Allotment tenants to be evicted by council

PEOPLE who have let their allotments go wild are being evicted as a village council takes a hard line to deal with long-standing concerns.

Evenwood and Barony Parish Council has been debating for a number of years about what to do with allotment tenants who don’t tend to their plots.

At last week’s meeting, councillors decided to send a number of tenants on Delaware notices to quit. They will have one month to leave.

It came after Cllr Rachael Spraggon was asked to carry out an inspection by her colleagues. She reported back: “Dogs are living on the allotments and there is flytipping with rubble, a bed frame and an old kitchen. There is the suggestion we lock to gates to stop the vans driving down there.

“Some plots are in disrepair – do we send them letters giving them notice to clear it up?” Parish clerk Martin Clark said: “They have signed tenancy agreements and they are in breach of it and can be given a one-month notice.”

He added that there was a waiting list of “three or four people” for Delaware.

“People moving into the village see it and would like one,” he said.

After councillors agreed to give the culprits notice to quit, parish chairwoman Cllr Barbara Nicholson said: “We’ve only done that once before.”

Cllr Rachel Webb said: “If we light the touch paper, we may get an amazing response.”

Cllr Mike English said that in the past it had been the council’s policy to give people who take on overrun allotments a year without having to pay rent. There was agreement that this was fair.

Councillors also heard that allotments at Copeland Road were generally in good shape, although horses had been spotted grazing on them.