Eastney & Milton Allotment Holders Association

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

Held on MONDAY JANUARY 18th 2010

At 7.30 pm at Bransbury Park Community Centre

Present:

Mike Simpson

Chairman

 

Carole Bannister

Secretary

 

John Caws

Treasurer

 

Brian Forcey

Trading Officer

 

Janet Hawarth

 
 

Alan and Sheila Moorhouse

 
 

Lindsay Murday

 
  Gina Chambers  
  Hilary Day  
  Deb Prytherch  
 

Trevor Stark

 

Apologies:  Alice Bird, Andrew Leonard and Steve Rogers

 

Matters Arising

 

The minutes having been distributed before the meeting were taken as read.  Any matters arising will be covered under Any Other Business.

 

Secretary’s Report

 

The Plant Sale continued to be a success and raised just £2.00 less than last year, thanks to all who contributed plants and not least to Lindsay who continues to provide most of them.  The Autumn Show was thought to be the best ever, thanks to a lot of helpers turning out, and the Harvest Supper which was held at the Nelson Bar at Eastney was an excellent evening with a basket supper supplied at £5.00 a ticket.  (This was subsidized by the Association to the tune of £2.00 each.)    The Christmas Raffle, when mince pies and mulled wine were available, had a good turnout and thanks again to Shirley Gunn for the Christmas Cakes and shortbread and to the other ladies who made mince pies.  Whilst mentioning Shirley, unfortunately, she is hanging up her apron this year as for many years she has made Christmas Cakes and shortbread for the raffle but is now finding it too much!   We will all miss her good cooking, so thank you Shirley!

 

You probably know that the Council allowed the Association to have a bonfire this year!  There was a great big pile of wood which had been saved from filling up the skips and it was all gone by the morning so well worth while!

Thanks to Janet who took over the raffles this year and has provided some excellent prizes!  Thank you also to Chris O’Farrell who has kindly kept the allotment toilets nice and clean for everyone.

 

Nobody volunteered to organize a coach trip last year but as we have free entry to Wisley, perhaps someone would like to take this on!  It would only mean booking a coach and Wisley is well worth a visit at any time of the year!

 

There are still a few Christmas newsletters left in the box.  If anyone has any articles for inclusion in the next one it will be published in the Spring.

 

And finally, can we just say thank you to our Chairman, Mike Simpson.  He does a lot of work behind the scenes and spent a lot of time in the Civic Offices last year trying to get them to let us have a bonfire etc!

 

Treasurer’s Report

 

Mike introduced John Caws, the Treasurer, as the man who holds the Society’s purse strings and added that he was really appreciated by the Society!

 

John ran through the balance sheet as attached to the minutes and asked if anyone wanted him to run through the Autumn Show expenses he could do so.

 

Trading Officer’s Report

 

Mike introduced Brian Forcey, the Trading Officer, saying that he does a tremendous amount of work and that the doors of the shop always seemed to be open.

 

Brian thanked all the volunteers who worked in the shop during the year!  He apologized for the price rises of some items on sale, i.e. grow bags and said that as Warwicks had put a lot of prices up he was now buying a lot of items at Fargo.  He has the new packets of seeds in the shop, 500 packets, and added that as there were 180 members that worked out at 4 packets each!  Brian has ordered 750k of seed potatoes which should be in with a big order at the end of the month.  Mike said that Brian should let everyone know so as to get up a working party to unload the lorry.

 

Chairman’s Report

 

Mike reported that the plant sale again had been a great success and thanked all who had donated plants.

 

There was a meeting earlier in the year at the Show Ground as the Council wanted to dig it up and divide it into plots.  70 plot holders attended, 2 Councillors and Terry Hall who is now the Lord Mayor!  The allotments holders won the day and it was agreed that the show could go ahead.  Mike added that Terry Hall had subsequently come to the show in her capacity as Lord Mayor and was delighted that it was so well attended.  There was a record attendance and a record amount of people entered!  Gerald Vernon-Jackson made himself useful serving the tea and cake!  Mike added that he has spent hours at the Council offices before they would give their official sanction to the Show, they even wanted a provision made for lost children and lost adults!  The Harvest Supper was held at the Nelson Bar as it was very difficult to find a venue which would allow the Society to provide the food etc.  It was a very good venue and Mike thought we would probably go there next year!

 

The news supported us in our bid to burn all the wood on bonfire night and the Council decided that we could have a fire.  Mike added that he spent a further two hours at the Civic Offices dealing with 20 pages of information.  The fire was duly lit at 4.15 pm on bonfire night and at 4.30 the Fire Brigade turned up.  They were happy with the letter from the Council but found it difficult to turn the fire engine round.  Mike suggested that they drive up to the large car park but they thought it would melt the engine and it took them a further 20 minutes to turn round.  He reiterated that having a fire was saving the wood going into the skips and would negotiate with the Council to be allowed to burn the wood again next year.

 

Mike thanked Janet for organizing the Christmas draw and the ladies for the mince pies! 

 

Regarding the scrap collection which Mike organizes, John said it had made £445.00 which had gone into the funds.

 

Mike asked if anyone knew a welder, or a good firm, as he was anxious to get the container welded.

 

The green marquee has now been sold and Mike added that it had been a bit of a disaster but asked whether the attendees at the meeting thought replacements should be purchased or whether we should continue to hire again this year!  He asked that plot holders should let the Committee know their views!

 

Regarding the shop refurbishment, Mike had mentioned this to the Council but this was not on their agenda.  An independent structural engineer had since looked at the shop and stated that the cracks were nothing to worry about.

 

Subscription and Honorariums

 

It was agreed to keep the subscriptions at £2.50 and John Caws stated that there would be no honorariums in the future!

 

Election of Officers

 

Trevor Stark thanked the Chairman Mike Simpson on behalf of the Committee for all his work for the Association.  He said that Mike did an awful lot behind the scenes at the council and also dealt with all the scrap, from which the Society had benefited greatly.  He proposed that Mike be elected for another year and this was seconded unanimously by all present.

 

Bill Archer proposed that all the Committee Members be voted in again en bloc and Pete Bannister seconded.

 

Mike said that if there were any people that would like to become Committee Members they should get in touch.  He added that meetings were every 6-8 weeks.  It was thought that an assistant Treasurer and Secretary would be useful.  If there were any volunteers there was a suggestion box on the shop.

 

It was unanimously agreed that it would be advantageous to have a Councillor to speak up for the allotments and to ask Gerald Vernon-Jackson if he would be willing to join the Committee.

                                   

Any Other Business

 

Regarding the earthquake in Haiti it was agreed to donate £100 to the disaster fund.

 

John had had a letter back regarding the Grass Roots Loan.  He was hoping to get a grant to help towards purchasing 2 marquees and tables for the show.  He said that there were grants available but it was difficult to get one as the powers that be find fault with applications and it is very involved.  John asked for the application to be gone through and be resubmitted.

 

Tracey Jones an allotment holder expressed concern about the condition of some of the foxes on the allotments.  She had contacted the RSPCA who would only come to the allotments to meet someone if they could be there during the day!  She was informed that Anthea and Brian had been treating the foxes homeopathically for some time and gave Carole her name and address to pass on to Anthea. 

 

Charlotte Walker who works for the Health Improvement and Development Service, informed the meeting that allotments under them are to be used for a wider variety of people including children.  Volunteers needed – Carole will put in the next newsletter.

 

It was stated that the waiting list for allotments was now 4-500 and that new plot holders were being offered plots of 3 rods. 

 

Mike informed the meeting that the Council had removed the large compost heap many months ago and since then nothing had happened regarding creating new plots there.  He remarked that 75% of the heap would have been used by now!  Apparently the Parks Department have to wait for money to become available before the work can be done.  They are going to get tougher to get people off dirty plots and it was a general agreement that the Council were not chasing up.  It was commented upon that if anyone knew of a dirty plot to let the Council know! It was commented that some of the difficulty was that some plots still are not numbered and wrong plot holders had received letters.  As plot holders enter into a legal agreement it was not easy to throw people off.  It was also thought that the cost of allotments would be going up in the future.  Bill Archer commented that he has a plot opposite him which has not been worked for 3 years at least.  Lindsay knows of someone willing to give up half of their allotment and it was agreed to let Gerald Vernon-Jackson know!  Stephen Rees has told Mike that it will no longer be enough to strim a plot but that the plot holder has to be seen to be working it.  Mike said that the Society could not do anything but if they have the plot number they could also pass this information on to Gerald Vernon-Jackson.

 

Regarding dogs on the allotments, it was reported that on the day of the show there were dogs off leads and it was difficult for families with small children.  Unfortunately the Society cannot enforce that all dogs should be on leads.   It was agreed to put a notice up on the day of the show.  Another plot holder said that dogs mess had been left near their plot, the owner was approached but nothing done.  It was suggested that they give the name and plot number to the Society and they will let the Council know.

 

Mike declared the meeting closed and the next committee meeting was arranged for Thursday 11th February 2010 at 7.30 pm at 8 Lorne Road, Southsea.