Dear Ashford Borough Council,

Background:
I searched your website and failed to find the official price per unit area for allotments. It may be that it's there but I didn't find it.

If it's on the website, please tell me where it is.

If it's not on the website, please put it on the website and tell me where it is.

Yours faithfully,

David Johnson

Dear Eileen Law,

Many thanks for your helpful reply. Following your directions, I found the allotment page. I also found the budget book confirming the official price is £4 per perch.

I think the council is breaking the law because official prices must be metric. When supermarkets use non-metric units, that's how the law is enforced on them by councils.

Thus:
"16p per square metre"
"16p per square metre (£4 per perch)"

but not:
"£4 per perch"
"£4 per perch (16p per square metre)"
"£4 per perch (a perch is 25 square metres)"

I dug around and found the following examples:
Battle council:
http://www.battletowncouncil.org.uk/inde...
"rents are 16p per square metre"

Crawley council:
http://www.crawley.gov.uk/pw/Leisure_and...
"charged per square metre."

Winchester council:
http://www.winchester.gov.uk/community/a...
"cost for each allotment is 16 pence per square metre"

Adoption of ordinary units will make allotments more accessible to newcomers. I appreciate this issue may have been overlooked so it's just a matter of correcting it at the earliest convenient opportunity. I'd also be grateful if the official charge rate is published on the website.

Does the council have any correspondence, documents, policy, or minutes relating to metric units?

Yours faithfully,

David Johnson