The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s allotment provision. There is not enough evidence of fault in the Council’s actions, and the complainant has not suffered sufficient personal injustice to justify our involvement.
The complaint
The complainant, I shall call Mr X, says the Council is not providing enough new allotments to keep up with the increasing population in the area.
Mr X wants: the Council to provide allotments according to the National Society of Allotment and Leisure Gardeners (NSALG) Parish Councils to be responsible for following guidelines Publish waiting lists by parish Provide measurements in poles, not hectares.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
The Ombudsman investigates complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service but must use public money carefully. We do not start or may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide: there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
How I considered this complaint
I considered: information provided by Mr X, including the Council’s responses to his complaint the Council’s policy on open space, sport, and recreational facilities standards for residential development NSALG guidance for designing allotments in new developments I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
The Smallholdings and Allotments Act 1908 places a duty on councils to provide allotments if six or more people in their area ask for them. But there is no time limit on a council fulfilling this duty.
The Council’s policy for open space, sport and recreational facilities standards for residential development says: “ In respect of allotments, the requirement of 0.52 hectares per 1000 population as set out in Appendix 4 of the Core Strategy remains and will apply to all areas within the Borough including the Strategic Development Locations.”
It has confirmed this figure equates to one, ten pole allotment per 100 people in the Council’s location.
Mr X disagrees with using metric measurements and says the Council should use the traditional, historic measurement of poles.
The Council says using metric measurements for allotment provision aligns with other infrastructure to support new development. It also confirms parish councils are responsible for deciding on the size of individual plots.
I understand Mr X wants the Council to provide measurements in poles and wants the Council to follow NSALG guidelines. However, the NSALG guidance for designing allotments in new developments says: “The Society recognises that a variety of historic units are currently employed in the measurement of allotments and the setting of rents, but endorses the benefits of standardisation on the metric system.”
I have seen no requirement that measurements must be in poles. The Council confirms the current provision of allotments exceed the recommended figure for the size of the local population.
It is not for the Ombudsman to require the Council to use specific measurements. Mr X says he will have to wait two years for an allotment. However, information I have seen suggests the national average waiting for an allotment is two years and eight months. I do not consider the waiting time for Mr X to be exceptional and therefore do not consider he has been caused a significant personal injustice.
Parish Councils are not within the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because we are unlikely to find fault in the Council’s actions. Nor has Mr X suffered sufficient personal injustice to warrant an investigation.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman