Can a council be required to provide an allotment on land it owns?

Question

My Parish owns a small patch of land which it would like to sell. A resident is asking for it to be designated as an allotment for himself to be the tennant. Can a sale be progressed, or does the demand for an allotment, mean that a sale cannot go ahead and that the demand for an allotment must be granted?

Answer 1

Section 23 of the Small Holdings and Allotments Act 1908 places an obligation on parish councils to provide "a sufficient number of allotments" where demand exists. It is important to note that the 1908 Act does not specify a timescale within which the allotment must be provided.

I presume that the site in question is not and has not been an allotment previously, as there are specific rules for the disposal of allotments. Does your council own any other allotments or any other land that could be made available as allotments? Is it your belief that the potential tenant is genuinely interested in holding an allotment, or simply preventing the sale of the land? If, for example, you offered him an allotment elsewhere, would he take it?

There is a case here for separating the two issues and proceeding with the sale of the land with a commitment to explore options for the provision of allotments, either on existing council-owned land, on newly purchased land or on rented land.

Comments

Thankyou Dave. No the land has not been an allotment but has been used as a garden extension at a peppercorn rent. Yes the interest is genuine.
Unfortunately our Parish does not have any alternative land to offer and as far as I can tell there is no other demand in what is a small village.

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Is the resident seeking the allotment the current user of the land in question?

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The resident who uses the land is giving it up and is terminating his arrangement. It is a different resident who is asking for it to be registered as an allotment.

Do you know if there is a simple guide to the procedure to be followed to register land as allotment?

Thanks again.

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It is possible that your district council or equivalent maintains a register of allotments, although these days, that is quite rare. If they do not, the parish council is responsible for keeping a register. There is no prescribed format, but the register should be available for public inspection if requested.

Answer 2

So do you retain a valuable asset for the benefit of one person or sell it for the benefit of all ?

It’s amazing how many assets Councils own ( especially higher up the tiers ) that they don’t utilise
I’ve just identified 100’s of empty garages