Page 42 - ALG Issue 1 2023

North West
Lancashire, Greater Manchester, Merseyside and Cheshire
cabin – whew!
Revidge Allotment
Association gets new
Our rainwater
collection project
Brighton Grove is a self-administered allotment of 47 plots situated in the centre of Manchester. We are wildly oversubscribed so we now offer half and quarter plots so as to include as many enthusiasts as possible, and have well over 100 tenants.
It is a little paradise, ‘somewhere you can think’
is a lovely comment from one plotholder. It acts as a green corridor between two large parks. We try to be environmentally friendly with wildflower verges, communal compost bins, and individual water butts on many plots, a composting loo and peat-free compost for sale in the shop. For some years, Manchester City Council has banned the use of allotment hoses. Despite this, we were aware we were still using a lot of mains water.
2021 RHS Tatton Park Flower Show. United Utilities had a stand offering some fabulous little reusable water bottles. Having got my bottle, I asked whether United Utilities provided additional water collection containers for allotments. They said: “We will find out.” A couple of days later I had a phone call offering some water butts. “Nothing bigger?” I asked. This led to a further conversation where we agreed that our lovely allotment
could be part of a rainwater harvesting pilot project, where we worked with United Utilities to develop a solution to reduce mains water use for gardening and growing.
We soon had one of their teams on the allotments mapping our rainwater collection facilities, plotting our water butt positions, checking the greenhouses and sheds for suitable down pipes and guttering and working out space for the planned IBCs (individual bulk containers). The result is magnificent. Our allotments now have 22 1000L IBCs across the whole site. Half of these are filled from rain off roofs via guttering and half have free-standing bright yellow funnels to catch the rain.
Despite the lack of the usual North West rain since their installation this spring, they have still been invaluable, providing us with that extra bit of water during a very hot summer. To complete the project, we are altering all our standpipe taps to only flow when hard pressed, so there will still be mains water on the site but we hope with a considerable saving.
For a number of years, we had dreamt of replacing the two dilapidated timber sheds on the site, with a new purpose-built metal shed. We knew that the condition of the sheds was such that in the not-too-distant future they would become unfit and insecure. We needed to grasp the nettle and
get on with fundraising and obtaining planning permission – difficult tasks in the best of times, but, during a pandemic, much harder.
The first job was to decide what we needed and then to obtain planning permission. Our initial meeting with the local authority planners in April 2019 revealed that whatever we replaced the timber sheds with we needed formal planning permission, in itself potentially a lengthy, expensive process fraught with technical hurdles. The initial meeting with planners gave us the parameters for the new building
in terms of the design, size, scale
and colour of building that would be acceptable. The meeting was invaluable and saved much time and effort.
Our Treasurer took on the role of project leader and drafted a specification and obtained costing for the new building. The costing showed we needed far more than we had in our modest reserves so our Chairman took on the role of chief fundraiser. He obtained grants from the National Lottery Community Fund £10k, National Allotment Garden Trust £5k and Blackburn CVS £500. We also asked individual plotholders for donations, which raised £2.5k. These monies, along with our reserves, covered the initial estimates.
Once we had the funding in place,
our Secretary’s partner drafted the technical drawings and put together the planning application; three months later we had our approval, but then, with the price of steel and other commodities increasing substantially, it became apparent we could not afford a building of the size we ideally wanted so we had to scale it back and apply for revised planning approval. The build
was started in June but then, almost inevitably with such projects, it became apparent during the course of the work that problems encountered with the ground works would mean we needed more money. This additional cost was covered by two interest free loans from two Officers of the committee.
The new building was completed in
late August 2022 having taken three months from the start on site. The work involved the demolition of two old, dilapidated, rotten cabins, clearing the site, building a new raft foundation and retaining wall, and erecting a new metal building provided by Murray Steel Buildings of Dunfermline. The whole project was a difficult process, needing skills and patience we didn’t know we had. The final total cost of the project was £43k.
On 4th September 2022 we celebrated with a grand opening, annual show and BBQ. A great result!
The new cabin and cleared site will enable us to hold events and provide equipment and improved services to our plotholders. This, together with our website and monthly newsletter, will enable us to give our members an allotment site fit for the 21st century.
Thanks go to the charities who supported us and everyone who made our dream come true!
The photos show the site before and after.
Kath Knowles, Secretary to RAA revidgeallotments.wordpress.com
42 Allotment and Leisure Gardener