Old Park Farm Garden Holders Association

Happy New Year
Happy New Year to everyone. I hope you all enjoyed the holiday period and are ready for the new growing season. It is great to see that many gardeners have already started working on their plots taking advantage of the milder weather. I also welcome new tenants starting work on their plots for the first time. Enjoy your allotments in 2020.

Fire on Site
Unfortunately, there was a fire on the site just before Christmas. The fire brigade was called and they did a great job, quickly making the site safe. Sheds on a couple of plots were affected, but thankfully no one was hurt. The fire brigade had to cut the main gate key to gain access to the site. The lock is being repaired. Until it has been returned we have had to use the lock from the gates nearest to the railway line on the main gates. There is a temporary lock on the railway gates, which means that these gates cannot be opened with your site key. I am sorry for any inconvenience caused.

The lane by the railway is very wet. Do not drive vehicles along the lane for a few weeks as it needs a little time to recover. Please consider whether it is appropriate to drive on any of our lanes if they are very wet or if you would damage the surface. The Association will have to pay for any repairs that are necessary. All additional costs have a knock-on effect on future rental amounts.

This is also an appropriate time for me to remind everyone to be careful with any fires on the site. We are only allowed fires on the second Sunday of the month. These should be watched closely and put out carefully before leaving the site. The same care should be taken with any stoves, log burners or gas fires, etc on site.

Dates for Your Diary
The Council Inspection is planned for Thursday 9th January 2020. You still have time to improve your plot before the inspection. This might avoid your plot being specifically mentioned in the Council Inspection Report

The Association AGM is planned for 10am Sunday 15th March 2020. If you wish to volunteer to be Chairman, Secretary or Treasurer or on the Committee, please let me or Steve Yorke know.

The Next Burning Day is Sunday 12th January

The Next Working Party is Saturday 18th January. We will meet at 10am in the passing place near to the main gates (by the bollards). It would be great to see some new faces – many hands make light work !!!!

Dave

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It is with great sadness that I have to tell you that one of our gardeners, Peter Grove, passed away shortly before Christmas. I am sure you will know him as the partner of Kay. Both of them have been part of the community of gardeners on Old Park Farm for many years. Peter was a committee member for a long while and made a significant contribution to the association in many other ways including being a regular at working parties and helping to keep the communal areas in order long before workdays were thought of. He maintained his allotment to a very high standard. His contributions year after year to the annual show helped it become the success it is today. I, and many others, enjoyed hearing about his career as a cow farmer, the running he did when he was younger and the dancing he and Kay loved to do. I am sure that many of you have other fond memories of Peter too. He was a kind, generous and much-loved member of our community and will be missed by many. Our best wishes and condolences go out to Kay, his family, and friends at this very difficult time.

We will publicise the date of the funeral when we receive it. The association will send a donation or tribute on behalf of us all.

Dave Kirkham

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Working Party This Saturday

We are going to have our next Community Working Party this Saturday (10am, 7th December, so long as the weather is not horrible). Everyone is welcome; old tenants, new tenants, young and less young. Please try to come along, it makes such a difference to the site and contributes to the allotment community. Thanks to everyone who helped last time, we had a good turnout and managed to get a lot done. It would be great to see some additional people helping out this time and we can build the social side of our site at the same time.

No special skills are required. There will be some lighter jobs as well as some heavier ones – everyone will be able to join in. Bring some simple tools if you think you might want to use them. Tea, coffee and biscuits will be available. Winnie has even volunteered to make some food for the workers, which is very good of her. If you are short of time, or unsure how you can help, then just come and say hello, have a cup of tea for 10 minutes and see how you might join in next time.

The initial task is to create boundaries between the plots near the main gates. We will use pallets to do this. Additional work may include pulling up carpet, cutting hedges, clearing rubbish, removing brambles, putting in a new gate – there is no shortage of things to do. The plots will be easier to let when we can see the boundaries. The council have said that they will send me the latest waiting list this week so I want to be ready to show these plots to potential new tenants.

Council Inspection Early January

The Council Allotment Officer has been in touch. She wants to inspect the site on the 9th January 2020. Jackie left us with a good relationship with the Council and we will benefit if we can maintain this. In the past the inspection has highlighted some problems with uncut hedges and barbed wire on the site. Any observations from the council inspection will become actions for us to complete in the New Year. It will be better for us as a site if the list of actions is small, as we will have to address anything that the Council identifies. Most plots are in really good shape and I would like to thank those tenants for that.

Please try to cut your hedges before the 9th January if you can and check to see if there is any barbed wire you can remove. Be careful with the barbed wire. Note: you can put barbed wire in the metal collection area in the central car park. Let me know if you need any help and we will see what we can do.

If I do not see you before, have a lovely Christmas
Dave

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A New Secretary
Hello from your new Secretary !!! On 1st November I took over the responsibilities of Secretary for the Old Park Farm Allotment Association. I’m Dave. I garden plots 32 and 55 with my wife Becky, son Stevie and dog Daisy. Plot 32 is two down from the Association polytunnel in the centre of the site. Hopefully you can find me if you need to talk to me, otherwise email me at oldparkfarmcic@gmail.com or contact me on 07884 283 907. I look forward to hearing from you.

I want to thank Jackie for her commitment to the Association as Secretary over more than 10 years. I am only starting to appreciate the work that she has done for us all. Most of this work was invisible to me, but allowed me to garden as I wanted. We will miss her knowledge and skill as Secretary and I will also miss her as a lovely allotment neighbour. I wish Jackie and Steve success, fun and relaxation in all their new projects and goals.

The reason why I volunteered to be secretary is because I was concerned that our allotment site would become directly managed by the council if we could not find a new secretary. I think that we will be better off managing the site ourselves and that is why I decided to step forward.

New Allotment Tenants
A couple of months ago, when I started working with Jackie to find new tenants, the number of vacant plots felt a bit daunting. I thought it might take us a little time to find people to take them on. However, in a relatively short time we have let a number of plots. I am delighted to welcome all our new plot holders. They have much work to do so please say hello to them, encourage them and offer help.

We still have 5 plots without tenants. If you know anyone who would like an allotment, please ask them to submit the application form on the website or get in touch with me.

Community Working Party
We had a successful Community Working Party on Saturday 7th November. Around 14 people contributed a couple of hours of their time which was excellent. The group’s hard work on the new path to the annexe means that it is now open. Furthermore work was done clearing glass, brambles and bricks from Harry’s plots (the ones near the main gate). It was also a chance to chat and get to know each other better. Thanks to everyone who was there, your support is really appreciated. I plan the next Community Working Party for 10am Saturday 7th December. Please come along. It would be great if we could get more of us together than last time. Everyone is welcome whether you can do a little or a lot. Possible jobs include making boundaries around the plots, trimming hedges, clearing carpets and rubbish etc. The aim is to get the plots to the stage where we can let them to new tenants. We will meet at 10am near the main gate and there will be tea, coffee, biscuits and maybe bacon and sausages !!!!! I hope to see you there.

Enjoy your allotments

Dave

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