Page 6 - ALG Issue 3 2014

Head Office
President’s comments
I thank you, the members, for electing me as your President and I pay homage to Colin Nickerson, our President for the last few years. We thank him for his continuous support over many years and wish him good health and a good season of gardening.
I consider it a great honour that you have bestowed on me and I shall do my very best to work for the Society on your behalf.
The Society has had a difficult year and has come through it with renewed enthusiasm and with determination to continually review and monitor its future management practices. Be assured that you, the members, can have confidence in a modern allotment movement for the 21st century.
Two influential members have stood down from the Management Committee. We must applaud them for their commitment to the Allotment movement, the Society, and most of all, the members. There comes a time in all of our endeavours when we say “I have done my best, it’s now time for others to continue to take the Society into the future”. We must ensure that the Society continues to develop to meet the challenges that modern society demands. We thank them sincerely for all of their work on our behalf and wish them a peaceful, stress-free retirement to tend their plots.
We also say goodbye to several other long-serving members of the Management Committee who have, after many years, decided to retire and finally get to do all those things frequently put off because of allotment commitments. I know the Society, and especially the members in their regions, will want us to recognise the amazing amount of work they have done for them. Allan Rees – Wales, Maurice Lander - West Midlands, Shirley Fleetwood - East Midlands, Allan Cavell - South West, Alex Mullins - Southern and John Doherty – North.
The face of allotments has changed over the last two decades and we now have a fantastic mix within all sections of the Society. We encompass varying ages and professions, races and cultures, grannies and granddads work together with their children and grandchildren, making friends, sharing and learning about each others’ cultures and methods of cultivation, trying all sorts of new vegetables. The allotment community is growing and it is a pattern for society to aspire to.
The wider population has become aware of the importance of allotments and the benefits gained by all. One of those benefits is better health, which in turn lessens the health bills of the nation. Who needs a gym where you pedal a bicycle for ages and get nowhere?
The economic benefit is also great. Think of the tonnes of food produced by the entire countries allotments...imagine how much that would cost to import, transport, package and deliver and how much pollution would be caused.
Allotments in the 21st century are on course to provide one of the most important opportunities for localised food production, community cohesion, education, biodiversity, conservation, healthy exercise etc.
The Allotments Movement must rise to the demand and supply this need by improving the provision of allotments and the facilities on allotments to accommodate not only the present demand but the future, embracing new technologies in the way of energy and water
provision, community rooms, polytunnels, composting toilets and so on.
As your President I will support and encourage the Management Committee and you in our joint efforts to:
• Provide members with a high standard of
service and benefits.
• Protect existing allotments.
• Lobby for allotment provision in all local plans and developments. • Assist local authorities and landowners in working together to
create new allotments.
• Aid local authorities and tenants to work together for mutual
benefits.
• Lobby the Government to uphold and strengthen allotment laws. • Lobby the Government to protect more allotments from
developers.
Between 2010 and 2013 no less than 83 councils applied to
sell off allotment sites. Of those, 59 sales were approved, 10 are pending, only 2 were refused and the rest were withdrawn. We cannot continue to allow this to happen. The Society pledges to create, protect, promote and preserve allotments but we cannot do it alone...we need your help... your support...your expertise. THE FUTURE IS IN YOUR HANDS. ALLOTMENTS ARE PART OF OUR NATIONAL HERITAGE and it is up to us to ensure that future generations continue to have the choice to grow their own food and enjoy all of the other benefits that are associated with well-run allotment sites.
We need all associations and members to lobby in their areas, remind your local councillors and MPs to make sure allotments are in your local plans, engage with the local councils to improve your provision and facilities, lobby your local MP to protect allotments.
By now the tenants of Farm Terrace allotments in Watford will have attended the High Court. We hope that they won this round and we wish them well and offer support. Google ‘Watford Farm Terrace Allotments’ to keep updated.
The Society now has vacancies in several of our regions. Do you have management skills? Are you a retired accountant, company director, solicitor? Have you run your own business or do you simply have some people skills and a passion for allotments? Maybe
you know someone who may like a challenge. Please consider volunteering in your own area, as a committee member perhaps. Could you organise a county meeting and form a county body, to represent your county at regional panels?
If this all sounds exciting and you fancy playing a part in the future of the Society then just contact us and we will help you. Feel free to contact me and the Committee via email or letter. Together we can really get this Society running and jumping into the 21st century.
Well I guess that’s the end of the commercial break. So let me thank you once again for your support and please enjoy the rest of the gardening seasons ahead.
Karen Kenny
President
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