A complaint sent in to the Beacon that the allotments plot in Monmouth adjacent to the A40 are mismanaged has been taken up with the town council who have been responsible for the management and maintenance of the Two River Meadow Allotment site in October 2024.

The man who has been waiting for two years trying to get an allotment said in a letter to the paper that during that time, “I have walked around the site talking to various plot holders and getting their views and a lot of them are saying that it's a disgrace that so many plots are being left and attended.”

The would-be gardener, who wishes to remain anonymous, claims to have identified “about 16 plots that are not being cultivated some of them have not been touched, with one that doesn't seem to have been cultivated for at least 12 years.”

He went on to say that he believes that one plotholder “has only been down there just three times this year and another has emigrated to Australia and his friend is going to bypass the weight and list and take over the plot.”

He asked us to investigate these claims as he had been told by the council that 60 people were on the waiting list “and there is an approximate five-year weight”.

We contacted the town council who issued a statement saying that they took over management after a number of years of discussions and negotiations with Monmouthshire County Council and at that time, there were over 60 on the waiting list with some dating back to 2021.

The town clerk, Caitlin Williams said: “There were also vacant plots and some with little to no evidence of cultivation that had not been reallocated or appropriately managed. The town council have worked closely with the Allotment Association over the last 12 months to improve this and, whilst it is recognised that there is still work to be done, we have now been able to reach a point where all vacant plots have either been allocated to a person on the waiting list or been assigned to a new tenant.

“During the last year, the town council have terminated 14 tenancy agreements either due to lack of cultivation or a change in the tenants’ circumstances; we have allocated 34 plots to people on the waiting list and have been able to reduce the waiting list to 32 people all of whom joined from 2024 onwards. We continue to receive waiting list applications as the site is a desirable site.”

She went on to say: “We are not aware of anyone who has bypassed the waiting list although considerations have been given as to how to best manage the transfer of a plot to a loved one should the tenant pass away. This has not been confirmed in policy at the moment and so the normal allocation procedure is still in place.

“Many of the circumstances that you refer to are either inaccurate or untrue.”