FLAG AGM - Wednesday 11th January 7.45pm 2023 – Minutes
Present – Bob Grover (57), Richard Cloutman (32), Nigel Gale (5W), Liz and Tim Leicester (31W), John Nash (49N), Ann Rogers and Nick Lemon (15W), Barry Cropper (35), Maurice Lyon (35W). Apologies Brian Songhurst, Liz Rolfe, Guy Marshall. Membership Secretary's and Treasurer's report: FLAG has 68 members this year. About the same number of members as for the last three years, around 70. We began the year with £515 and ended with £915. Donations were higher when compared with recent years. We have not had any major expenditures this year other than the NAS subscriptions and Insurance. Maintenance of FLAG tools was the other main cost item. The accounts were approved. Thanks to Nigel for his auditing work. Election of officers and committee for 2023 Our Current officers were re-elected. Bob Grover, acting chair and secretary;
Richard Cloutman, treasurer and membership secretary;
Nigel Gale, site steward.
We also have as Committee members :
Tim Leicester, Council Liaison;
Brian Songhurst - Tool Maintenance and Communal Composting.
The formal AGM closed at 8pm. AOB: Discussion on the Committee report: New role: NSALG liaison - Barry Cropper agreed to look into possible benefits of using NSALG services more than just the Kings Seeds discount. Initially this will include how to use the Kings seeds online system to ease ordering. Ann Rogers will share her experience of using it. Other roles that could help to make our site run smoothly include:
Newsletter Secretary
Deputy Site Stewards
Social secretary
Web site/social media secretary
Clubhouse Coordinator
If anyone would like to look into any of these, please talk to the committee.
Nigel is writing to new possible plotholders offering quarter-size plots for new starters, to get the idea of what working an allotment is really like. We have seen about a dozen plots let on new tenancies. All were half or quarter plots. The council waiting list remains at about 5 or 6 years, and currently no new names are being added to the list.
Tim presented several short tutorials on composting generally and on his own woodchip experiments. These are now on video via the FLAG website which has been recently been transformed with lots more references and tutorial material. We will mention this to other sites via the Joint Allotment meetings.
Do have a look at all the new content on our website, if you haven’t already. It needs a curator/updater – any offers?
Tim helped some householders to collectively pay for shortening their leylandii. Tim worked with plotholder Rob on substantial leylandii pruning over the roadway. There are still plenty of logs available to cut up and take away. Three houses still have all their trees though.
Foodbank deliveries ran every week from June’s Rhubarb to October’s last squash and beans. We will do it again in 2023.
FLAG has been given a seat for the BBQ area, Nigel has done some planting there. We have inherited more playground items.
Machinery – we have 3 mowers and 4 strimmers which Brian maintains and anyone can use, you can have a training session to get you started.
Bonfires burned in Spring and Autumn, we will burn again as soon as we can, to clear the collected material and remaining leylandii branches.
PLEASE PUT YOUR BURNABLES (BLACKBERRY, RASPBERRY CANES ETC) ON THE BURNABLE PILE NOT ON THE GREEN WASTE PILES
There is a Joint Allotment (Inter-site) Group that has meetings with the Council, keeping our interests protected and advanced, and our presence firmly on the CNC and Council agenda. There is a proposal to increase rents, to remove the Senior discount generally but keep all hardship discounts.
Communal Compost Bays –Town end - Brian has built a new compost bay, there is good usable compost from the opened bay there. Garage end bays - We have LOTS of available compost, free for the effort of riddling it and moving it to your plot.
Both sets of bays have recently been turned by Jim and his digger.
Some people have trouble getting heavy wheelbarrows of compost to their plots in the middle of the site so we intend to have a WP to bag up lots of good compost and move it by wheelbarrow (or by car) to the steel shed area for plot holders to use on their plots. FLAG will buy 100 bags to transport it. If you have any spare compost bags please put them in the new builders bag by the clubhouse.
Ayletts compost – Ann organised very successful bulk orders several years ago. If anyone would like to do this to get them to deliver to our site, contact Ann / committee to see how much interest there might be.
There are lots more projects of various sizes that would improve the site for all of us. Have you a spare hour or two to join a working party?
More Ponds. We will try to find a site for another pond to improve bug presence and opportunities. FLAG will buy a liner.
How about strimming nearby Overgrown plot paths (as well as your own)?
Does anyone need help pruning fruit trees, or even cutting down trees that are too big (the Rules say ‘Less than Three metres’)?
We would like a Spring BBQ event in 2023, especially to invite new people to meet up. Discussion said ‘make it informal and friendly’. We will try once the clocks change. Waste Carpet (opposite the garage woodchip pile). Can you take a few pieces to the council dump in the back of your car? ————————————————————————————————————— Our Overall Theme – Sustainability and Biodiversity – Reuse, recycle, repair, don’t buy : DIY, Go Green….. All this is our local contribution to the Zero-carbon ambition in the best possible way – and you get exercise as well - and save money.
To support this, please do not use commercial weedkillers, they do too much incidental harm to beneficial insect and invertebrates etc and reduce soil fertility. Do use organic methods to improve your soil. Leave a patch of ragwort or lavender or nettles (or whatever flowery weeds that infest your plot) for the butterflies, hoverflies, moths etc.
We would like to not have to burn our wooden rubbish but we have no other way to destroy dead/infected fruit bushes, canes etc. One positive use for wood waste on site is to leave a pile as a bug hotel or hedgehog house to encourage wildlife and insects for predation and pollination. Hedge piles of wood cuttings are similar.
Tim is about to experiment to prepare bio-char on-site and use it as a soil improver to see if it helps. He will circulate a summary of the main alternatives to burning stuff.
ENDS
BONFIRE DISCUSSIONS SUBSEQUENT TO AGM.
We are actively reviewing our bonfire policies – ‘Burn’ or ‘Don’t Burn’ and ‘What to do with the burnable stuff already collected’.
Please let us know if you have strong opinions either way.