For a change, it seems that common sense may have triumphed over greed in the matter of the proposal to hike charges for Boston allotment holders by a ludicrous and laughable (had it not been serious) 465.22% over four years.
The plan would have seen the £23 a year fee for a 300 square yard plot rise by 117.4% in 2013, followed by further annual increases of 54%, 35% and 25% - culminating in a charge of £130 by 2016-17.
Part of the cunning plan by whomever drew up this grasping, insensitive, antisocial proposal - which would have turned Shakespeare’s Shylock green with envy – was to encourage allotment holders to form independent associations which set their own charges - and thus relive the council of yet another tiresome responsibility.
Why on earth they didn’t suggest this in the first place is beyond us.
Now, as a first step towards reversing the Great Fees Robbery, a Task and Finish review group has recommended that the borough’s Environment and Performance committee increase the charges for a 300 square yard plot from its current £23.00 a year to £68 in four years’ time – and not the £130 proposed. Other plot sizes would be charged pro rata.
The Task and Finish group comprised seven councillors – led by Boston District Independent Alison Austin – and met on five occasions. As part of its review it heard from nine allotment holders on six different sites.
It was generally accepted by most of the representatives that an increase was necessary, and they also agreed in principal that allotment sizes could be reduced to allow for ‘starter plots’ - with the largest 600 plots being sub-divided.
This would bring a number of benefits – including cutting waiting lists, giving people more manageable plots, and creating “starter plots” for people who were not experienced in allotment gardening.
Financial benefits for the council from the group’s recommendations would cut its costs over the next four years from £22,740 to £9,756 – so it’s not exactly losing out.
If all sites became self managed the indirect costs to the council would be £9,980.
The report also reminds us that “to supplement allotments provision, free support and advice is available to residents and particularly disadvantaged communities, through the community growing spaces/home growing initiative and volunteer Lincolnshire Master Gardeners operated by Garden Organic.”
Garden Organic, a national charity for organic growing – as you might surmise - has been working with Boston and East Lindsey district councils to support community growing spaces - including one in Central Park.
It recruits local volunteers and trains them as  Master Gardeners to pass on their expertise to other locals. Last time we checked, there were 17 - of which only six were in Boston.
Another two-day “foundation training” will be held in March at Woodland Farm, Boston, to try to boost numbers.
So far so good – but despite use of the word “free”  - between March and June last year, the borough paid Garden Organic £5,462 – although in other areas the schemes operate with lottery funding.
All that remains now is for the Environment and Performance Committee to agree with the Task and Finish group and for the Cabinet to agree it as well.
The former ought not to be too difficult, as five of the eleven members of Environment and Performance - which will discuss the report on Wednesday - were also members of the Task and Finish group.
As always, the stumbling block will be the Cabinet.
There’s also a political dimension:
There were only two Tories on the task and Finish group, and there are six on the Environment committee.
If the committee votes in favour of the report, the Cabinet is cantankerous enough to reject it just to show who’s boss and reimpose Bluelaw across the kingdom of Boston!


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