Threats from the Council Allotment Office.

[snooky]

Had a letter yesterday from the above office threatening to kick me off my 5 perch plot if I didn"t sort out the weeds on this plot.
Weather tidy this morning, so off I went to sort the problem.No worries plot looked like rough pasture because,due to circumstances,this plot hadn"t received as much attention as my vegetable plots.It has top,stone and soft fruit on it,but I"ll soon sort it.
My point is that there were half a dozen faces on the site who weren"t normally there on a Sunday morning. Yes they had had letters also.Strange,but sinister too,they were multiple plotholders like myself.
In the twenty-five years I have never heard of a plot-holder receiving such a letter;a quiet word but no letter.
There again in all the years I"ve been on this 300 plus plot site there has never been a waiting list until this year.I wonder if I am reading something in this situation which isn"t there?

[Beryl]

I think it is becoming a trend Snooky. With long waiting lists now is many areas councils just can't afford to let plots get over-grown any more. We are in the same situation with more than 50 waiting just for our site alone it is zero tollerence and plotholders have to be seen to be cultivating now. No more 10 rod/perch plots are being let only 5. Gosport is I think looking to find another site but there just isn't the vacant land available any more.

Be interesting to hear how other areas are handling the situation.

Beryl.

[Chantal]

I'm our association secretary and regularly have to write letters to plot holders telling them to get their plot cleaned up. We give several warnings before we take a plot back, but several were re-let last year because of neglect.

We too have big waiting lists

[alia]

how many feet is a perch?

(i've heard of "rods" but not perches! something to do with birds?)

alia

[Johnboy]

Hi Alia,
A Perch is 5.5 yards long. (16.5 feet)
The old measures of land in this country were
Rod's Poll's and Perches.
The original allotment was 2 Perches wide and 4 Perches long which equates to 66ft x 33ft wide including one side path and head path which was supposed to give a growing area of 63ft x 30ft.
66ft is 22yards and a furlong is 220yard and there are 8 furlongs to the mile and if you work it all out there are 20 allotments to the Acre and 640 acres to the square mile.
Allotments are now supposed to be metricated and are let by the square metre. Need I boor you any more!
JB.

[Compo]

I know this has caused controversy in the past, but I think it is unreasonable to let people have more than 1.5- 2 plots when there are lengthy waiting lists, surely any more space than that you cannot use the produce for even the largest of families? Sounds like snooky has a set aside plot rather than a plot, we have rule that if we have a waiting list then multiple plot holder have to yield some land. It works well on our site, small waiting list, all plots in reasonable condition.

But I am interested to hear evidence to the contrary, but I guess you would need a major fruit preserving and freezing operation to utilise the produce from two 'normal sized' plots (as defined by JB Above)

CoMpO

[Shallot Man]

We also have some plot-holders with two plots, though this go's back to the days when we had 13-18 empty plots, and were grateful for some plot-holders to take on an extra one. Now we have a waiting list of some 20 potential plot-holders, our committee's contention is that we were grateful to those members who took on extra plots, why force them to give up a plot now.

[Beryl]

I don't want to get into the argument again of how many plots us 'oldies' have but there is far less actual growing space used these days because of the number of paths that are put in in and the making of raised beds.

Beryl.

[Compo]

I know but answer this honestly if you can Beryl, do you use everything you grow for you and your families use? I think 1.5 or even two plots is probably ok but if there are more as appears in Snookies original case, then maybe it needs looking at?

CoMpO

[snooky]

Evening Compo,
The plot in question was tenanted by an alcoholic who did more sleeping in his armchair in his shed than actually working on the plot.There is a pub right next door to the site.When I took it over a few years ago it was overgrown with weed and brambles and a previous tenant had dumped building rubbish on it on the pretence of making a car-parking space.
It took me nigh on a year to clear the site.My other two plots are classed as a 3and 7 perch.They were a 10 perch plot which was split in the late 70"s early 80"s during the last wannabe allotment boom.
Normally on the 300 plus plot site spread over two fields 70 to 100 could be idle mostly overgrown.Thankfully they have been taken up and most of the new tenants are hanging in there.
Like Shallot Man the previous secretary was always asking plot-holders to take on more sites in so much some had five!What"s more we have a third field which is used by the local youth to ride their motorbikes around,build drug dens,and get up to the same mischief with the opposite sex as we used to in our youth.
If this field was used for allotments it would wipe out the waiting lists of all 26 allotment sites in Cardiff.But it would cost too much money to set up.Easier to kick the likes of me off a plot for the reason of it being overgrown and not cultivated although it is obvious that I am growing top,stone and soft fruit on the plot.

[snooky]

Went to the allotment this morning to carry on clearing the offending overgrown plot,when, in conversation with John D.it seems that my work in clearing the plot might be in vain because the allotment office is considering limiting plot-holders to two plots to reduce the waiting lists and get their political masters off their backs.

[Beryl]

Yes, I do use everything Compo. very little is ever wasted. Some does get passed to family and close friends and any excess usually fruit I use to make preserves and is sold for charity.
I have a large freezer which is full to bursting and will keep me well fed through the winter.

I do grow more flowers now to enjoy but then they inturn play their part in attacting the beneficial insects.

Beryl.

[Compo]

And how many plots do you use for this purpose Beryl?

[Compo]

It does sound like poor site management to me Snooky, the problem with urban sites is that they do appear to be very sadly plagued by security problems, and it feels to me as if they all need eight foot galvanised security fences and other security measures, a blot on the landscape but probably a necessary evil. This would make the spare field on your site usable then and cure the waiting list. Investment now will save heartache in the future. But the money is probably spent on Council visits to european twin towns, christmas lights and other such unnecessary projects.

Rant over!!

CoMpO

[Beryl]

25 rods Compo - 2 full plots and one half.
All taken on when the site was less than half used more than 15 years ago.

Beryl.