Old Park Farm Garden Holders Association

We are again keeping prices as last years apart from Growell Granular Fertiliser as the wholesale price has risen, although it is still a lot cheaper than buying it in smaller amounts from garden centres.
We do not look for a profit but prices are rounded for ease of money handling.

We have a few Grow Bags left I will order more if they go over next week or so.

Grow bags 40ltr – £2.60

Mother Earth Compost 70lt – £4.20

Lime – £4.30

Fish Blood and Bone – £12.00

Growell Granular – £18.00

8ft Bamboo canes. Each – £0.40

We have a couple of bundles of 20 canes for £5 left

You can ask me. Steve Williams (garden next door but one to mine). Steve Yorke (end of the main drive) or Mark Robinson ( garden 17 main drive 3rd from end, opposite Chris)

You can always text me and I will arrange to meet you.

Jackie

YOU ARE ADVISED TO READ THE WHOLE ENTRY TO THE END

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

As some of you will be aware the water is now back on. As soon as it was turned on we sprang a leak. Steve Yorke yet again dug down 3 foot of mud to get to the fault. Steve Medcalf this time helped to repair it. I dread to think how much it would cost us to get a plumber in to repair our system but I guarantee it would not be for free. Please, please, report any dripping tap or obvious leak. Do not leave hose pipes attached to the taps and double check you have turned the taps off.

Jackie

If anyone would like a small glass greenhouse please contact me. Swop or low cost. Will put you in touch with the owner. First come first served.

One of the garden holders has lost a set of very important keys, he thinks on the allotments somewhere. If anyone has found a set or comes across a set on your travels around the site would you please return them to Jackie so she can get them back to the person who has lost them. The keys have a metal belt loop to attach them to trousers.

Thanks

Jackie

Below is the agenda for Sunday 17th’s AGM.

Please note I don’t intend to supply so many paper copies of last years minutes in bulk this year as it is such a waste of resources. 2 copies will be displayed for reading before the meeting. I will read the minutes out at the start. The minutes are posted below please feel free to print your own by cut and paste. Or email me and I will send a copy to you electronically. If you have a subject to raise under AOB please tell me before the start if possible. Jackie

AGENDA AGM 17th MARCH 2019

Apologies

Minutes & Matters arising from 18th March 2018.

Chairman’s report.

Treasurer’s report. (To be delivered by secretary)

Secretary.

1.State of play with gardens and Inspection.
2. Dobies seed discount
3. Repair to main fence.

Main Agenda Items

Water saving and how last years usage and the new billing system affects us and the water charges.
Introduction of Helpful Watering information.

Community days: Frequency, timings. Ideas from floor.

New council proposals for new lease and rent charges and choices facing us.
Suggested rent rise this year.

Committee Nominations

A.O. B

MINUTES OF ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING ON 18TH MARCH 2018

DRAFT VERSION

Present: Steve Yorke, Steve Medcalf, Jackie Medcalf, Steve Porter, Adam Wheat, Jane Bowden, Adrian Robbins, Robin Roberts, Paul Barron, Kay Barron, Ronnie Gayle, Mary Corbett and Sara Davies

Apologies: Steve Williams, Mark Robinson, Tom Hutchinson, Peter Grove and Kay Graham.

The Chairman: Steve Yorke opened the meeting at 10.30am by welcoming those that had attended. His remarks included mentioning the very successful show we had held in September and went on to thank the committee for the previous years work and for those non-committee members who had helped out during the year.

The Secretary: Jackie Medcalf then read out the minutes of 19th March 2017.

There were no matters arising or questions and the minutes were passed as an accurate reflection of the meeting. Steve Medcalf proposed and seconded by Robin Roberts.

In the absence of Steve Williams (Treasurer), Jackie explained that we as a committee had approved the accounting year dates to be changed from April to March to the Calendar year so to January to December. This had been done so that only one set of accounts had to be produced not two sets with one going to companies house at a different time of year from the end of March. So not only do we have to inform the City Council of how our money is spent but we also submit the accounts to Company House for scrutiny there. The bank account can only have monies withdrawn or spent via 2 signatures. Jackie had been informed that a tenant had been speculating on how monies are spent and accounted for.  Hopefully, this will clarify the situation.

The  Council had finally caught up with the rent bills so they have been paid. The ring-fenced key money held was £1550. The stock balance (compost) was £807 so the workable balance as of 31/12/17 was £5861.51.

The inspection had gone ok.  A few gardens were not hitting the 50% cultivation some of which were spoken to last year. Also the fact that we still had too much barbed wire around.

Jackie reported that basically she had know met the council’s “Policy” requirements for the new lease apart from the Waiting list as we were waiting to look at a new database from the council that should allow direct input of comings and goings.  A risk assessment had been completed for the pathways and boundaries though officially we do not need a written one.

A Health and Safety advisory notice had been written and this had been done as a shared document with the council and had there approval and input.  This was about personal safety and trying to make sure everyone was working as safely as possible and also had some realisation of what could happen if they had an accident or were taken ill. One of the main issues was banning people from bringing hazardous materials onto the site.  This document would be published on the web and on notice boards after the meeting. It would also form part of a new tenancy agreement and constitution and some point in the future.

Jackie reported that she had received an important paper from the council on Friday afternoon.  Evidently, there had been consultations with the direct sites over rent structures based on the council costs of running the service.  They were now opening this consultation up to the associations.  Basically, they are saying they cannot afford to run allotments as they do now and there will be charges for letters warning for breach of tenancy and for actual breaches of tenancy.  The rent will go up in increments to 56p per sq metre which if we were to follow that figure then our average rent would be around £240 per garden.  From what the document says our rent will be set by an unknown as yet negotiation based on occupancy, the efficiency of management and having the new lease in place.  Monies raised cannot offset rents which but if we receive 100 percent of our rent back, which is the plan then the obvious question is how can they control how we spend it or what the rent is set at.  Jackie has asked for a meeting with the council and already replied asking for the lease to be speeded up and offering to use our experiences as a model for others.

Community Payback has been on site since 2011 doing a lot of the communal work and making sure we didn’t end up with overgrown derelict allotments.  Last year we ran a charity garden which was successful, however, due to the privatisation of the scheme they can no longer commit to us on a regular basis so the charity garden has had to end.

Steve Yorke then presented the idea that we would have a communal work day on the 3rd Sunday every month, with jobs to be done published that people can volunteer for. With regard to the item above keeping a well-run site could be even more important than it is now. It was deemed a good idea and will start in April.  We are only asking for a couple of hours of your time and if enough join in it will not be every month.

Steve then explained that the council have measured the site by satellite and it shows how over the years plots have changed.  There is no compulsion for us to recharge our gardens but new tenants from October 1st will be charged the exact square meterage. If anybody wants there’s comparing we will do so but beware some rents will go up!  Please note this will not be done retrospectively and the change will start from the new rental year in October.  Jackie suggestion is that when we finally get the new lease and understand how our rent will be set in the future that then it will be an appropriate time to change all the rents over.  Please note we are only talking a few pounds either way on the annual bill !!.

Steve talked about Mares Tail which is an increasing problem, please blitz it and keep on top of it. It can be burnt, treated with a mixture of vinegar and washing up liquid, or spayed with Curtail.  If you need advice or help please ask.

Asbestos: If any more is found, there is an area outside Steve’s garden to deposit it.  Don’t dump it.  Seek help if you require it.

Metal drums have been provided for the barbed wire so it can be removed from the site.

Pallets. Our supplies of good fencing wood have dried up.  We only have a small amount left. If anyone can confirm a new supplier please contact.  They seem to be recycling them more.

The Chairman confirmed that all members of the committee are happy to stand again there were no objections from those present.  New members would be welcome as then tasks could be split down more in the future.  Also, some of the present committee will want to step down at some point.

The BBQ and Show will be held on Saturday 1st September any suggestions for activities/stalls etc will be gratefully received.

NO AOB’s although the Chairman did say that we appeared to be ahead of the game and thanked Jackie Medcalf for getting us into that position.

Summary

Firstly, thank you for those few who made the effort to attend on a cold Sunday morning or sent apologies for not doing so (5 only). As only 6 non-committee members attended there are a couple of points that I wish to summarize as they affect everybody.

Inspection 2018. Again please remove all barbed wire from your gates and fences as instructed last year at that AGM, also, see the Health and Safety Guidelines published today which re-iterate this.

We can no longer expect Community Payback to be on site as often as they have been. Communal jobs, therefore, need to be done by us. The third Sunday of the month starting in April will be a day of community jobs that need doing. We are hoping that many of you will be prepared to offer a couple of hours on a regular basis.

I received notification on the Friday before the meeting that due to council budgets there will be a massive hike in direct let allotment rents to 56p per sq mt over next 4 years this is the equivalent of our charges being £240 per garden per year. This will have a massive impact on the way our rent is set and looks as if it will be based on good management of the site and determined by the work we have done towards the new lease and subsequent management agreement.

The BBQ this year will be on Saturday 1st September.

If people wish to know more about any of the above then please feel free to contact me.

Jackie Medcalf
Secretary

We are continuing to have problems with the new water billing company basically they want to charge us monthly by direct debit based on last years usage. We want to get another no water usage month in so we will not turn the water back on until the end of March early April. Certainly for the next 2 weeks there is plenty of rain forecast so you should have enough stored for seedlings. If this causes any body real problems please talk to me.

Jackie