Allotment holders 'let down' claims councillor

A council has let its allotment holders down the chair of a committee has claimed, after a report found a quarter of sites were "unusable".

A report into Bradford Council's allotment plots found 286 of the 1,186 it owns were unusable and some had been left empty for decades.

Councillor Nazam Azam questioned how the authority had let the situation get as bad as it was.

The council said it had invested £300,000 in seven allotment sites and would work with users to improve the service.

According to a council report, one allotment site – Legrams Lane - has 39 plots of which 25 are classed as unusable.

Estimates show it could cost around £2,500 to bring each unusable allotment up to standards.

Azam, who chairs the authority's corporate scrutiny committee, said: "The burning question is how have we allowed it to get to this stage?

"We haven't kept on top of this. We have let the users of the allotment service down. We've let this go on for too long."

Allotment holders have petitioned Bradford Council to improve its allotment service, claiming some plots had been left empty for decades.

The issue was raised at a meeting of the council earlier this month, and it was discussed by the authority's corporate scrutiny committee on Thursday evening.

Mary Kershaw, an allotment holder behind the petition, told members she had spoken to multiple holders who were unhappy with the service.

The waiting list for allotments in Bradford is currently 708. However, members heard this had fallen from 1,462 in February 2024.

Tom Harte, senior surveyor on the council, whose remit includes allotments, said: "The same issues seem to come up again every five to 10 years. We need to break that cycle.

"The only way we can do that is by working with plot holders across the district."

Referring to claims the council was not supporting the service, he said the authority had recently awarded £300,000 funding to improve seven allotment sites: Haworth Road, Bowling Park, Bulroyd, Cecil Avenue, Derby Road, Harewood Street, and Stanacre.

The fund could bring about 100 plots back into use.

A report to the committee said: "The Allotment Service has estimated that clearance work alone to a single plot will cost approximately £2,500 to return it to tenantable use."

The committee agreed to work with allotment holders to help shape the future of the service, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

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