Minutes of the Open Meeting of the Paignton Home Garden & Allotment Society held at the RAOB Club, Paignton on Monday 5 September 2016

Present: Keith, Jane Parker, Flis Cotton, Liz Barnes, Gary Buckingham, Christine Guiver, Joe Wallis, Jacqueline Green, Pat Marriott.

The Chairman welcomed everyone to the meeting.

1.    Apologies: Pat Messenger, Philip Moore, Colin Waymouth, Alan Smith.

2.    Minutes of the previous meeting were read and approved.

3.    Matters arising from the minutes:

• Veg Show was cancelled due to the inclement weather.
• Bonfires – plotholders should adopt a common sense approach. If smoke from the bonfire causes a nuisance if the wind has changed after it has been lit, then the fire should be extinguished as soon as possible. Please be considerate of our neighbours on all sites.
• DR Bees insurance – the Chairman has spoken to the owner and is waiting to see the insurance documentation.
• Sawdust for the site toilets has been obtained relatively cheaply from Kingskerswell. Each site now has sufficient.
• Servicing of the LP strimmer – Gary Buckingham has confirmed that the machine can be taken to Jewsons to be serviced.

4.    Correspondence:

• Sec has received an email from a plotholder on DR who had his strimmer and petrol stolen in the break in on DR site. He has obtained a crime reference.

5.    Chairman’s Report:

• The Derrell Road site was broken into on 28 August and various items were taken. It appears that most sheds were visited and 2 strimmers and a tent have been confirmed as stolen. Shed padlocks were ripped off and other items were stolen. Chairman has obtained a crime reference number from the police but confirmed there was little we could do about it in terms of recovery of stolen property.
• The Chairman asked whether the Society should buy a range of seeds from Tuckers for a Society ‘shop’. The seeds would be approximately ¼ of the price of shops and they are ‘local’ seeds. From experience, Tuckers seeds do very well in our soil as they are a Devon company! It was agreed that this was a good idea and he would relay to Vice Chairman to put in hand.
• Vice chairman (Alan Smith) also has a roll of permeable groundcover available at £1 per linear metre (2 metres wide). Also, pegs at £1 for 10. Please see Alan (Plot 5 Oakleigh), any site rep or email secretary via the Contact Us page.
• Green manure is being ordered – a mixture of rye grass and vetch. Again, please see Alan Smith, site rep or secretary, as above.

6.    Vice Chairman’s Report:

• Not present – see chairman’s report.

7.    Treasurer’s Report:

• Current account: £347.44
• Deposit account: £3,620.99
• Cheques:
  • SW Water - Lower Penns                         £99.74
  • K Parker - Sawdust & strimmer line   £16.15
  • A Smith - Ground cover and pegs       £89.23
  • K Parker - Padlock Derrell Road          £15.00

8.    Sites:

• Chairman reported the results of the vice president’s inspection last month across all sites, where plots were judged by the vice president on their cultivation and tidiness etc. The Winners were:
  • Derrell Road – 8a
  • Lower Penns – 22
  • Oakleigh – 28
• The vice president reported that a lot of the plots were untidy or in a state of un-cultivation or had only been partly cultivated this season. It was agreed that it may be a good idea for the Society ‘warning’ letters to be amended to be a bit stronger. A harder line will have to be taken against plotholders as the Society has a waiting list and if plots are not going to be cultivated, then they must be given up.
• Full Site inspections will be done before the AGM and sec will be asked to send letters next month.

Derrell Road

• No inspections done

Lower Penns

• Christine Guiver has chased the Council re: a tree inspection. A large tree on the site has a branch with a crack in it and this is likely to be dangerous in the event of a storm.
• 23 - Surprisingly uncultivated – to be monitored

Oakleigh

• 13a - Plotholder has swapped from 3c but nothing has been done yet. Letter to ask when work will be started.
• 16b - Not much cultivation this year.
• 30b - Still not cultivated this year, although it is thought that plotholder had been ill recently.

9.    AOB:

• Notices re: the AGM next month are to be put up across the sites.
  
• Please give 7 days notice in writing of any matters to be considered at the AGM.

10.    Date of next committee meeting:

• AGM will be on Monday 3 October 2016 at 7.30pm at the RAOB Club.

Meeting closed at 8.20pm.Full Site inspections will be done before the AGM and sec will be asked to send letters next month.