MINUTES 09/07/18

Minutes of the Meeting of ABAS held 9^th July 2018

At Astley Bridge Cricket Club

Present: 16 people attended

Apologies were received from Carol Deplitch and Dave Jackson

Dave is now recovering from his operation and all went well. Meeting attendees wished Dave a rapid recovery.

Minutes of the June Meeting

The minutes having been posted on the Abas Blog Site and there being no corrections, the Minutes were accepted to be correct.

Matters Arising

• Site Visits by Malcolm Russell and the roll out of the revised OMA, no reports of any visits from those present at the meeting, other than Green Lane Allotments Horwich and Harpers Lane, Bolton. William Longworth reported that Green Lane have had a visit from MR and they have been issued with a copy of the OMA, a copy of the Waiting List and they have re let one of their vacant Plots
• No Refresher Monitor yet issued.
• Hatfield Road Allotments, Abas have received a response from the Allotments Section who stated that to their knowledge the Portaloos are still present on site, George Wild will check with his contact.
• Progress Meeting with Malcolm Russell, no date has yet been fixed as MR is on Vacation.
• Abas Membership

          A number of sites have still not Paid their Annual subscription to the
          Association. Current membership still stands at 399 plot holders
          Abas is now collection membership subscriptions [£1] for 2019 
          Terry Farrell requested that    these should ideally paid by our October
          Meeting so membership can be updated for our November AGM

         Bolton Allotments Competition,

(the Fairhurst,Greenhalgh,New Tenants and Rose Bowl Competitions), is again been run and Judged by ABAS in 2018. There are some 33 entries plus 5 for the Rose Bowl from 10 Allotment Sites. Judging of the First round took place on W/C 25th June and the Second round will now take place on W/C 16th July

• The Annual Vegetable Show , The Show will be held on Saturday 4th August at Trinity Church Tonge Fold , there are 25 varied Vegetable Classes and Show Schedules are now available and were distributed to those present at the meeting and more copies can be obtained from Terry Farrell Telephone # [07863933064, Please Promote and Support the ABAS Vegetable Show]
• GM Spatial Plan, The revised plan was due to be issued in June 2018 and has now been further delayed due to the production of revised forecasts for the population figures for Greater Manchester.The Revised plan is now expected to be issued in October followed by a 12 week consultation.
• What's On ,   Please tell us of any events that you are planning or you think will be of interest to Plot Holders

      §  August 11^th Open Day at Sapling Road

§  August 12^th Summer Festival and Show at Harpers Lane Allotments

§  August 18^th Open Day and Show at Moss Lea Allotments

§  September 8^th Open Day at Settle Street Allotments

§  September 8^th  Horwich Annual Home and Produce Show, Horwich Community Centre – contact horwich.gov.uk

• Grants Etc., Abas are trying to assess follow up to the Awards for All training Session.  Amongst those present there were no reports of any Grant considerations other than Tonge Fold  which had some discussions at their last Committee Meeting

The Committee will now contact those societies who had representatives at the CVS   Training Session to request feed back

• A.O.B

          Monthly Reports, of the 5 OMA Site Secretaries present only 1 

           has had any responses to their Monthly Reports,

          There was a General Opinion of those Present that the Allotments

          Section of the Council was not responsive to reports or committed to the OMA

          The Secretary of one Major Allotments Site stated that he was dissatisfied with the lack of
           response and the Allotments Section does not respond to the whole of the Monthly Report but 
          only to Specific  items of concern.

The Chair mentioned that the Abas Committee are considering a survey (4/5 Questions) of all OMA Secretaries to establish the current feelings regarding the OMA 

• Potential Hose Pipe Ban, Harpers Lane raised the Question that if a Hose Pipe Ban was introduced how does it affect Allotments? Terry stated that as Allotments are Food Growing Associations we are not affected, but the Committee advised members to conserve water. Hose pipes should only be used to top up water barrels/buts whenever possible. It is preferable to water with watering cans whenever possible.

• Insurance

         Some General discussion took place regarding the Features and Benefits of having Insurance

on Allotment Sites. One Allotments Site stated that they had been unable to contact Blue Fin

and eventual went with Shield Insurance. The Chair has subsequently investigated this

matter. Bluefin have been taken over by JELF and Allotment Insurance is available through

JELF’s Northampton office. The Chair is getting more details and when we have them we will

place them on this blog-site.

• Date of Next Meeting Monday 13th August @ ABCC 8pm Prompt