£300 grant for Hagg House!!!

[RobD1 10]

Some of you may have noticed that I've complained a little in the past about the state of the Hagg House site...

 

However I recently put these complaints to the Area Panel and encouraged others to do so (after contacting the Allotment Regeneration Initiative and the Sheffield Allotment Federation). Dave (dee1212006) and the Allotment Federation also complained, and this morning we received the following email:

 

Dear Dave and Rob

 

Thanks to both of you for you recent e-mails regarding Hagg House Allotment

Site.

 

Pat Barsby of the Sheffield Allotment Federation has also been in touch

about the same issues. I absolutely agree that we should be making best use

of existing allotment sites, and therefore the Area Panel has juggled its

rather small budgets and come up with £300 which we will pay to the

Allotment Federation to be spent at Hagg House in line with the wishes of

allotment holders ie yourselves! We hope that this will help to fund

equipment hire, skips and perhaps a bit of labour to help with clearance, in

time for Spring.

 

Best wishes and Happy Christmas

 

Rebecca Maddox

 

Rebecca Maddox - Area Co-ordinator South West

 

 

I have spoken to Pat at the Allotment Federation, and we're going to spend it all on mulled wine and mince pies

 

The initial thoughts are to provide some skips to dispose of the rubbish that many of us are coming across as we clear our plots. This is an issue for our allotment and the plots around me, but if you have an allotment on Hagg House and have any suggestions as to how to spend it, either contact Pat or post them here. Pat was also going to speak to the allotment office to see if they had any suggestions as to how to spend it.

 

OK, so not going to do much with £300, but it's good to see that they listened and acted quickly - only sent the letter last week. Only two of us wrote to the Area Panel (and the Allotment Federation), so it doesn't always take much to get something done.

 

Rob

[mc55 10]

well done Rob - I wrote an e-mail to Sarah last week, but haven't had a response, does anyone know if she is still the allotment contact at the council ?

[pawa 10]

Well done Rob on getting the grant. Is there anyway it could be spent not on us allotmenters who already have plots, but somehow improving the empty plots to encourage even more of them to be taken next year? I'm not sure how this can realistically be done, and it should be the councils job, but the more plots that get taken the better the site will be.

 

Getting all the empty plots numbered would be a start. I'm sure we could get this done very cheaply with some paint and wooden boards.

 

But getting skips would certainly help. I've got so much fly tipping on my allotment, (I'm just below the layby on Bolehill Lane) that I'm just going to have a bonfire and burn all the wood, chipboard etc. Only this summer someone dumped a tumble dryer, lawn mower, ironing board amongst other items.

 

pawa (Hagg House, plot 135)

[pawa 10]

How about a noticeboard, or a "Hagg House Allotments" sign?

 

[RobD1 10]

well done Rob - I wrote an e-mail to Sarah last week, but haven't had a response, does anyone know if she is still the allotment contact at the council ?

 

As far as I know she is, had a reply about something a couple of weeks ago. Probably over run with emails from people these days though,

 

Rob

[RobD1 10]

Well done Rob on getting the grant. Is there anyway it could be spent not on us allotmenters who already have plots, but somehow improving the empty plots to encourage even more of them to be taken next year? I'm not sure how this can realistically be done, and it should be the councils job, but the more plots that get taken the better the site will be.

 

Getting all the empty plots numbered would be a start. I'm sure we could get this done very cheaply with some paint and wooden boards.

 

But getting skips would certainly help. I've got so much fly tipping on my allotment, (I'm just below the layby on Bolehill Lane) that I'm just going to have a bonfire and burn all the wood, chipboard etc. Only this summer someone dumped a tumble dryer, lawn mower, ironing board amongst other items.

 

pawa (Hagg House, plot 135)

 

Well, it's open to suggestions on what to spend it on. My first though was to clear rubbish as it affects quite of few of us down our way, and can't easily be burnt or transported awat in cars. I've also had suggestions for a chipper as people seem to have plenty of wood/hedge to get rid of and at least we could use the chippings instead of smoking one another out!

 

I would have thought £300 is unlikely to do anything much to make the site more attractive to potential allotmenters. Maybe we could organise a 'work day' where we (existing plot holders) work with the council to clearup the paths and hedges a bit, put in plot numbers (although that is half the fun of allotmenting there - have I got the right plot?!) and put up notice boards, etc? Not sure if any of us could be pursuaded into clearing another allotment though when we're all struggling with our own If anyone has a strimmer, hedge cutter and/or chainsaw though and could be pursuaded to give a bit of their time it could be used to support their expenses (i.e. petrol)?

 

Not sure what you can do about the fly tipping though, this is the main reason why they won't open the car park as it has to come out of the allotment budget to dispose of illegally dumped rubbish on their site. A fence along the road, if it doesn't block the light too much?

 

Rob

[mc55 10]

sounds like a fence, gate and lock to the site would be a wise investment - maybe the council could be persuaded to provide this on top of the grant. This should help with fly tipping ?

[VickyR 10]

Well done Rob and Dan, this is excellent news.

 

I agree that £300 won't go very far but I would be in favour of

 

a) some skip action and/or

b) new padlocks for posts (ours is knackered) and/or

c) subsidising the hiring of a shredder, if this isn't something we could get the council to bring down to the site next year

 

 

The idea of a work day is a good one - we'd be up for that if it would help sort paths etc. I'm less keen on clearing other plots but could probably have my arm twisted.

 

I could abuse the photocopier and laminater at work on Monday and we could put up some signs asking for anyone who is interested in voting for ideas for spending the cash to contact you?

[RobD1 10]

Well done Rob and Dan, this is excellent news.

 

I agree that £300 won't go very far but I would be in favour of

 

a) some skip action and/or

b) new padlocks for posts (ours is knackered) and/or

c) subsidising the hiring of a shredder, if this isn't something we could get the council to bring down to the site next year

 

 

The idea of a work day is a good one - we'd be up for that if it would help sort paths etc. I'm less keen on clearing other plots but could probably have my arm twisted.

 

I could abuse the photocopier and laminater at work on Monday and we could put up some signs asking for anyone who is interested in voting for ideas for spending the cash to contact you?

 

Small point, but it was Dave who wrote in as well.

 

I certainly don't think we should be paying for the padlock on the access road, that's definitely a council one to pay for. The photocopier and laminator sound good, but I'd wait til after Christmas if I were you, and we probably need some notice boards up first.

 

Sadly we can't get a gate/fence around the site as there are a couple of public footpaths running through it, which are quite well used - and not just by fly tippers Pat from the Allotment Federation did say she'd get in touch with the allotment office to see if they'd match the money, so fingers crossed there.

 

Rob

[samc3 10]

I really like the idea of a work day. We have a hedge trimmer and loppers and things and have cleared one of two plots we have with friends - can't remember the number we are - numbers on plots would really help!

 

Sam

[Dan1el 10]

Well done Rob and Dave

 

Congrats on getting the grant, but £300 could disappear very quickly.

 

Personally, disposing of rubbish is the main problem on my plot but not sure a skip would suit everyone, and where would they put it? I have some very heavy and very large iron window frames so it would need to be close but access is decidedly tricky on our site so not sure how it would work.

 

Plot numbers would be a great idea, not only for those of us who own plots already, but for those looking around the site for a new plot too. Especially with the way the numbering system works (i.e. I own 43 and am next to Rob on plot 18!).

 

I have free access to decent printers (including A3 Colour) and a laminator if this helps at all.

 

Dan

[russellS 10]

Well done Rob and Dave for getting the money.I agree with getting a skip to clear some of the unwanted debris, though it may become the focus of more flytippers!

 

I like the idea of a work for us all to help sort the site out a bit, with hire of equipment, as it would be good to know my fellow plot-hirers and tidy everything up as a group. Clearing the paths would be a big help.