up link here shortly, so check back on this page to let us know how many people to expect. (Sign-up isn’t required to attend – it just helps.)

Saturday April 22nd 2- 4pm  Garnethill Multicultural Centre, Rose Street, G3 6RE

Invitation to Discuss New Council Proposals for Your Allotments – 12th January @ 7pm

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:
  1. To clarify what is at stake in the consultation process
  2. To identify what the current difficulties are in relation to site management.
  3. 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:

  1. Respond to a written request for delegation from each allotment association.
  2. Agree with the association what the terms of delegation are.
  3. 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:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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)

Attend a Key Council Consultation Event: New Rules and Regulations for Allotments and a Scheme of Devolved Allotment Site Management

allotment with wooden shed and fence

At last, we are in the position of being able to discuss new rules and regulations rather than having allotment site governance obscured under a set of Rules and Regulations that were issued in 1959 – long since unfit for purpose.

There has never been an agreed scheme for devolving management to Associations in Glasgow, nor any written documentation making clear who is responsible for what when it comes the Associations’ and Glasgow City Council’s responsibilities for site management.

Whether we have an open and transparent system which meets the needs of associations and their members is up to us to try and assure.

Glasgow City Council has invited plotholders to attend meetings in three areas of Glasgow.

allotment with wooden shed and fence

Please make sure you have your say:

We are planning to undertake a series of 3 public engagement events to discuss the Allotment Rules and Regulations and devolved site management.  We would like all Allotment Associations to be represented at these discussions where possible, as we are keen that everyone who wishes to contribute has their voice heard.

We have arranged an engagement event for each of the City sectors (north west, north east and south). Attend at a date/location that suits you best.

Glasgow City Council

Draft rules & regs plus a scheme of delegation to get you started…

GAF recently organised a working party to look at rules and regulations, with representation from committees on eight Glasgow sites who responded to our open invitation.

We created two draft documents: new suggestions for Rules and Regulations; and the other – particularly useful for this consultation – for a Scheme of Delegation.

Read these to help you think about what you’d say at the consultations:


Questions?

We’re not organising these consultations, but we can help you think about your ideas before you go along.

Register

Each day will run 11am – 4pm with a break for lunch.

The morning theme (11am-1pm) will be about rules and regulations, and the afternoon theme (2-4pm) will be devolved management.


North-West (Cancelled)

Saturday 19th November – Kats Centre, Sighthill


North-East

Saturday 26th November 11-4 – Cranhill Development Trust


South

Saturday 3rd December 11-4 – Kinning Park Comples

Have your say about how allotments are managed in the future

Glasgow City Council is due to revise how the allotments sites that it lets out to plotholders are to be managed. A GAF working party drawn from 8 GCC sites has been looking at the issues and has put forward a model for the future.

They have published:

  • a draft scheme of delegation which would clarify the relationship between Association Committees and GCC, as site landlord
  • recommendations of what they think all Glasgow Allotment Association Constitutions ought to cover

Come along and join in the discussion. Give us your thoughts on the issues so that we can revise these proposals to reflect the views of as many of our members as possible.