Litcham Allotments and Leisure Gardeners Accociation NEWS

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Litcham Allotments and Leisure Gardeners Association

Inaugural Annual General Meeting
Held at Litcham Bull Meeting Room 15th January

Meeting Opened 7.05p.m.
Approx 35 people present including:
Committee Henry Dennett (Chairman) Louise Dennett (Treasurer), Sharon Junge (Secretary), Paul Bagguley, Fred Feeke, Evan Fulcher, Douglas Manning and Paul mummery

1. Apologies
Clerk to Parish Council John Relph, councillors unable to attend, unfortunately Parish Council Meeting being held at same time as AGM.
Mr and Mrs Palmer also unable to attend, sent their apologies

2. Any other business- moved to last item on the agenda before close

3. Introductions/General Information- Report by Chairman
All members of the committee formed from the open meeting held on 13th November 2006 introduced. (See above)
Chairman Henry Dennett introduced Karen Kenny Allotments Regeneration Initiative (ARI) Mentor. Tony Green, Karen Bradley and Sadie Bailey introduced as Litcham Relief In Need Trustees, present to listen to LALGA progress.

LALGA: short history The association was formed in November 2006. Described by the chairman as a group of people who came together through their ‘passion of allotments or gardening’ to help move the regeneration of Litcham Allotments forward.

LALGA objectives for 2007.
a.)   Tidy up the allotments
b.)   Help support trustees to ensure the allotments are viable.
c.)   Fundraising
Update on Litcham Relief in Need Charity -at present unable to carry out any duties, documentation requested from previous Trustees, as to date have not been handed over. The Charity Commission have been informed. The new Trustee’s are awaiting a response.

LALGA Constitution – the committee have adopted a standard constitution supplied by Karen Kenny (ARI mentor). This was made available to those present and is available to members on request to secretary.

Membership subscriptions are £5 annually each January. Of which £1.75 goes to affiliate members to the National Society of Allotment and Leisure Gardeners Limited.
This allows access to information and support on gardening and allotments at a national level.
Locally, Louise Dennett (Treasurer) has negotiated very good discounts with local businesses. (Full details contained in membership introductory leaflet.)

Karen Kenny (ARI) spoke, of how pleased she was to see LALGA membership growing. She congratulated everyone present on supporting the development and growth of this community group.

Karen suggested that the regeneration of Litcham allotments should be seen as a long term project. She described having ‘never seen a set of allotments like them.’ But they can be turned around’.

Karen suggested that the emphasise should be initially on short term goals, working together to:
a.)   Clear over grown areas
b.)   Negotiation of re- measuring plots
c.)   Fundraising

She plans to write a detailed site report and will forward a copy to LALGA when complete.

4. Treasurer’s Report – Accounts will run from December to November the following year in preparation for audit and AGM report.
Accounts 2006
Formation or LALGA 13/11/06 initial 14 members - £70

Account opened with Norwich and Peterbourgh Building Society, with 3 signatories as per constitution for cheque account. The chairman wished it to be noted that as the Treasurer was his wife he was not a signatory as he felt it would not be appropriate.

Membership to date stands at 48.

Possible Fundraising -Needed to improve the allotments.
Ideas Sales Table- during the year selling seeds and plants.
Guest speaker Spring/Autumn
Raffle Cakes
There would be a need to form a sub-committee to support these possible ventures.
Volunteers to grow Seedlings/ plants for Sale
Paul Baggley
Paul Mummery
Fred Feeke
Maurice Smith
Henry and Louise Dennett

Fundraising Stall
Ellen Jarvis, Evelyn Smith

5. Secretary’s Report
Letters were sent to inform the following groups of LALGA’s formation.
Trustee’s of Litcham Relief
Litcham Parish Councillors
All know allotment holders.
Posters have been placed on village notice boards to provide information about LALGA’s formation.

Litcham shops, the Butchers and the Museum were all approached and have been happy to display posters on membership and hold a supply of membership forms, which is much appreciated

A flyer drop was carried in December promoting membership and the AGM.
Clerk to the Parish Council Mr John Relph has placed LALGA details on the Litcham Parish Website, which is very much appreciated.

We hope to develop a quarterly Newsletter for members and will be hoping that people will be willing to share ideas and contribute to its contents. In the meantime information will be shared via parish magazine and notice boards.

6. Election of Officers and Committee Members
Chairman advised members present that all committee members would be standing down as per constitution.

Results of Elections for Officers and Committee were as follows:

Chairman :
Henry Dennett Proposed by Sharon Junge Seconded by Evan Fulcher AGM Vote- Agreed

Secretary:
Sharon Junge Proposed by Henry Dennett Seconded by Lyn Jones
AGM Vote- Agreed

Treasurer:
Louise Dennett Proposed by Henry Dennett Seconded by Paul Bagguly
AGM Vote -Agreed

Committee Members who had all stood down where re-elected
Proposed by Henry Dennett Seconded by Veronica Little
AGM Vote – Agreed

Other members were invited to join the new committee. The committee will meet as per constitution at least 4 times a year. No members wished to join the committee at present but other members expressed and interest in assisting with sub- committee projects, times and dates to be arranged, please check village notice boards for details.

7. Appointment of Auditors
D.R.Carter Proposed By Henry Dennett Seconded by Ron Shaw
AGM Vote- Agreed

Any other Business
Paul Bagguley wanted to thank Paul - The Bull Landlord for the use of the meeting room and advised the members that no charge was being made for the venue, in exchange for some spare vegetables from allotments. All present were appreciative this gesture, and allotment holders present were happy to agree to this.

Nancy Krois: How many plots available for rent?
Chairman’s reply: 20 all very large, 1 overgrown with trees, 1 previously used by high ways department at present not unfit for cultivation. All available were occupied.

Ellen Jarvis : How could she help someone to have an allotment?
Chairman’s reply: Become a member of LALGA , Encourage other people to join, spread the word.
Karen Kenny(ARI): Response, join the ‘Waiting List’ apply for a plot, by writing to the Parish Council and LALGA. (Waiting List for Allotments Started - to be passed on to Litcham Relief in Need Charity Trustees.)

Tony Green (Trustee Litcham Relief in Need Charity) Advised Allotment Holders that rents for 2007 could not be accepted until the situation of transfer of charity documents had been resolved.
LALGA Chairman suggested that this situation required some understanding and patience, and was sorry that the situation could not be moved forward until the documentation had been transferred.

Fred Feeke asked about the possibility of using land as allotments owned by the charity on Tittleshall Road
Karen Kenny (ARI) Advised the need to focus on clearing the present allotments.

Dougie Manning Asked who rented the land on Tittleshall Road Chairman: Believed to be Colin Archer.

Evan Fulcher Highlighted that some allotments appeared to be used for purposes other than growing vegetables asked if this was acceptable.

Chairman response, at present this query could not be addressed without charity documents/written agreements on which plots were rented to allotment holders.

Karen Kenny in response suggested in general terms all allotment rents are annual, any terms and management of allotments would need to be governed by rules and enforced as required.

Veronica Little asked, is an allotment to be used for a Youth Shelter?
Chairman reply, LALGA agreed at the committee meeting on 28th November 2006, that in principle subsequent to consultation with allotment holders that they supported the Youth Shelter suggestion. However it was clear that there was also a need for consultation with other parties. Following discussion with Karen Kenny (ARI) this support with regret is withdrawn, as there are implications for allotment use.

Nancy Krois: Asked about consideration being given to making the allotment regeneration into a TV project or discussion topic for radio or news papers.
Chairman’s response, to encourage Nancy to write letters and make enquires and feed back results to LALGA committee and members.
Nancy agreed to do this.

Henry Dennett (Chairman) Asked if all members could ask one other member to join LALGA to increase the possibility to regenerate this part of Litchams heritage and community resource.

Sue Patterson Asked about smaller plots or possibility of sharing a plot.
Chairman: Hopefully in the future this would be possible as some plot holders have said they would be happy to split their plots. This restructuring would have to be carried out with consultation of all parties concerned, again the Trustees would need to agree to this but no problems were foreseen.
There would also be a need to review rent in the future to increase income to assist with charity viability and subsequently securing allotments for the future.
Karen Kenny (ARI) stated that country wide an average plot size is 10 rods, rent being £25. Chairman suggested that any rent increase would need to be gradual and sensible.

Veronica Little Will LALGA and Litcham Relief in Need Charity meet regularly? Chairman: It is hoped this will be the case in the future, again the lack of charity documentation means nothing can happen at present.

Chairman asked those present ‘What would you like?’
Two Reponses
Douglas Manning- to get allotments back to how they were. Tidy them up.
Ronnie Hewitt – to sort the allotments out.

All present thanked for their attendance and contribution, and invited to stay for informal chat and refreshments

Chairman suggested Allotment Holders continue to work to tidy there own plots and help each other to do so.
Clearing dates for people happy to help, to be arranged following next committee meeting. To be confirmed by posters or in the parish magazine.
Membership cards, LALGA introduction leaflet and receipts distributed to those present by Treasurer. Newly registered members will receive
their membership cards as soon as possible, following the meeting AGM. members will be affiliated to the National Society of Allotment and Leisure Gardeners Limited as soon as is reasonably possible.

New members are sought and continue to have membership for 2007 until November as the accounts run. Following this time all new members and renewals of membership will be for 2008.

8. Meeting Closed 8.30p.m.