Allotment Committee

[Sue]

Hi
Long email, sorry

Our allotments are run by the council and it was always difficult to find out the structure of on site management, eventually found out there were just two blokes in charge. One of them has just celebrated his 90th birthday, the other is in his late 70's.
They seemed to do very little, shop meant to be open every Sunday and it was if you could find one of them to acutally open the shed and if you actually wanted anything they sold, other than that it was difficult to see what they did.
Now, I've found out they've stepped down, one because of his age, the other because of a terminally ill wife. I've also been told that they've handed over to three other men, one a long-term allotment holder, the other two new ones. This was done two weeks ago, don't even know their names.

My beef is that when I was talking to one of the originals and he was saying that there was no interest in helping them out, I offered to get involved but was told that anyone on the committee would have to be able to manhandle the yearly compost delivery and I wasn't able to due to bad back.

We were not informed in advance of the changes, not invited to take part and apart from gossip, there has been no official notification.

Can this be done? Are there not rules and regulations? I would have loved to put my name forward but have not been given the chance to do so.

I am a bit suspicious of this handover in any case, again from other allotment holders I've heard that there is a rotivator and other tools bought from allotment funds which are not offered out to allotment holders other than the "old guard". There is also a very large greenhouse which again was purchased on allotment funds. We are supposedly allowed to put some things in there and "they will be looked after for us" but it's always locked and if you don't go up there the exact time the keyholders are there it can be weeks before you'd be able to get at the greenhouse. I've also been told, gossip again, that one of the originals is giving up one of his four allotments but expects to keep the greenhouse as he currently does, ie most of it contains his stuff.

Also apparently there is over �3,000 in alloment funds and when one of the new men was asked what would be done with it was told "we could have a coach trip to Spalding, or something". This is when we have no deliveries of manure or bark chippings (just piles of unusable soot that one chimney sweep is allowed to dump inside the gate), no loo, no proper shop (most of contents seem pre 1960) and no community organisation at all, no area for the increasing number of children and no nature area. People give up allotments and are not chased up so they can be uncultivated for over two years - it has all made me very cross but can I - should I - challenge the current situation?

Sue

[zazen999]

Do any of the other non-committee allotmenteers feel the same way?

From my history, being in committees; it is a dark art and much stuff is decided with no input and was already arranged months before it comes out in the open; the reason I would never become part of another one.

If you are going to challenge it, do it as part of a 'group wanting to be effective' rather than a disgruntled woman, they don't see logic they just see nagging.

We have no committee, no compost, no water, no help at all; except for 2 wells that exist but no means to get the manky water out. The plot down the road where the councillors grow their veg gets all the above. Strange how that happened!

P.S. Anyone having to 'manhandle the yearly compost delivery'...sorry but what century are they living in? What exactly did a 90 yr old and a 70 yr old do with this compost every year? Surely the committee would arrange it to be dumped and people would help themselves?

Good luck, it looks as if you are going to need it.

[Two_Sheds]

Our allotment site has just had an uprising ... the old guard have been mostly voted out, and it's all getting a bit dynamic now, with young blood and fresh ideas (and transparent accounting )

[bluemoon]

Ooh, this is a real can of worms. Our lottie committee had pretty much given up, then some new people came to the site, decided to shake things up and ended up stirring the wrath of the old-guard, who couldn't actually be bothered to do anything themselves, but were determined that no one else should either. - the former committee members were supportive however and a couple have stayed on in their posts. It's caused loads of gossip, innuendo, back-biting and, on at least one occasion, outright aggression. They stuck to their guns and now we have a decent shop and a committee who are at least trying to make some headway. I'd say go for it, but be prepared for objections. What puzzled me was that those against the idea had no real arguments except 'We've managed without the shop so far'; Whaaaaaat?????? If they don't want to use the improved facilities they don't have to, but they were determined to wreck the whole thing. The process on our site was started with a survey and went on from there. Perhaps you could find a couple of other like-minded plotholders and hand out a printed sheet with a few basic questions (not one's that say things like 'Are you happy with the current committee?' as that could be seen as inflammatory,) and see how you go from there. It may be the case that your fellow allotmenteers are all completely apathetic, - though I doubt it - but at least then you'd have an idea about the general feeling and would have a point to work from.

[Snadger]

Your committee and officials should be elected at an AGM. If something crops up during the annual term of office(like death or retirement) the committee are quite at liberty to get together and sort out replacements until the next AGM.
At the following AGM each official has to be proposed and seconded and if there are more than enough proposals it has to be voted on by a show of hands or secret ballot depending on your articles of Association.

Because there have been rumours of 'dodgy dealings afoot' this year each Association AGM in our region must have a member from our regional committee present to make sure everything is above board! Not a bad thing I would say, and this coming from a recently elected allotment Secretary!