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

Present: Keith Parker, Jane Parker, F Cotton, L Burns, P Marriott, S Marriott, A Smith, G Buckingham, J Wallis, P Moore, J Green.

The Chairman welcomed everyone to the meeting.

1.    Apologies: L Cane, C Guiver, T Clarke, P Messenger, L Barnes, C Ambury, N Philbey

2.    Minutes of the previous meeting held on Monday 2 February 2015 were read and agreed.

3.    Matters Arising from the Minutes:

• Lease renewals – draft leases have now been received from the Council for all sites. Ian Williams from Torbay Development Agency has confirmed that livestock (chickens etc.) are acceptable as per the old Council leases.
  
• New webmaster - L Burns has now taken over and updated the PHGAS website. If anyone wants any item to be posted on to the site, please email [email protected] and sec will pass these to the webmaster.
  

4.    Correspondence:

• Sec has sent out all 2015 tenancy agreements so hopefully funds should start to come in over the next month and in any event, before the due date at the end of March.
  

5.    Chairman’s Report:

• Chairman had spoken to the site insurers as although cover was in place, they had no idea where the sites were!  Chairman went through the scope of cover required and is happy that insurers now know what they are insuring.
  
• Chairman confirmed once again that Society funds were very low at the moment, but hopefully the Society will get back on track as monies from the tenancy agreements comes in.
  

Please could anyone who has not already received a 2015/16 agreement contact the secretary as these were all sent out on 28 February across all sites by email or second class post.

6.    Vice Chairman’s Report:

• Toilet is nearly finished.
  

7.    Treasurer’s Report:

• Current Account:    £103.27
  
• Deposit Account:    £284.60
  
• Cheques this month:

        - P Moore       £18.88       padlocks
        - A Smith        £14.89       toilet fittings
        - Jewson        £115.40     parts for toilet
        - SW Water    £9.24          Lower Penns
        - Jewson        £6.55          parts for toilet
        - Asda              £4.64         Derrell Road toilet rolls
 
8.    Sites:
Site inspections are to be done across all sites before next month’s meeting.

Derrell Road

• 15 has reported health issues and will not be working plot for a while.
  

Lower Penns

• Two trees have been taken down by plotholders.
  

Oakleigh

• 12 has also reported health issues.
  
• 41/42/42 - Sec is to write to plotholder to ask which plot he would prefer to keep and if no reply is received, then the Society would have no choice but to decide which plot to take back.
  

9.    Any Other Business

• J Wallis asked about the possibility of having a small vegetable show on the site and offered to judge. This was discussed and it was agreed that the problem is always the organisation of events, as someone needs to take control. Any possible event would be in July or August and it could be very low key with the emphasis on the fun and social aspect rather than competition. JW agreed to provide a plan for the next meeting setting out what was required to show each vegetable.

• J Wallis also asked about whether the plots across the sites could be judged, with certificates being given for 1st, 2nd and 3rd? This would be on the basis of tidiness, what was being grown, how it was presented etc. He suggested that this may provide plotholders with an incentive to keep their plots tidy. Again, discussion followed and the chairman said he had a silver cup that would be suitable for the winner. To be discussed further into the season.

• The webmaster agreed to put something on the website about the events and calling for interest to be shown for such social events.
  

 
10.    Date of next Meeting:

• To be held on Tuesday 7th April 2015 at 7.30pm at the RAOB Club.
  

The meeting finished at 8.25pm