Minutes of the OPEN Meeting of the Paignton Home Garden & Allotment Society held at the RAOB Club, Paignton on Monday 7 December 2015.

Present:  Keith & Jane Parker, Flis Cotton, Gary Buckingham, Christine Guiver, Joe Wallis, Philip Moore
 
The Chairman welcomed everyone to the meeting.
 
1.    Apologies:  Liz Barnes, Pat Messenger, Colin Waymoouth, Alan Smith 

2.    Minutes of the previous meeting were read and approved 

3.    Matters arising from the minutes:

• Oakleigh padlock – it was reported that the broken padlock had been put back on the gate, but nobody was quite sure why this was as a replacement lock had been found. Site rep to find out what was going on.
• DR gate code had been amended and the gate was being used. Someone on the site was having difficulties with the code and the padlock may well have to be reinstated. This would be looked at.

 
4.    Correspondence:

• None

5.    Chairman’s Report:

• The chairman reported a slow month as the weather had been bad.
• Chairman had met with the council representative today to discuss the terms of the new leases. Several areas of disagreement remained outstanding as the council were asking for the Society to consult them on various matters such as rent increases, flower growing on plots, wheelchair access etc. which the Chairman felt the Society could not agree to. It was also discussed that no one would be allowed to have more than one plot. This is currently the position, but not retrospectively, ie. plotholders already with multiple plots have not been asked to surrender their additional plots, but newcomers will not be offered more than one plot. Any plotholder currently with more than one plot had, in all probability, been offered these while the council were in charge of the sites, prior to the taking over by PHGAS. The matter of who is to maintain the hedgerows is still to be agreed.
• Secretary was asked to prepare a generic letter to plotholders to send to those where there had been no work over the winter, asking if they wanted to surrender their plot before the new leases were sent out.
• The insurance and affiliation fees to NAS will be due in January and it was agreed that we would still pay these as long as there had been no significant increase. The amount of £2 for the initial plotholder was covered in plot rents, with an additional £2 being paid for any additional plotholder, to cover public liability insurance.

 
6.    Vice Chairman’s Report:

• None as not present

7.    Treasurer’s Report:

• Current account : £66.36
• Deposit account: £2,469.50      
• Cheques:
  • S W Water – Lower Penns           £9.88

 
8.    Sites:
Derrell Road

• 6a        has cleared their plot – ready to relet

 
Lower Penns

• 8a        is in a bit of a mess – sec to check plotholder and possibly write
• The toilet must be cleared – the tree behind it will have to be taken out at some point.  Site reps are to liaise with plotholder
• We are still waiting for the tree inspection report

 
Oakleigh

• 13        sec to check status – ask plotholders intentions
• 41/42    Society is disappointed with the condition of the plot after agreement had been reached with the plotholder that he would work the site.  Sec to write to him to confirm that the lease is terminated as he has not kept to his part of the agreement.

 
9.    AOB:

• Do we need any chicken pellets?  - this is to be confirmed after Christmas.  There are still some bags available if plotholders could see their site reps.

 
10.    Date of next Commitee Meeting:

• There will not be a January 2016 meeting.
• To be held on Monday 1st February 2016 @ 7.30pm at the RAOB Club.

 
Meeting closed at 8.20pm