prices

wonder if you can help please,

my friend owns a peice of ground 5 acres
she was thinking about turning it into allotments

1st how would you size each plot
2nd she has water, does she need electric
3rd how much do you recon she can charge. per whatever.

ours are council owned, wondered if there were rules
and regulations,for private,would she need planing permission
thanks for any advice

 

You can rent out private land at whatever price you like. Supply and demand and all that. Too high a price and people won't pay.

There are a number of things you need to consider.

Firstly, you need to check the classification of the land. You also need to find out if you need planning consent (believe it or not, depending on the classification of the land and where it is, you may need planning consent just to put fences up).

There is also the matter of liability insurance. I believe it is optional but if somebody hurts themselves on your land and they are of a litigious disposition, the landowner is liable. This is especially true if the landowner invited the claimant onto their land (as would be the case if you rented bits of it out).

Depending on where you are, it might be a lot simpler and more profitable to just rent the whole piece of land out for grazing. Some people charge 20 to 30 quid per horse per week for that.

EDIT: Forgot to mention, the general rule of thumb is that a small pony will need half and acre, or a decent horse will need one acre minimum. They can share in a 5 acre plot. As long as the grass is good you could realistically have a max of 10 small ponies or 5 big horses there, so the income potential would be around £400 to £500 per month. You could impose in the rules that during winter and dry spells the owner(s) feed their horse supplemantry foods (hay and pony nuts and the likes), this taking the pressure off the grass a bit.

 

How about rented it out to people / person with a horse? Costs a fortune to pasture-ise (wrong word .. but ...!!) a horse, and your friend would only have one or two tenants to worry about. The field might need decent fencing, although I see plenty of horses with just a white-tape style electric fence around them.

I reckon setting up private allotments is a lot more hassle, personally, but happy to be proven wrong.

There was a web site "share your patch" or something along those lines designed to put people with a bit of ground in touch with people who desperately wanted to be growing some stuff. I'll see if I can find it.

 

Must type faster :(

 

you might also want to check what the land has been used for in the past, what chemicals if any have been used on it and when.

 

thanks clueless and kirsten, she allready had her own horses on it ,but has now moved into town,
her house is empty at the moment,hopefully waiting for her daughter to find a man and get married
she was on with the idea of allotments, as she loves gardening,but passed it now, health wise
and thought it an idea for people not lucky enough to own a garden

 

sorry sweetpeas missed you there.i would say without speaking to her ,that there has never been any
chemicals used on it ,also it is right out in the country,only farm lands, but she has owned it for year
and just for her horses

 

Couple of thoughts:

If there is a waiting list for plots in your area then presumably you could charge more than £1 / week ... £2 / week, £100 / year, is going to be a lot less than the cost of the vegetables if bought at supermarket ( think someone posted their Cost / Value on here last year??)

If organising a large number of plot holders is difficult then perhaps someone locally could do it - in return for a free plot or two. There are usually public spirited folk in rural communities

 

thank you so much John and Kirsten
that is a great help, will pass it all on to my friend
she will appreciate your help... kathy

 

Found the link: http://www.landshare.net/

"With allotment waiting lists massively over-subscribed and people right across the country keener than ever to grow their own fruit and veg, the aim for Landshare is to become a UK wide initiative to make British land more productive and fresh local produce more accessible to all."

 

thanks Kristen, have passed on the link,much appreciated