Private Allotments

.

Hi.
Blooms in Worcester have started renting out plots of land beside their garden centre.

They only want as rent, between A fiver and a tenner "A WEEK!

They ran a rotavator over the ground at first, but when I was there later in the summer the ones not taken were waist high in weeds!

You can all count so I will not say how much they would cost yearly, just very expensive vegetables!

Mine went up last year from 18 to 25 quid a year!

.

 

I wonder how many people will take them up on the offer?

 

Supply and Demand isn't it?

a fiver a week is 250 a year - which is probably what folk would save on home-grown-veg. Its a far cry from the Council-subsidised 25 quid a year ... but probably cheaper than membership of a Gym, or a variety of other hobbies that folk could take up.

Maybe the plots will be better cared for, rather than abandoned as can too often be the case on the council sites - which particularly annoys me when there is a waiting list, and it seems to take decades before anyone is actually turfed-off (Sorry about that pun!)

 

Hi David,

This is something that always puzzles me, there is always a shortage of alllotments!!

I know locally there is a long waiting list for an allotment and it seems to be a problem nationwide. You would think that local councils would see this as a revenue stream, i'm sure they have lots of un used old patches of land that they could change into an allotments and then charge a small fee for letting people using them. How much do local councils charge in rent for these allotments or don't they....?:cnfs:

Maybe i am wrong....?

 

I think that Allotments are subsidised. Nothing wrong with that in my book, but it probably doesn't make the councils overly keen if they have to buy several acres of land.

What's agricultural land? £4,000 per acre?

I think you get 16 standard sized allotments to the Acre which at, say, £20 p.a. is £320 / acre p.a. - not including some Admin cost, possibly needing to provide fencing, lay on water, and so on. Not a particularly enticing payback ...

Hmmm ... it got me thinking:

A Farmer would get about 4 tonnes of wheat per acre, at somewhere around £120 - £150 per tonne, so about £500 per acre. And within that they have to buy seed, fertilizer, herbicides, fungicides and fuel and capital cost for machinery ... on that basis maybe £320 per acre would be a rip-roaring profit, not to mention the plots being Let at £5 a week!!

But maybe I've completely screwed up my sums?

 

Not many by the looks of things!

And there were more white butterflies over the cabbages than I have ever seen, not a good sign!

Cheers!