Newbury Town Council Allotment Rent Protest, Seems the Town Council have been caught in a lie Options

[Simon Kirby]

I have been in dispute with Newbury Town Council for the last eighteen months over the enforceability of their allotment rent increase. Consumer protection legislation makes it unlawful for the Council to increase the rent without notice. The Council's position was that if a tenant pays then that makes it all right, but I felt strongly that the Council had a moral duty to operate within the legislation and was left with no option but to withhold payment of last year's increase and risk eviction.

The Council served notice and set a deadline for eviction of 17 May, and then extended the deadline to 13 December. It would now appear that the Council were bluffing as I set them a final deadline for the end of January to follow through with their threatened court action, yet still they prevaricate.

For me then the issue is resolved as there is no remaining doubt that the rent increase is indeed unenforceable so my rent stays the same. However, I made a stand against the Council in the interests of my fellow allotmenteers too because rents have almost tripled over the last 10 years and none of those year-on-year increases have been lawful. Not only is the Council obliged to reset rents to the rate at the start of our tenancies, but many tenants will have overpaid enough to give them their plot rent-free for the next five years.

This debacle wasn't just the usual Town Council ineptitude and heads must roll. There has been a deliberate and concerted attempt to evade the consumer protection legislation. I was threatened by the Council with the consequences of raising the issue, and since I have done so the Council have waged a campaign to smear, intimidate, and marginalise me. They have made spurious complaints against me for a number of imagined infractions of their site rules such as flying my flag too high, brushing my dogs on my plot and singing too loud at the summer social. I have already been served with an eviction notice because they say my allotment path is not the regulation width, and I have no doubt that this harassment will now be stepped up. To be honest I could do with a little support now.