Archive for the ‘Notices’ Category

Charity Garden

Posted in Home, News, Notices, Services on 15th Aug 2017|

As most of you know Community Payback have done a lot of work for us over the last few years in particular bringing back overgrown gardens so they are easier to relet and jobs around the communal areas which have saved a few of us a lot of hard work. This year they took on a garden for their own with regular supervisor,  Ben.

It was badly overgrown and after improving it they started to grow veg. Their produce like everyone’s is now ready. They are donating their fruit and vegetables to

ST PAUL’S PRESBYTERY SOUP KITCHEN at Lenton.

They are feeding lunch to 20 to 40 people each weekday. All are vulnerable and some homeless. Although they get dry goods donated they do not receive fresh fruit and vegetables from any other source. Nothing is wasted and anything not used is passed onto another local kitchen.

So if  you have any surplus crops that you really don’t need please consider donating them to the the group who will deliver them to the St Paul’s every friday morning. You can take produce to the garden 34 (Joe’s old one)  4th up from the Association  Building early on Friday mornings or let me know you have something and i will take it from you and pass it on myself.

Many thanks

Jackie

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A Summer Reminder

Posted in Events, Home, Notices on 24th Jul 2017|

Hello Everybody. Its that time of the year when i need to remind you of the Councils requirements of your tenancy agreement. Gardens should now be at least 50 % cultivated and that means with fruit, vegetables or flowers. Grass does not count. Weeds should be as under control as possible and hedges should have or be in the process of being trimmed and neatened in preparation for a good cut in the Autumn. The requirement of the council is that hedges should be 5ft high, we allow a neat 6ft if the hedgerow is mixed or has a wire fence in it, which would stop cutting to the required height. The council inspection this year asked us to remove any barbed wire around gates and any in hedges, so please start this process. If you have a problem complying with any of the above or are thinking of giving up your garden i would appreciate knowing as soon as possible. I shall be doing my own checks over the next week and certainly some letters will be going out asking for improvements to ensure an offer of a tenancy for October.

Don’t forget the BBQ on Saturday 2nd September, further details will follow.

Jackie

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OLD PARK FARM FUN DAY

Posted in Events, Notices on 24th Jun 2017| Leave a Comment »

THIS YEARS EVENT WILL BE HELD ON SATURDAY 2nd SEPTEMBER 2017

ALL GARDEN HOLDERS, FAMILY AND FRIENDS ARE, OF COURSE WELCOME.  YOU CAN SHOW , VEGETABLES,FRUIT OR FLOWERS, ANYTHING YOU ARE PROUD OF, SUCCESSES, FAILURES, AMUSING OR OF INTEREST.

AN AUCTION WILL FOLLOW OF ENTRIES WITH PROCEEDS GOING TOWARDS FOOD COSTS.

IF YOU WISH TO SELL SURPLUS PLANTS, CRAFTS  ETC THEN YOU ARE WELCOME TO SET UP A STALL.  ANY OTHER IDEAS PLEASE DISCUSS WITH ME. PRODUCE TO THE SHOW AREA BY 1PM AT LATEST.

THE FREE BBQ FOOD AND DRINKS INCLUDING BEER WILL BE SERVED FROM ABOUT 1.30PM.

YOU WILL BE ABLE TO PAY YOUR RENT IF YOU WISH.

LATER. I WILL ALSO ASK FOR RSVPS’ TO ENSURE WE HAVE ENOUGH FOOD TO GO AROUND.

IT WAS REALLY ENJOYABLE LAST YEAR WE GOT THROUGH 60 BURGERS EVEN IN POURING RAIN IT BE NICE TO SEE AS MANY OF YOU THERE AGAIN.

JACKIE

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Time For A Moan

Posted in Notices, Services on 15th Jun 2017|

Following a couple of recent incidents might I remind everyone of the following.

All of the committee members of the association are volunteers.  None are paid and all work, of which there is plenty, is carried out by some of them purely on a goodwill basis.

This work takes many forms from administration of the gardens as a whole including the following:

  • Rent collection, management and delivery of bills, chasing up of late payers.
  • Management of tenants details.
  • Banking of cash, money management and account keeping.
  • Seeking, interviewing then hiring and firing of garden holders.
  • Dispute management.
  • Ordering, taking delivery of and storage of supplies.
  • Selling of and accounting for supplies.
  • On and off site meetings with council officials.
  • Organising gardeners to comply with changing council standards.
  • Organising social events.
  • Running social events.
  • Organising deliveries of chippings.
  • Organising deliveries and removal of skips.
  • Organising communal areas / storage of recyclable materials.
  • Removal of dangerous materials from site such as asbestos.

This is just a sample of the many administrative​ tasks required and does not take into account the recent lengthy work to renegotiate the ​current lease which remains ongoing since 2007.   This has entailed the establishment of company status for the gardens and the need for policies to be established complying with company law.

All of this of course does not touch on the physical maintenance of the gardens and grounds such as

  • Hedge trimming.
  • Grass cutting.
  • Gate and fence mending.
  • Plumbing excavation and repairs.
  • Road maintenance.
  • Pallet collection storage and distribution.
  • Collection of dangerous materials.
  • Tree maintenance and removal.
  • Until recently communal fires now stopped because of garden holder abuse.

This is not a definitive list.

All of this work is done free and gratis and done for the garden membership as a whole with no expectation of thanks.  Could we therefore ask those of you who wrongly think that this is done for our own personal reward to think again.  We are not your employees and  we too have our own gardens to maintain in addition to all of the above.

A little thoughtfulness before presumptions are made about our roles would be appreciated along with the occasional provision of some of your time to help with the upkeep of the estate.  The gardens are a community and just as much your responsibility as that of the committee.

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Pedestrian Gate

Posted in News, Notices, Services on 10th Apr 2017| Leave a Comment »

For the information of all allotment holders on the main site.  The pedestrian gate fitted alongside the new main gates has been fitted with a new lock, utilising your main gate key, and can now be used where vehicular access is not required.  The pathway inside the gate has been laid with concrete to make access safer also.  Please be aware of the scaffold pole set into the new concrete to hold back one of the main gates when in use.  As with the main gates do not leave the pedestrian gate unlocked when unattended.

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Communal Bonfires And Recycling Bay

Posted in Events, Notices, Services on 10th Apr 2017| Leave a Comment »

We offered to put on communal bonfires to help individuals get rid of non or hard to compost materials. Disappointingly even after the notice put out on March 20th the day after the AGM, when this was discussed, some still thought that it was appropriate to put plastics, carpets, a table, sheets of metal, insulating material and wheelbarrow loads of soil, brick debris and vegetable matter on the pile to be burned.

This is not appropriate!  Some of the rubbish put on the fires lately are health hazards to the person firing the bonfire, never mind the potential environmental damage.

Until further notice there will be no communal bonfire on the main car park. So do not put waste matter there anticipating someone else will get rid of it.

There should be little cause to burn anything through the summer months most garden produce can and should be composted.  Hedges especially privet will compost and no one should be cutting that for the next two months because of nesting birds. The recycling centre at Lenton Lane also takes green waste for free.

The recycling bay was set up to be an exchange of useful things between gardeners not a lazy person’s dumping ground. Beer cans, empty bin liners, bricks and party hats are not at all useful to the greater majority here, they are also things that may put your tenancy at risk if the owners are discovered!  Take your rubbish home don’t expect other people to get rid of it.  If the rubbish continues the bays will stop.

A small few of us have to deal with this abuse, to take the rubbish off site, to check the fires are safe and worst of all to set these fires, without benefit to themselves in fact quite the contrary.  It’s a shame that a few people are willing to abuse a service that could be a benefit to all.

If this causes individuals a problem please don’t hesitate  to contact me and come and have a chat.

A big thank you to Eddie Scothern for his generosity in offering to use his privately paid for skip to get rid of the carpets and other rubbish and helping to clear up.

Jackie Medcalf

Secreatry.

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Asbestos Removal

Posted in Events, How To, Notices, Services on 21st Mar 2017|

Very shortly we will be visited by an Asbestos removal firm, they are coming to do an assessment of our problem and give a quote for the removal of our stock pile.

If you have any asbestos pieces left on your garden will you either take it yourselves to the pile outside Steve Yorke’s garden or contact me urgently to come and have a look at it.

It is really important that we get rid of this stuff once and for all so please check your gardens as a matter of urgency and get back to me. Please pass the word around to others who may not be aware of this.

Thank you
Jackie

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IMPORTANT NOTICE: ALLOTMENT BONFIRES

Posted in News, Notices on 20th Mar 2017| Leave a Comment »

At the Annual General Meeting held on Sunday 19th March it was agreed that the only fires allowed on the allotments would be those set on burning Sundays.

The practice of small brazier fires or similar allowed to burn at any time will now cease. This is being done to reduce the risk of complaints and air pollution.

Please take your responsibilities seriously where fires are concerned. Wherever possible compost or leave waste to rot naturally in your garden, or take it off site. Before you light a fire check on wind direction, is the smoke likely to cause a problem, are there already fires causing smoke on site,  if so don’t light yours.  Once a fire is burning DO NOT add wet materials to it as this is the greatest cause of smoke generation.

Communal fires will be provided but only if people stop abusing them. Over the last 3 or 4 months we have had plastics, aerosol containers, carpet tiles, wheelbarrow loads of soil and vegetable waste, insulating material and sometime during this last week a significant amount of carpet, including some that obviously had not been used on a garden put on communal fires. This incident is particularly galling after the number of skips we have had over the last year. I am prepared to issue formal warnings of risk of loss of tenancy to anyone putting us at risk of prosecution and more importantly putting those few who set these bonfires alight in risk of injury or health problems by not following guidelines and common sense.

The committee will reserve the right to announce a change in burning sunday times if there has been consecutively bad weather on previous burning sundays.

As a timely illustration of the problems fires cause us,  after the meeting on Sunday we were informed that one of the local businesses had approached us informally concerned with the amount of ash on their property after burning day.  If the problem persists they are prepared to make a formal complaint to the Council.

So think before you burn and wherever possible dont! Do not abuse communal bonfires or the recycling areas come to that and under no circumstances do you bring rubbish onto site from home or businesses to get rid of it.

Shed stove fires are allowed but again, dry wood only please.

Jackie Medcalf
Secretary OPFACIC

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