Council defends allotments disposal (From Crewe Guardian)

Council defends allotments disposal

1:18pm Thursday 14th March 2013 in News By Matthew Taylor

CHESHIRE East Council has defended its decision to dispose of Crewe’s allotment land.

The council intends to pass 28 acres of allotments, spread across 11 separate sites, to the forthcoming Crewe parish council – due to be elected on April 4.

Concerns have been raised that since the parish council doesn’t yet exist; there is no guarantee they will want to accept responsibility for the sites.

The timing of the transfer has also been queried by Clr Brian Silvester, who believes the transferee authority should be a legal entity before the transfer occurred.

A Cheshire East Council spokesman responded that the council were ‘merely been doing the groundwork to ensure that the transition is as smooth as possible when it comes to the handover’.

They added: “Cheshire East Council cannot dispose of the land to the parish council until it becomes a legal entity on April 1.

“It is Council policy to handover assets such as allotments to town and parish councils as it has been throughout the borough. The legal position is that allotments should be passed to the lowest tier of government.”