Allotment Committee: Minutes

BRAMBLE LANE ALLOTMENT SOCIETY
Committee meeting — minutes

Present: nine. Apologies: four. Absent without apology: one (Plot 31; noted).

1. Minutes of the previous meeting

Agreed as accurate, subject to a correction from Plot 12 that the word "aggressive" should read "assertive."

2. Matters arising

2.1 The tap. The tap is fixed. There was applause.

2.2 The other tap.

3. Treasurer's report

Balance: £1,114.62.

Plot 7 asked why the balance had gone up by four pence. The Treasurer explained interest. Plot 7 asked what the interest rate was. The Treasurer said he would find out.

4. Membership

Waiting list stands at forty-one. Average wait is now six years.

Plot 22 asked whether the waiting list could be published. The Secretary noted that publishing the waiting list had been trialled in 2018 and had resulted in what the minutes of the time describe as "the incident."

Not agreed.

5. Cultivation standards

Two letters sent. One plot has responded and improved. One has responded and has not improved but has written four pages about why, which the Secretary described as "the best thing I have read this year."

The Chair asked whether the letter could be circulated. The Secretary said no.

6. The shed

6.1 The Chair invited the committee to consider the shed.

6.2 For the benefit of the two new members, the Secretary summarised the position. There is a shed on the boundary between Plot 19 and Plot 20. It was erected in 2016. It is on the boundary. Neither plot holder erected it.

6.3 Plot 19 maintains it is on Plot 20. Plot 20 maintains it is on Plot 19.

6.4 In 2019 the Society commissioned a measurement. The measurement established that the shed is on the boundary.

6.5 The Society's rules do not address sheds on boundaries.

6.6 Plot 19 uses the left half. Plot 20 uses the right half. There is a partition, which was not erected by either of them.

6.7 Neither plot holder has, at any point in six years, entered the other half.

6.8 Plot 22 asked who erected the shed.

6.9 There was a pause of some length.

6.10 The Secretary stated that the shed was erected by Mr Gerald Fenn of Plot 21, who died in 2017, and who is understood to have erected it deliberately, on the boundary, in one weekend, without consultation, after eleven years of dispute between Plots 19 and 20 about the boundary itself.

6.11 Plot 22 asked what the dispute had been about.

6.12 The Secretary stated that nobody now living remembers.

6.13 Plot 22 asked whether the shed could simply be removed.

6.14 Plot 19 and Plot 20 both objected, simultaneously, and at length, and — the Chair noted for the minutes — in agreement with each other for the first time in the Society's recorded history.

6.15 Item deferred.

7. Autumn show

Judging categories confirmed. The Chair reminded members that the marrow category is not competitive and exists for the enjoyment of all.

Plot 12 asked whether that was in the rules. The Chair said it was in the spirit of the rules. Plot 12 asked to have that recorded.

Recorded.

8. Any other business

8.1 Plot 7 raised the interest rate. The Treasurer had found out. It is 1.1%.

8.2 Plot 31 arrived at this point and apologised. Apology accepted.

8.3 Plot 31 asked what had been decided about the shed.

8.4 The Chair closed the meeting.

Next meeting: the second Tuesday. Item 6 to be carried forward.