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Thanks to those of you that attended and made positive contributions. These are the main points I think.
The change from one water billing authority to another had caused your committee some headaches but hopefully, we were winning the battle. However last years bill was still over double the norm so please conserve water not for only for billing purposes but because we should be doing. (See the news about only 25 years UK water supply left) If you have a building on your plot you should have a water collection system set up. If we can help we will. There was some watering information that we will circulate shortly. Steve Yorke has been reading the meter and paying the monthly bill out of his own pocket to stop the billing authority from getting access to our bank account as they originally wanted £500 a month in direct debit. Which would have cleared us out? Hopefully, we are now winning the admin battle.
The main fence damage.
Jackie trying to persuade authority to get crash barriers put up. Council agreed to pay half costs.
Inspection has not yet happened. When the date is known will circulate it. Please keep on top of new weeds and clear off your garden any rubbish or stored materials that are not directly to be used for gardening purposes!! (Which should not be on the garden in the first place). Our environmental stability is very important to us soft furnishings, plastics, carpets and insulation materials should play no part on these gardens.
Community work days will be varied, advertised in advance with a list of tasks and tools required. Refreshments or similar afterward.
The council is proposing to implement a lease charge instead of “rent” with a new lease and management agreement which is overly complicated. In theory, if we don’t accept it our rents will equal direct sites which will be 46p per sq meter, plus water charges. The scale of the lease charge would mean we had to pay them £2400 or thereabouts. Discussions are ongoing between a group of associations and the council to try to reduce this to the bare minimum cost of the council’s involvement which would be less than £1000. I am working hard to keep our rents affordable I will keep you informed. But I cannot guarantee that our counter offer will work.
There was some talk of forming a “steering committee” for social occasions?. Clarification needed because after the meeting it seemed the suggestion was to form another committee. My wish is for more people to come on the official committee and form smaller task groups. But we cannot have 2 committees. There are legal requirements to take into consideration.
BBQ and show will be on 31st August.
Clarifications.
Pallets: As far as I can recollect no one has ever been accused of stealing pallets. If they are outside Steve Yorke’s fence help yourselves. However, it was not much appreciated last year when someone sorted through the contents of the chairman’s trailer stole the best bits of wood and left the rest on the floor! The tenancy agreement quite clearly states that gardeners should not go onto any garden apart from their own without permission and that includes gardens not occupied or derelict. Steve Yorke goes every Tuesday on his own to collect pallets, he loads them on his trailer and brings them back unloads them then goes back for more. He will drop them off at your garden as a favour but there are some who seem to think it’s their right to get him to deliver them, then moan when it does not happen on time. No one ever asks if they can help and no one ever offers money towards petrol. So please do not complain that you have to collect them from the car park!. Don’t take them at all if you are not going to use them and don’t leave a mess for him to clear up if you do!
Likewise, we on the committee are gardeners who do admin and many other jobs most of which you don’t see or get told about like mending water leaks an unpleasant filthy job to do. Your allotment and the materials you use on it are your responsibility so freebies such as topsoil, manure, and wood chippings are your responsibility. If we get offered useful things then we accept them. Steve Yorke was offered a couple of white water tanks for his own garden and he accepted them, then generously he offered others out when more came up, the source is not guaranteed. I can understand that people would like them but if you want one maybe you should offer to do something about it and not leave it to Steve.
There is only one discount scheme mentioned on the web site which is the Dobies scheme. That has also been advertised on the notice board and main gate for several weeks. It was also mentioned at the meeting. OPF has had an account at Lakes just down the road for about 20 years, there is no discount and a minimum £50 spend. We go there to buy things like Rat poison and weed killer. Neither of which we charge gardeners for when we use it or give it out.
The perimeter near Hillarys blinds was checked after the meeting. There was no breach. There has not been a burglary from that direction for at least 3 or 4 years. The burglaries late last year were, we think committed by the same people at first they appeared to come over the gate near the railway. They stole stuff that which was later found hidden in the undergrowth for obvious removal at a later stage. The next time they came in was through Winifred’s boundary fence on old coach road and broke out from there onto the railway pathway. This breach was found early in the morning and Steve Yorke and Steve Williams repaired it within the hour which is probably why the burglars did not come back. If you see a breach in our fences then please report it and do something about it.
Rent: We are due to a rent rise next year, the committee was thinking of putting the rent up 2p this year to ease the rise and to put a gap between what we pay to the council and receive from you. I checked with the council they have indicated that they will not go ahead with our rent review whilst the present negotiations for a new lease are ongoing. That has not been confirmed yet. Therefore at the moment, I don’t see any need to raise the rent or the water rate however we absolutely retain the right to do so if circumstances change over the next few months. If this happens you will be notified before the bills come out.
Secretary’s note:
I am sorry that some of my ideas I have voiced over the last couple of years have not yet come to fruition but they are still mine and always were my ideas. Gardeners who made no comment about my plans at the time and have not offered one word or one minute of support are now querying why things have not been done. Trying to get us a new lease and now fighting off huge rent increases is time-consuming and problematic and the very recent announcement of council staffing changes (after the meeting) won’t make that any easier.
Someone said to me last year “ why should I have to do anything about it your the association” well actually no, every tenant is part of this association and at the very least all could abide by the tenancy agreement, keep the gardens looking neat and tidy, take care of our environment and respond positively to reasonable requests. That is all we ask and I don’t think that is unreasonable. If you can’t do that then I would respectfully suggest that you should not be on these allotments.
Lastly, I have decided that I will not be standing again as Secretary after this year, this is mainly down to the negativity and selfishness of the minority on these gardens who think that they can just complain without lifting a finger to help. I am not the only one who is so disillusioned and he is stepping down too. No one minds volunteering but when you are taken for granted and insulted enough is enough.
On the basis therefore of my decision you need to decide who amongst you will be taking on the post of Secretary after March next year and the other senior post on the committee. It will not be any good waiting until then to do so.
Jackie Medcalf
Secretary
Old Park Farm Garden Holders Association 