Minutes of the Open Meeting of the Paignton Home Gardens & Allotments Society held at RAOB Club, Paignton on Monday 3 September 2012 at 7.30pm

Present: Alan Smith, Flis Cotton, Liz Barnes, May Burgess, Alan Burgess, Colin Waymouth, Nesta Waymouth, Pat Marriott, Gary Buckingham, Christine Guiver, Les Cox, Phillip Moore, Carol Hodges, Tracey Hodges, J Wallis (Vice President),. J Webber, Margaret Webber.

The Vice- Chairman, Alan Smith, welcomed everyone to the meeting.

 

1          Apologies: Keith & Jane Parker........

2          Minutes of the previous meeting, held on Monday 6 August, were read.  Agreement was proposed by Alan Smith and seconded by Christine Guiver.

3             Matters Arising from the Minutes:

·      Numbers on plots:  Gary Buckingham had obtained a quote for the post caps @ 48p each x 100 (£48) and pegs @ 46p each x 100 plus VAT . So £112.80 total.  Quotation valid for 3 months.

·      Lower Penns water mains issue?  monitor the position and revisit if any leaks. (no leaks to report this month)

·      Oakleigh toilet – no progress this month.

4             Correspondence:

·      (secretary to report replies to dirty plot letters sent last month – listed by site)

 

·      Secretary has received an email from Ian Williams at Torbay Council about ‘complaints’, but not specified where or which site.  Flis has replied by email but he is out of office until 10 September. – Flis will try to re-contact on his return.

·      2nd email to society re:  overgrowth encroaching the highway opposite 35-37 derrell road.  Council is responsible for overgrowth outside of the site – we just deal with growth inside the site.  Secretary to reply along these lines. (James Nicholas @ Torbay Council).

 

·      Secretary has received a request from a youth group leader to be put on the waiting list – children 3-11 to always be accompanied by an adult, working in small groups of 5-6 – community project. Produce to be used for charity (Richard Kelly). Agreed to put on the waiting list, but group projects are not generally successful.

 

5             Chairman’s Report: None as absent.

 

6             Vice Chairman’s Report:

·      The fencing or gate at 3 Oakleigh had been vandalised.  Alan reported no  progress made as he had not seen plotholder.

·      The hedge by the entrance of Oakleigh was successfully cleared on 19 August – thanks to all who helped.

.

7          Treasurer’s Report:

• Current Account: £48.01; Deposit Account: £3161.35
• Allotment fees received to date: £.-
• Plotholders who have not yet paid – letters required?.(keep)
• No cheques this month.

 

8          Sites:    

Derrell Road

• 1 – (keep on Agenda)   ok in August

• 5b – Send letter 2 as no progress.

• 8 Sec sent another letter – rent not paid as no documents received.  Had meeting with Chairman, Keith.  Keith recalled there may well have been an issue with the agreement being sent – we will discuss when he returns from holiday.  Possibly no renewal of lease next year if plot not brought up to acceptable standard.  Vice Chairman wanted to send immediate terminate letter as he said plotholder should know when rents are due and he should have paid well before now. A bit of digging had been done, but no real inroads had been made.

• 10b – send letter 2

• 11a – letter 1 sent in post in August  – ok – will monitor

• 14a – send letter 3 as all tools cleared from site

• 17a – Farrell – no reply to terminate letter.  Ok to relet now.

• 17c -  Jarvis – ok – monitor position

Lower Penns – (site rep absent: Christine)

• 10:   keep on Agenda – letter 1 in August (Pete). Offered to reduce to half a plot. No reply (as expected) – monitor for another month.

• 14a – send letter 1

 

• 14b  keep on Agenda. Sec reported that Parsons had given up.  Christine said plot ok  and being tidied now.

 

Oakleigh

• 7a – being tidied

• 7b – being tidied

• 3a dog  poo and bottles – ongoing problem – monitor. (nothing new)

• Water  being left on – keep watching out for this. (keep on agenda)

9          Any Other Business

 

·      Keep notifying newcomers about PHGAS equipment available to borrow (sec) (Keep on agenda)

·      Les Cox said that he had cut the footpaths at Lower Penns the other day and that this took him over 3 hours.  Whilst he was happy to do this, he said that he had to keep refilling the strimmer and Colin Waymouth had supplied the fuel.  It was agreed that Colin should present a receipt and be reimbursed for his outlay.  Les asked if he could keep the strimmer for 2 days in future as this would take the pressure off him to complete the job in one day. 

We discussed buying a strimmer to be kept at Lower Penns site as nobody wanted to be responsible for moving it around the sites.  A strimmer could be kept securely locked in the loo at the site.  It was agreed that this would be a good idea and we would look at prices for a 4 stroke/preferably Honda machine. Possibility that it would be £400+, but no need to buy as big a one as we already had.  To be discussed further.

• It was mentioned that minutes did not appear to be being put on the noticeboards at each site.  Sec said that she had been going round each month (July and August).  VC agreed he had seen them on Oakleigh board.  Flis to make sure they were put out each month as not everyone is on the internet.

• Colin Weymouth mentioned that he was disappointed with the turnout at the open meetings.  Sec agreed to put wording in the welcome letters to new plotholders inviting them to attend all open meetings – (4 pa including the AGM.).  It was agreed that attendance could not be made mandatory!

• Next month’s meeting to be the AGM.  If anyone wanted to apply for any positions on the committee then they were to see their site rep.  Sec agreed to contact the President to see if he wanted to chair the AGM next month or J Wallis, the Vice President, agreed to chair the meeting.

• Vice President reminded us that a week’s notice had to be given of any item anybody wished to be brought up at the AGM.  Sec agreed to put a notice on the noticeboard at each site.  Sec also agreed to print 30 copies of last year’s AGM minutes and would ask the Treasurer for a full financial report.

9          Date of next Meeting: Annual General Meeting to be held on Monday 1st October 2012 at 7.30pm at the ROAB Club – all plotholders to be invited.

The meeting finished at    8.05pm.