The allotments are let at a yearly rent of £20 which includes the maintenance of the grass areas surrounding the plots (this revised rental was agreed at a meeting between the Parish Council and the allotment tenants on 26 Oct ’16). A deposit of £50 is taken at the commencement of the tenancy against the eventual relinquishment of the plot in a good, tidy state of cultivation. They are owned and administered for the parish by the Parish Council.
A small committee of tenants will be formed to provide day-to-day assistance with management.
A copy of the tenancy agreement can be seen here.
If you wish to find out about the availability of allotments, or have any further enquiries please contact the Parish Clerk or the Allotment Committee. To go onto the waiting list please complete this application form and forward it to the Parish Council.
ALLOTMENT UPDATE: In view of the size of the current waiting list we are not taking any further applications at the present time but will update residents when our regular review of tenancies indicates that new applications can be received.
The Bourtons Allotments
The Bourtons Stonepits Allotments have historically been located off the Southam Road, just north and west of the village of Great Bourton, within Bourtons Parish.
This site was originally allotted to the parish in 1778 as a stone quarry for materials to carry out the parish obligation to repair roads and highways within the parish. Probably late in the nineteenth or early twentieth century this land became allotment gardens. The owners of the adjacent farm have for many years been keen to remove the untidiness of the allotments as their neighbours. When they obtained ownership of an area of land off Foxden Way between Great Bourton and little Bourton they offered the parish the exchange of a parcel of that land to be a new allotment site, more convenient in access to both villages.
After extended negotiations over a four year period, including the grant of formal permission by the Secretary of State to close the statutory Stonepits site, the parish council took possession of the new allotment site on March 1st 2017. New tenancy agreements and new rules governing the management of the site have been issued to tenants: the new site is called Claridge’s Piece Allotments, after the ancient name for the field of which it is a part.
On the Claridge’s Piece site there are 30 plots, each 176 sq metres. These are arranged in two blocks of 15, surrounded with anti-rabbit fencing, with lifting gates to each plot. Tenants are responsible for fencing between individual plots, if they so wish. 4m wide grass access strips surround the blocks of plots with a central permeable-surfaced path. Water is provided from two water troughs, and stand pipes with taps at intervals along the central track.
