ABAS MINUTES OF 09/03/2015

 

Open Meeting at Astley Bridge Cricket Club

 

ABAS AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

ABAS exists to achieve fair treatment for all plot-holders on allotment sites within the Borough boundaries. It seeks to achieve this through the effective representation of plot-holders and societies to the Council and the provision of support to individual societies.

 

MINUTES OF LAST MEETING

The Minutes of the AGM having been posted on the Association’s Blog-site at http://www.abas2014.blogspot.co.uk the Committee moved to accept those minutes as a true and accurate record

There were no outstanding matters arising from the minutes of the AGM

 

MEMBERSHIP

ABAS membership currently covers some 502 plot-holders (either through their society or individually)

ABAS’ target is to increase that membership to cover all 950+ plot-holders on Council plots

Membership renewals (for 2016) will be due in June / July -

 

SHOWS AND COMPETITIONS

Borough Allotments Competition

Judging will take place in June / July 2015

Entry forms were made available from the Treasurer at the end of the meeting. Other forms will be mailed out to Site / Society Secretaries during March.

 

Onion and Leek Show

Will take place on the 27^th September 2015 at Astley Bridge Cricket Club

A provisional schedule of classes has been prepared by the Show Committee and will be published on the blog-site, together with the scoring system for class 1. The show will be judged by a National Vegetable Society Judge.

 

ABAS SPEAKERS’ PROGRAMME

Two speakers have been arranged

13^th April – Dave Metcalfe – ‘Exhibition Onions’

11^th May – J Woods ‘ ‘Growing and Showing’

These meetings will start at 7.30 p.m.

 

Other speakers will be arranged on topics agreed with the members

There will be raffles at these events to raise funds to support our costs in arranging the speakers, the Allotment Competitions and the Onion and Leek Show

 

THE COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT PROGRAMME

The Council has launched an initiative called the Community Empowerment Programme

There are two elements – small projects for which one-off grants are available and larger projects which can be funded for up to 2 years.

Any project must demonstrate that it

• Saves the Council expenditure AND / OR
• Enables the continued provision of a service which would otherwise be cut AND / OR
• Enables a service which has been discontinued to be reintroduced

Details are available on the Council web-site www.bolton.gov.uk

 

 

 

REPORT BACK ON THE COMMITTEE’S MEETING WITH MALCOLM RUSSELL 24.02.2015

There are no foreseen changes to existing communications between the Council and ABAS and/or Society Secretaries

The annual OMA reviews will continue with existing OMA sites, there may be some simplification of the earlier agreements

The Council wishes to consider whether on sites where there is no society it could appoint a single person (who would have to be an individual member of ABAS) to act as Site Representative

The Council has now completed its billing exercise (begun October 2014) and in its view resolved all issues

As part of its review, in future ‘Eviction Notices’ will be served by Registered Post (i.e. not placed on plots)

As part of its review the Council will be issuing new guidance to Site Secretaries about plots which are re-let during the period July – Sept (inclusive)

There are currently some 50 vacant plots (borough-wide) available for re-letting

 

From discussions we think the Council currently feel under pressure on two fronts.

• The numbers on the Council waiting list - hence the notion of splitting plots to get more people off it and more quickly.
• Income - the allotments budget is balanced and there is no leeway, there is a need to keep rents coming in - hence the need to get plots re-let quickly

This has led to more suggestions from them to split plots as they become vacant and demands that site secretaries on OMA sites re-let vacated plots promptly. Abas has posted a procedure on the blog-site which Site Secretaries might wish to adopt if under pressure to split plots 

 

REPORTS BACK FROM SOCIETIES AND ISSUES ARISING

Society Secretaries report increasing frustration with communications with the Allotments Section. We appreciate that the section is understaffed (essentially just one part-time clerical worker who has many other duties as well) but there is a strong feeling that some matters e.g. responses to the Monthly Reports are not adequately dealt with.

v  It was suggested that societies should keep a record of all issues raised with the Council. They should inform ABAS of these issues on a monthly basis so that ABAS can present a Borough-wide picture to the Allotments section in future meetings.

There are issues relating to Break-ins and Vandalism on Allotments Sites.

v  It was suggested that secretaries should a) ensure that any member affected by a break-in or vandalism reports this individually to the police b) that the secretary also informs ABAS and c) that ABAS keeps a central log of all allotment=based incidents. ABAS could then seek a meeting with representatives of GMP about the problems.

v  It was further suggested that a representative of GMP be invited to speak at the June meeting about schemes such as Allotment Watch and about security in general.

 

ISSUES REMAINING FROM 2014 – CLAMMERCLOUGH, CEMETERY RD. ETC.

Having held a site meeting Clammerclough have decided not to proceed with plans for an OMA

No information has been received from Cemetery Rd. We understand that Malcolm Russell is pursuing the matter with the Cemeteries section whose contractor caused the problems

 

EXTERNAL LINKS

Links to the National Vegetable Society – ABAS has now collectively joined the National Vegetable Society and members will be eligible to access its website and services. The Secretary is exploring how this may be done and will post updates on the blogsite.

Links to the North-West Counties Allotment Association – The Chair and Treasurer have volunteered to act as liaison with the NWCAA and will be attending its AGM on the 29^th March,

Links to the National – The Regional Mentor is currently on sick leave and we have also had no communication with the Regional Representative – it is hoped to reopen contacts via the NWCAA AGM.

ANY OTHER BUSINESS

 

DATE AND TIME OF NEXT MEETING

Monday 13^th April – 7.30 start as we have a guest speaker at Astley Bridge Cricket Club