Timely warning

[Beryl]

Thanks for that good sound advice Shallotman.

Yes, we do all have to put in our separate crime. 28 of us this time each with a different number..
No wonder the figures for unsolved crimes is so high.

Beryl.

[glallotments]

We have had thefts too. Mainly small stoves and small items but it all adds up. A couple of new plot holders were really upset. They had bought a small bench to pop outside of their shed but have now taken it home as they don't want to risk it being stolen.

Someone else had a pile of wood stolen, someone else had a cast iron wood burner stolen and the list goes on. Both are new to the site - this being their first season.

The really annoying thing is we have some plot holders who refuse to lock our gates. The same plot holders either just keep pigeons or hens or have fenced or protected plots, or no shed to burgle from. The majority of plot holders voted for the gates to be locked at all times. This was to increase to feeling of security when working on the plot as well as to increase the security against thefts. Also our site can become a cut through and whilst shed doors are open it is a good opportunity to peer inside to see what is in there for a possible raid later. We have even had suspicious vehicles driving round the site.

The council agreed to support the majority decision and stated that gates must be kept locked.

Some individuals refused and became unpleasant and abusive towards those who locked the gates. Complaints were made to the council. The council have done nothing. Nothing about none compliance with council ruling and nothing about the abuse and intimidation!

Now we have to vote on the issue again!! No doubt we will have to keep doing this until those who don't want to lock the gates win!!

[Shallot Man]

glallotments. maybe you could coerce the council to send them a first warning letter of eviction if they do not lock the gates.[even if it is only waffle]

[glallotments]

Hi Shallot man,
After several months of trying we did just that - the council sent out a letter but falling short of an actual notice of eviction. They like to sit on the fence! They just wouldn't stick their neck out.

Something like if you .... your plot may be at risk! That was as far as they would go.
When this proved fruitless we again after much pushing got the council to call the worst offender to a meeting. Not only would he not shut the gates but he was verbally abusive to people and drove round the site at speed. Basically an intimidating bully who managed to rally together a group of supporters.

We had an association meeting with the council this week which was dominated by his rantings - the two council officers did absolutely nothing.

I have resigned from my position as chair - I did when it became apparent that our council will not offer any support in such matters. They want to be neutral and seem to see us as much at fault as the others. The trouble is that people on our site have just got away with doing as they liked for so long now and the council not pulling them back to the tenancy agreement that now they have no real authority! Some don't even garden their plots and the council let them be.

[macmac]

i sympathise with your security problems but its not just councils who are ineffective, we are self managed and have the same problem.the individuals who won't lock the gates are just regarded as "like that" as i pointed out one day rules are only rules if someone is prepared to enforce them!

[glallotments]

Our (ex committee) view entirely. The lack of action on the part of the council has lead to certain individuals being entrenched - when the council have enforced rulings (or made half hearted attempts to) these have been ad hoc - some people seemingly allowed to 'get away' with things and others not.

This has led to bad feeling and those who have been reprimanded thinking that it was the association or site secretary rather than the council picking on certain people.

The association redrafted the council tenancy agreement as we were asked by some tenants to clarify what was unacceptable as tenants felt that the rulings were being inconsistently applied by the council. They felt that they were often accused of contravening rulings that they didn't know anything about.

Others didn't even know the council had a set of rules as these are not distributed to new tenants. So we sat with the council and redrafted them to make sense. After that the rules were seen as association rules especially as the council referred to them as the code of conduct drafted by the association. We had in fact been told by the council to bring the rulings back to the original as they felt things had slipped. This was incidentally only a draft and meant to be discussed fully with all tenants and was in effect the association doing what the council were supposed to do.

The council told us that the tenancy agreement was out of date and for some while they had been meaning to redraft it. They wanted the tenants to sign the new agreement or leave the site and we told them that this would be unfair and that any rulings should not be retrospective and so were protecting the very people who have now totally turned against us. We felt that by being involved in the redarfting the tenants would at least have some say in what went in to the new agreement. One specific ruling that they got us to change was the type of livestock kept on site. After telling us to name just hens and rabbits as acceptable they added pigeons to their list on the website thus making it appear that we were anti-pigeon even though it when the subject was brought up it was us who said pigeons should be allowed as it was a tradition on our site. The council response was that this was just a draft open for discussion so that could be sorted out later.

The draft is here: http://www.glallotments.btik.com/p_Revised_Tenancy_Agreement.ikml

At our AGM the association were accused of wanting to impose 'their rules'. The rule used to demonstrate that the list was unacceptable is even on the council website as a council expectation but the council officials at the meeting sat in silence and made no attempt to disabuse our accuser.

Allegedly after the meeting one of the council officials even told a tenant that if he was on our site he would move - so it looks as though we are unlikely to be treated favourably in future. I feel that all this is because we tried to get the council to fulfil its duties and became a bit of a pest to them. I suspect anyone who confronted the council with a complaint were told that it was what the association wanted.

It is just a mess!

[Beryl]

Most of our sheds were done again yesterday morning, early about 8 o'oclock but a local resident saw them and phoned the police; they were on the ball straight away and caught the b.....gs. 2 about 15 or so.
They were known to the police and this time hopefully will get the appropriate sentence and we can have a quiet Easter.

Beryl.

[oldherbaceous]

Dear Beryl, lets indeed hope they get what they deserve and also that you have no more problems.

[snooky]

The local yobs have had a peek in my allotment shed and disappeared one of my gardening boots;the left one

[glallotments]

I guess the thief hopped it before he was caught!!

Sorry couldn't resist - I know it isn't funny at all!

[peter]

Snooky, are you sure the yob wasn't a fox?
They seem partial to shoes.

[glallotments]

Has anyone tried using a padlock alarm? Apparently it sounds an alarm if the padlock is moved or tampered with. Just wondered if it was prone to false alarms and annoying everyone? I know some shed alarms are triggered by vibration or movement which could be tricky in windy weather.

One thing that appeals is it is an alarm that would sound before someone broke into a shed. It isn't what would be stolen from a shed for us as we don't keep anything at the allotment that anyone would really benefit from stealing but it's the damage to the shed!!

Shed alarms do seem quite cheap - wonder if everyone had an alarm on their sheds whether it would scare off wouldbe thieves. One at 110 db would be bad enough but imagine a whole allotment of them!!!

[Beryl]

I don't know anything about shed alarms but are they like car alarms?
Once activated need someone to turn them off. If so not really much good on an allotment where gates are kept locked and ususally not within hearing distance of a plotholder particularly at night when most break-ins happen. Probably fine for gardens though.
I would need to know more, perhaps someone can enlighten us.

Beryl.

[Geoff]

Can you get ones that alert mobile phones so you can send in the peelers?

[glallotments]

Hi Beryl
According to the blurb they sound for 10 seconds and then rearm themselves ready to sound again if they continue to be tampered with see http://www.alarm-locks.com/ Just one of the sources.

I don't know about alerting a mobile - if it was possible they would probably be expensive. The padlocks that I have seen are from about £15

I was thinking more of the shock factor and deterrent value. Problem on our site is people won't keep the gate locked. We have plot holders who live alongside the site so I expect they would hear an alarm. My concern was more if they kept going off due to wind etc and annoying everyone!

Just a thought but would allotment security be a good feature for the magazine. Not just for a site but what individual plot holders could do to make their sheds etc more secure and deter vandals and thieves..