Committee Meeting - April 2026

FLAG Meeting April 7th 2026 (a Tuesday) at 4.30am at the Clubhouse - Results

Start 4:30, End 6:30

Present:- Kevin Withers, Richard Cloutman, Liz Leicester (left early for other engagement), Tim Leicester, Michael Worsdale, Chris Moss, Malcolm Hull (left early for other engagement), Fiona Carey

Apologies:-Ann Rogers, Brian Songhurst

Action Plan Results

1) Arrange removal of the rubbish with PBG after the probation working party have cleared the remaining parts of the site. Kevin advised that Phil has a quote from O’Connors & has promised removal of the rubbish within weeks. New Action Point 1

2) Discuss with Jim how close to move the soil to the hedge area taking into account the new positioning of the compost bins. Malcolm was unable to speak to Jim in accordance with the action plan. As a result, the soil was moved too close to the hedgeline which will make coppicing the hedge awkward.

3) Organise team to separate dead hedge between material for chipping & that to be burnt. Kevin confirmed the dead hedge material had been separated & material suitable for chipping had been chipped. The remainder had been burnt, but as it was damp, due to the type of material in it & the time of year we can burn (when its generally wetter), the burn had produced a lot of smoke. This fire took around 6 hours on a Tuesday & was extinguished following a complaint.

Deadhedge material – we agreed this should either be used for chipping or constructing dead hedges around the site. Liz Leicester and Malcolm will look at potential locations and report back. Action Point 2. Burning should be a last resort.

There then followed a conversation on fires generally. Although we send out notices to surrounding hoses about the intention to hold a fire on a particular date from a set time, we & counsellors had received a number of complaints, about this fire & a subsequent one that lasted just 2 hours & had less smoke.

Then then followed a conversation about the need for fires to dispose of the wood & that if the council prevented us burning then they would need to come up with an alternative solution for the wood. As a preference all agreed we would like to dispense with fires, but their needed to be an alternative solution to deal with surplus wood on site.

Mick said he had a small plot fire on a Tuesday after midday & received a complaint which resulted in him putting it out.

Tim pointed out that following previous complaints, 2 years ago we had no fires & created the dead hedge as a result. Last year we had just 1 fire, so in the last 3 years we have had very few fires with a limited number of hours of burning.

We looked at the different material we were burning/to be burnt & what we could do. These were:-

a) 2 remaining dead head piles from previous year’s work, one at the garage end which would need to be burnt & the other by Oster Street. Action point 3.

b) Pallet wood, we could see no alternative to burning this currently.

c) We won’t & cannot burn treated wood. This would have to be taken home by plot holders who had the wood on their plot.

d) Branches cut down, a lot of these had been chipped, but some had been burnt. Going forward we intend to chip where possible. Larger pieces can be taken away by plot holders for burning at home.

e) Fruit tree pruning’s. These could be chipped moving forward rather than burnt.

f) Brambles – These will probably need to be burnt,

g) Tree stumps & fruit bush stumps. Malcolm felt these could be incorporated into the hedges – Action Point 4

A number of committee members asked what other sites were doing, were their collective fires or were individual plot holders having fires & what was their collective experience around complaints. Tim advised he would find out at the next JAM session & he advised PBG had an agenda item around fires for the next meeting as a result of complaints. Action Point 5.

4) Ask Jim to move remainder of dead hedge to place for burning. Kevin confirmed Jim had moved the dead hedge pile.

5) Organise team to cover parking area with wood chip. Kevin advised there had been insufficient wood chips to cover the proposed parking area. Also if wood chippings had been available, these would not have been suitable, as wood chippings over time absorb water & what we needed was a parking area that was free of mud & vegetation.

6) Discuss if more permanent covering needed in car park area. - A new solution had been put together following discussion, as a wood chip covering was not seen as the long term answer. This involved a membrane base with paving slabs on top followed by a 6-9 inch layer of crushed brick & concrete chips bedded down with plant machinery that Jim possessed. This solution would be functional & long lasting. The area selected would hold 3 cars if parked considerately. To hold the crushed stone in place as the proposed parking area was on a slope, it was proposed a bund would be constructed on 3 sides. The advantages of this solution was that it would be relatively low cost & would make use of the free & large volume of paving slabs on Bob’s old plot plus paving slabs disused on other plots or ones that plot holders no longer needed. This in turn freed land occupied by the slabs for cultivation. The bund construction would also help clear a pile of soil that had been contaminated with carpet dyes & other chemicals used in the carpet. We would then landscape the bund with flowers & or grass to make it attractive.

Kevin advised the main cost was the crushed brick & concrete. Jim who works in the building trade & has been providing his digger for free to help construct the car park has secured a special rate with a supplier of £320 excluding VAT for 18 tons of material. This cost included delivery. Mick advised he had shopped around & locally he could not secure a better rate.

There then followed a debate on whether we had the funds & whether there were other projects that needed the funds more urgently. Tim asked whether we should buy a wood chipper this year. Kevin advised we had already agreed to hire a chipper this year in the autumn to support Malcolms hedge work & if any good we would buy the same chipper second hand. The size of the branches we could chip would be determined by the chipper we hired. He advised this information was in the minutes of the last meeting. Tim asked what diameter of branches this would shred. Richard advised we had around £1,300 currently. The main expenses this year would be around £300 would go to NAS, £200 for a temporary chipper hire & £50 for machinery maintenance & fuel. Next year we would receive around £500 in new subscriptions after taking off the NAS membership costs. Most of the £500 had been ear marked for the potential purchase of a second-hand chipper. He added one potential issue was if we hired a chipper, a 1,000 deposit would be needed. Both Malcolm & Kevin advised they would help with the deposit bond as long as they were paid back the money over time if the deposit was forfeited.

A vote was then held & a decision reached that £320.00 would be an agreed spend for the crushed brick & concrete, but this would not be a cash purchase, so VAT would need to be added to the cost to obtain a proper invoice for accounting purposes. It was felt this & the other spend identified for the foreseeable future would still give FLAG a sufficient float of money for any unforeseen expenditure. Action Point 6.

7) Ask Jim to move leaves to wood chipping area. Kevin confirmed the leaves had been moved freeing up a parking area.

8) The wood compost bin to be split in 2, one for shredding the other for Burning. Richard confirmed he & Mick had constructed new compost bins in the land cleared by Jim & that a separate bin for wood for shredding & wood for burning will be created & labelled. Action Point 7.

9) The change in 8) to be communicated via WhatsApp & e-mail. Richard confirmed new bins had been created and an e-mail advising sent to members, but further bins were still to be created.

10) Remaining soil heaps to be levelled, ask Jim for help & also ask for help removing the revealed rubbish to respective piles. Kevin confirmed Jim had levelled the soil heaps & Richard, Mick, Tim & he had moved the considerable amount of rubbish to the ever growing rubbish pile.

11) Organise working party for 7th February to help with the wood chipping by moving branches to the chipper. Kevin confirmed working parties had been organised & all the branches had been chipped.

12) Encourage new plot holders to participate in Tim’s FLAG sessions & the barbecue & interact in ways that will help them manage their plots. Fiona confirmed these communication had taken place & were ongoing. This was also confirmed by Ann via an e-mail.

13) Upload Liz’s wildlife reports to FLAG web site. Liz gave a new date to upload the reports to the web site as the end of June. Action Point 8.

14) Follow up PBG on Leylandii comms to home owners. Tim advised he had been following this up verbally with PBG. Kevin advised he had also written to PBG on the subject. Tim advised further follow ups would take place as currently no communication via PBG had taken place to the respective home owners. It was also suggested by Tim that affected plot owners should contact PBG & complain about the shade & ask for the cost of renting the plot to be reduced. Tim advised Rhona had already received a plot rental reduction due to this issue. Action Points 9 & 10.

15) Create working parties & itinerary to deal with tree removal. Kevin commented what good work had been carried out by Ann’s working parties (one apple tree issue accepted), & this was improving the allotments for plot holders. All committee members agreed. Kevin advised Ann had e-mailed to say more working parties to be held, possibly one a month concentrating on small saplings without birdlife. Action Point 11).

16) Follow up with PBG re working parties, path, gates, rubbish removal, O’Connors heavy machinery issues, tree surgeons visit date & liaise when doing so with Mick re path & gates. Tim advised all items had been followed up with PBG.

a. Waterlogged conditions had prevented probation working parties attending. Now it was dry we had been promised a working party for 15th April & for other Tuesday dates. Action Point 12.

b. Rubbish removal could not take place when it was muddy. A quote by O’Connors has been obtained by PBG & agreed. We have been advised removal will take place in the next few weeks.

c. A swap of plots has given O’Connors the space to ensure there is not so much churning of the ground via the heavy machinery they use.

d. Tree surgeons had attended today & cut down 4 trees. A further visit on a subsequent Tuesday in around a month was scheduled to take place in around 1 month to take down the 2 Eucalyptus. Action Point 13.

e. The path & gates PBG advised he has not had the available time to work on. Mick confirms he has been liaising with the Housing Association to gain their support. Action Point 14.

17) Purchase of water butt. Richard confirmed purchase & it had been placed under the stand pipe without a butt. A further 2 would be needed & Richard will arrange when a butt at a suitably low cost (including delivery) becomes available. Action Point 15.

18) Label water butt in 17). Richard advised the butt has been marked FLAG with paint.

19) Hedge working parties will be in the Autumn. Item not due. Action Point 16.

20) Ask Nigel if he would prepare comms stating allotmenteers view on council re-organisation proposals, Ann advised by e-mail that JAM would take this matter forward on behalf of all St Albans allotment sites.

21) Pass Housing Association communications to KW. Kevin advised Malcolm had passed the comms to him.

22) Provide Mick with Malcolms Housing Association comms & advise Mick of issues that it would be beneficial for him to take forward jointly with the Housing Associations. Kevin advised the Housing Association comms had been passed to Mick & they had discussed the matters that needed taking forward.

23) Review options for potential security cameras. Brian asked by e-mail that this item be carried forward to the next meeting. Action Point 17

24) Hire chipper in the autumn & liaise with Malcolm best date re material availability & discuss with Richard re monetary availability. Chipper to be stored in shed for up to 7 days. Item not due. Action Point 18.

25) Organise new allotment share knowledge sessions. Tim is arranging these.

26) Discuss whether it would be feasible to create new plots & whether this was a good idea or whether there were better options for the spaces being created. It was agreed more compost bins would need to be created, but apart from this, the rest of the area cleared by Jim should be new plots, so along the lines of the allotment map from May 1976 (see FLAG web site map on the internet). Kevin advised PBG had marked out a quarter & half plot, but occupation by potential plot holders may not take place until the hawthorn trees along the border had their size reduced due to the shadows they created. Until then, we may need to manage the area. Action Point 19 & 20.

27) Discuss how to deal with existing surplus soil in compost bins & how to best manage the build up of new weeds with soil on them being placed in the compost bins. Communication had been issued encouraging the use of compost bins on plots. It was proposed by Tim that the probation working parties should help barrow soil to plot holders that wanted soil. Action Point 21.

28) Put out communication that there would be no Aylett’s compost order & delivery this year & give reasons. Ann confirmed by e-mail that this action had taken place.

29) Arrange barbecue. Chris confirmed a communication would be issued asking for preferred date(s). We discussed whether an entrance fee for a communal purchase of barbecue food & drink with some surplus going to FLAG funds would be useful. It was felt however that bring your own food & drink would be better & that a voluntary donation if people wanted to make one to FLAG would be preferable. Action Point 22.

30) Ask for a volunteer to take over the FLAG web site. Richard advised he asked for volunteers, but no one volunteered to the whole management of the web site forward. Liz had however agreed to become “blog editor” so that she can upload her various files whilst managing the Blog area of the site.

At this point we decided to take all bar one of the new agenda items forward to the next meeting as 2 hours had elapsed. Kevin agreed he would look into FLAG possibly becoming a charity & provide information to Richard on the subject. Action Point 23.

Agenda items carried forward as follows:-

• WhatsApp messaging protocol (RC/KW).

• The muddy track & whether existing actions should improve this sufficiently or whether additional actions (to be determined) will be required (TL).

• Hardcore/pebbles addition to vehicle tyre track lines - gate to Leylandii (TL).

• Role of committee in decisions affecting the allotment (KW).

• Pond on Paul’s plot (KW).

• Proposed allotment rule changes (TL).

• Wildlife hedge strategy including internal hedge lines (TL).

• Update on council inspection cycle plans (TL).

• Water Monitor (TL).

• Pumps from water drums (TL).

• Deposit system for renting a plot (TL).

• Wildlife update & discussion of strategy to encourage wildlife (TL).

• Review of FLAG committee rules to ensure fitness for purpose & publication on FLAG web site (KW).

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FLAG Action Plan April 2026 v2.pdf

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