Minutes of Last Meeting
and Matters Arising
Matters Arising from the
Meeting
It was stated at the last meeting that a
member society had been told by a Council official that having
paid membership to the NSALG the society gained automatic public liability
cover through NSALG. This is in direct contradiction of information given by
the National itself. Members are directed to two articles in “Allotment and Leisure Gardener” Issue 3, 2014 pages
7 and 8 which give more information.
Matters raised between
Meetings
The position of
registered buddies – The Council has said that buddies acquire no rights to succeed to
the plot when / if the tenant retires. The Association feels that this is not a
fair situation, and whilst we accept that in the past the buddy system has been
abused to help people jump the waiting list, we will ask the Council to
reconsider its ruling. We are encouraged that the Council has re-opened the
ability to retrospectively turn a tenancy into a joint tenancy. The meeting was
however told that the Council is intending to restrict this facility to
spouses, partners and family members.
The definition of a
community plot – the Assistant Secretary repeated the definition given to us for the
last meeting – any plot being cultivated (with the Council’s approval) for
which no tenancy agreement is applied. This means that various forms may be
adopted to suit each site’s individual needs,
Some Societies are having
difficulties sending Stage 1 ‘Breach of Tenancy’ letters to plot-holders as they do not have
current addresses for the tenant and cannot contact the tenant. The Council
will not release the addresses that they hold to the Society (Data Protection).
It has been suggested that one solution in such cases will be to go straight to
Stage 2 and have the Council issue a formal notice. It was suggested that the
Council should provide lists of CURRENT tenants to society secretaries (to
include contact addresses), each year after the rent payments in October and
whenever new tenants are taken on. It was suggested that Tenancy Renewal
notices might be amended to contain a clause in which tenants agree for their
contact details to be given to Site Secretaries for administrative purposes.
We have been informed
that Bolton Council may be extending the OMA principle to Bowling Clubs. We are not aware of the
terms Bowling Clubs are being offered and so members were asked to use their contacts
to find out what is being offered.
The NWCAA has issued warnings
about ‘Protecting
Our Plots’ and on the need for vigilance in the face of the new ‘developer
friendly’ planning climate. Members were directed to look at the website www.locality.org.uk for information on
community rights and community assets and at the National’s website www.nsalg.org.uk members are urged take any opportunity to
speak to their ward councillors and their MP about the need to protect
Allotments sites.
A number of points have
been raised by the Regional Rep, and newly elected Chair of the NAS Management
Committee (Andy Percival).
Mr Percival has asked sites who are asked to
undertake unpaid for work by their Councils to consider this very carefully. He
argues that doing so makes it harder to hold Councils to fulfilling their
responsibilities to maintain sites properly. He argues that sites which cannot
achieve self-management, should aim for self-maintenance status in which
councils pay an allowance to societies for conducting minor Maintenance works.
In general OMAs don’t include much maintenance
(weed-killing or some grass cutting at most) mostly being concerned with
administration, (primarily new tenancies and mal-cultivation) but the point
about an allowance is one ABAS has raised frequently.
The situation in Bolton (as understood by
ABAS) is that Bolton Council has flatly refused to support true self-management
or to offer any such allowances to Societies or to debate the level of services
we receive
ABAS would like to take this opportunity to
correct the view (held by some) that ABAS promotes OMAs. ABAS believes that
OMAs offer much of value but also involve Societies in some costs. It is for
each Society to decide (in its own individual case) whether the advantages of
being able to directly influence the letting of plots, the operation of the
tenancy rules (especially the issuing of mal-cultivation notices) and the
building of structures on their site outweigh the work / costs involved in their particular
OMA. For a number of sites the choice has been to adopt an OMA , for others it
has not been accepted. ABAS supports all members societies in their decisions.
In the recent report from
the North-West Region Allotments Officers Forum it was stated that in some other authorities, Society Secretaries carrying out duties similar to those our Site Secretaries
carry out under OMAs receive benefits for so doing. Possible Benefits have
included – a free plot for the Society Secretary and payments of up to £85 p.a.
There was no support for individual benefits to be paid to Society officers but
the meeting felt that some payment to the Society would be appropriate and
instructed the Committee to raise the matter with the Council. It was also felt
that societies should raise the matter with their ward councillors.
RESULTS OF THE COMPETITIONS
have been posted on the blog-site.
The prizes were presented on August 10th by Cllr
Sufrana Bashire Ismail at Harpers Lane Allotments Site.
Issues from the Floor
Dealey Road reported that there was a clause
in their OMA that specifically allowed for surplus produce donated by
plot-holders to their Society to be sold by the Society to raise funds for the
Site. The meeting felt that such a clause should be added to all OMAs.
The question of gates and locks was raised.
Some societies felt that grants for new locks etc. were still available from
Area Forums, whilst others felt they were not. Other sources of grant funding
can be accessed through the ‘Portal’ at Bolton CVS.
On a lighter note, a question was raise as to
how a pet rabbit (which had been released onto a site) might be captured without
harming the animal. Numerous suggestions were made.
Date and Venue of Next
Meeting
The next meeting will take place at Astley
Bridge Cricket Club at 8.00 p.m. on Monday September 8th.
