Page 35 - ALG Issue 4 2023

readers articles
Bradmore Gardens Lottery Funding
It has been another successful year for funding at our Bradmore Gardens allotment site in Burton-On-Trent, Staffordshire. Following on from our National Lottery Community Funding for eight new metal sheds and bases in February 2022, this year in January we got a £1,000 grant from the Staffordshire County Council ‘Climate Change’ fund for 28 new Eco-Master composting bins – one for each plot on the site. The application had to
be signed off by our local county councillor, who forwarded it for us. Then, in April this year, I applied again to the National Lottery Community Fund for a new rotovator for the site, as we have been relying on one of our plotholders using his machine to do the rotovating for fellow association members – so I felt we should try to get one solely for our association.
I was notified in June that we’d been successful with our application again, so we now have a new ‘Bertolini’ rotovator, which is a real heavy-duty machine. There was excess funding
left over, as I had managed to buy the rotovator at a reduced price online. The Lottery folk kindly let us use this to buy two more items for our association: a new external noticeboard (badly needed since our last one was so old it fell to pieces), and a new petrol strimmer
for tidying up the badly weeded areas on the site – again replacing one that had broken a long time ago. We are
very thankful
to the Lottery
Community Funding
for accepting our applications, and
of course to the
‘National Lottery
Players’, without
whom these
projects could not be funded.
These funded projects are a big help
to associations like ours, as it’s unlikely that the association funds would stretch to buying much in the way of equipment. Most of our funds go on site maintenance and water bills, so
it’s useful having machinery to keep
our site looking tidy and to help with cultivating the soil too. I think the job
of ‘secretary/treasurer’ which my role incorporates – besides the usual admin tasks – has to include funding as part of the job and for the future of the site. The role of running an allotment site like ours has to include bringing in funding for certain projects the site may require. Thankfully there are a few places to
try to get funding now and if you write a decent, well-written application the ‘funders’ may accept it.
This year I was voted in as ‘chairman, secretary and treasurer’ combined, though re-named on our constitution as ‘site manager’ as I find it easier running
The role of running an allotment site like ours has to include bringing in funding for certain projects the site may require
everything, together with a committee and assistant manager. As in my day job, I am a self-employed decorator, so I’m used to dealing with running my business from top to bottom. I feel our site has much improved in recent years after investing more time and money on it, including some generous help from our Parish Council too with other funding, mainly the hedge cutting and also some money towards refurbishing our WC a couple of years ago, making it arguably the best allotment loo in the UK!, thanks to one of our very skilled association members who carried out all the work. The aim is to continually improve things at Bradmore Gardens allotments so it looks its best.
Tim Brooks
Instagram: @bradmore_gardens_ allotments
Allotment and Leisure Gardener 35