It has been an interesting year for me, and I have had a huge learning curve that’s for sure, so thanks for baring with me! I would like to thank the committee for their support and two the letting officers and David Goodey for their advice and guidance when needed.
So what have we been doing all year?
Well most of my attention has been focused this year on the New Site, primarily with the shed and tools, we shared a great day putting many, many screws, bolts and panels together, so thanks for all those that helped out it made a few great memories!
The water leak was a very trying time for me and the members most effected by the water and am glad that this is now resolved. It is always a shame when things take this long to resolve but at least we can move on in peace!
One thing that has proved hugely successful is the Equipment Orientation & Competency Sessions Drew undertook this year. Due these sessions we had no accidents or equipment breakages at all on the New Site. We are intending to carry this forward to the Old Site, apart from trying to reduce equipment breakages and the costs associated with this, we also are governed by the Health & Safety at Work Act, due to us being known as an Association, and we have a Duty of Care to the members and general public to ensure all equipment provided by the Association is fit for purpose, properly maintained & safe to use with the correct safety equipment supplied, but not only that we have to show clearly that we have taken suitable steps to ensure operators of the equipment have competency in using the equipment so that means any member including myself will have to attend an Equipment Orientation & Competency Session, now this doesn’t mean you will be shown the pointless task of cutting grass, it just to assess your needs and competency.
If you vote for as Chairman this will be your agreement to this scheme being put in place, as I could not continue as Chairman without it, we were lucky this year with an accident that occurred on the Old Site which could have been a lot worse as only property was damage and no one was hurt.
So this year we had a vote on the New Site for Bees and I am pleased to announce the vote was a resounding yes and hopefully in the not too distant future the Essex Bee Keepers will start work on their bee hive enclosure and we will start benefiting from increased pollination, and if successful we will have a vote on the Old Site with a view to having hives on the Old Site too.
The lease has been signed by the Parish Council for 6 years instead of the usual 3 years, and then will revert to a 3 year interval, we asked for this so we can hopefully gain some grant money to enable a couple of projects the committee believe will greatly benefit us, these being fencing around the Old Site and an onsite shop so we can stock a few essentials for members and greatly reduced prices, these items could include chicken manure pellets, slug pellets, canes, fertilisers such as Gromore and tomato feed which will add to our coffers and save us money at the same time so lots of positives coming up hopefully in the coming years.
The Best Allotment Competition Event this year was a huge success and we had a fascinating talk from Carly Mayes about bees and bee keeping so thanks to all those that help organise this event and thanks to all those who attended to make this a special event. Whilst on the subject of the Best Allotment Competition I have a couple of apologises to make also, to Paul Smith and Pete & Steph Gammons, the cups were not given to the Horticultural Society so they could be presented to them at their show in October so I would like to present them their cups today.