Home Page Haverhill News

Allotment holders are celebrating the successful transfer of the Manor Road allotments to their newly-formed association.

The plot-holders met St Edmundsbury Borough Council officers a year ago to discuss ways of improving the site. The favoured approach was that the tenants would form a constituted allotment association and lease the site from the council.

The National Association of Leisure and Allotments Gardens provided advice on the terms for the ten-year lease, allowing the Manor Road Allotment Association, which comprises those people who tend plots on site, a greater say in how the site is managed and the setting of rents.

The association will be responsible for collecting plot-holders rent, filling vacant plots (using the waiting list provided by the council), insuring the site, paying site rent and monitoring plot-holders' adherence to the terms and conditions of the lease.

Cllr Anne Gower, St Edmundsbury Borough Council cabinet member with responsibility for Haverhill, said: “I am delighted that these dedicated allotment-holders are taking control of these facilities.

"They are doing a great job and the allotments look really good – there has obviously been a lot of hard work done to bring them up to this standard and I know they will continue to improve the site.

"I pay tribute to the committee members and the allotment-holders congratulate them all on getting to this stage.”

Terence Turner, association secretary, said: “I am delighted that our association had now been granted a ten-year lease and we are looking forward to working closely with the council, who have been very supportive of this initiative.

"The plot-holders have taken great pride over the years and see this as an opportunity to raise our profile within the community and to improve the facilities on the site, which, so far, has benefited from a new fence and entrance as part of this new arrangement."