Allotments have been provided by the Parish Council since before 1940 and have been on their current (third) site since 1953. A page from the 1940-41 Allotments Rent Book is shown below. There are currently 22 plots. Some are let out as full plots and some as halves. The site is beautifully kept and a credit to the allotment holders.
The provision of allotments by the Council is subject to a good deal of legislation, including some which defines the purpose of allotments quite closely. They are provided for the production of vegetable or fruit crops intended for consumption by the tenant and his/her family only, not for sale (although any surplus might be swapped). Rentals are meant to be low enough for allotments to be affordable by lower-income families. Without the restriction preventing sales, allotment plots would obviously be a business or an agricultural tenancy, and all sorts of business rates, taxes, commercial pressures etc would come into play.
The rental year runs from September to September, and the rent is currently £50 for a full plot, £25 for a half. The rent is reviewed by the Parish Council at its Annual Meeting of the Parish Council, held every year in May. Leases held in joint names (eg husband and wife, partners) are allowed. At the present time, owing to pressure on places, the waiting list is restricted to residents of the parish of Effingham but this would be relaxed if the numbers reduced.
Since 2009 there has been an annual social *gathering of allotment folk to discuss matters of common interest, which has been a great success.
*It has been officially established that the collective noun for ‘a gathering of allotment folk’ is ‘a tease’.
The only people who have permission to go onto the allotments site are current tenants, and officers or members of the Parish Council.
- for an example of an Effingham allotment lease, click here.
- for the code of Guidance which Effingham allotment holders observe, click here.
- to ask about going on the waiting list, or other allotment matters, contact the Clerk.
The first page of the Parish Council’s Allotments Rent Book for 1940-41, when the allotments were on what is now Norwood Close. The rent for half a plot was 6s 6d (six shillings and sixpence).
To view a larger version (pdf format, size 1.1Mb), click here.
