Minutes of the Meeting of the Paignton Home Gardens & Allotments Society held at RAOB Club, Paignton on Monday 2 February 2015 at 7.30pm

Present: Keith Parker, Jane Parker, F Cotton, P Marriott, S Marriott, A Smith, G Buckingham, T Clarke, P Messenger, C Guiver, C Weymouth, J Wallis, P Moore, J Green.

The Chairman welcomed everyone to the meeting.

1.    Apologies: Liz Barnes, L Cane, K Mason

2.    Minutes of the previous meeting held on Monday 1 December 2014 were read and agreed.

3.    Matters Arising from the Minutes:

• Lease renewals – draft leases have been received from the Council and these were discussed.  Sec. passed around drafts for everyone to look at.  
  
• A few things will need ironing out:
  
• (1) the Chairman pointed out that under the new terms, one person could not have 2 plots. This cannot be enforced retrospectively, but will be effective from the date of the new leases.
  
• (2) No livestock will be allowed – does this include chickens? It was thought not as these can be kept on council sites, but we would need clarification on this.
  
• (3) The committee discussed extending the terms of the lease beyond 7 years
• (4) There was no proposed lease for Lower Penns.  Sec said she had contacted Ian Williams at TDA and was waiting to hear back from him.
  
• New webmaster - L Burns has been unable to contact the existing webmaster as he does not reply to emails. He will keep trying to make contact.
  

4.    Correspondence:

• See chairman’s report below

5.    Chairman’s Report:

• The PHGAS insurance and NAS fees were due last month – this had been overlooked. Sec emailed the committee in January and nobody raised any objections to paying the premiums. Treasurer has paid the premiums but this has meant PHGAS funds have fallen below our self-imposed limit of £800. This was unavoidable as the insurance is a requirement under the lease.
  
• The chairman has applied to the Health Lottery for a grant for raised beds. This will allow a disabled plot to be created at Oakleigh. He has requested £9,000 to cover.
  
• Chairman is considering an application for a payment from the Mayors Fund. The maximum allowed would be £1,000 and this would help complete the toilet on Oakleigh.
  
• In view of the low level of finances, the Society cannot afford to buy chicken pellets yet. Secretary agreed to start sending out the leases for next year in the hope of bringing in funds a bit early. Chairman said there are a few spare bags of pellets on the Derrell Road site if anyone is really in need of some.
  

6.    Vice Chairman’s Report:

• The Oakleigh toilet is progressing well and the inside is currently being fitted.
  

7.    Treasurer’s Report:

• Current Account:    £117.51
  
• Deposit Account:    £434.58
  
• Cheques this month:

         - P Moore                           £32.00          Lower Penns Padlocks
         - SW Water                            £5.42         Lower Penns
         - Shield Insurance             £450.87
         - NAS membership fees    £360.00
         - SW Water                            £6.36         Lower Penns
         - A Smith                            £34.19         Oakleigh toilet

8.    Sites:

   Derrell Road

• Nothing to report

 
   Lower Penns

• C Weymouth has felled 2 trees
• Site reps agreed a disabled plot at the site would be helpful to elderly and disabled plotholders. This would be by way of Trugs or table top height gardening planters and they could be moved around the sites.
• C Guiver asked if it would be possible to reinstate the path at LP to allow access for cars. This is currently not feasible as the edges of some plots had spread up on to the path and so there was, in some places, the danger of a car ending up in a plot. It was thought that railway sleepers would be good to shore up the top of the plots and this would be considered further if we were successful in getting either of the grants.

 
   Oakleigh

• If 3a was wanted as a disabled plot, then the current plotholder could be offered 3c. Access to 3c was not good, so this could not be considered suitable for a disabled plot. In the meantime, Sec agreed to keep trying to let 3c as normal.

 
9.    Any Other Business

• The chairman asked the committee if they felt that the Society was robust enough with our notices to plotholders and he felt that we may be a little lenient with some plotholders and did not get them removed quickly enough when plots fell below standard after notices had been sent. A discussion followed and it was agreed that although things were not ideal, we did not want to be too regimented and that the committee was generally happy with the way things currently were.

• Secretary confirmed that the waiting list across all the sites was now 1 year and that there were 8 vacant plots across the 3 sites.  Sec is working through the waiting list.

10.    Date of next Meeting:

• OPEN Meeting to be held on Monday 2 March 2015 at 7.30pm at the RAOB Club.
  

The meeting finished at 8.25pm