Page 48 - ALG Issue 3 2020
P. 48

West Midlands
Shropshire, Staffordshire, Worcestershire, Herefordshire and Warkwickshire
 Welcome to our new members...
Cartbridge Lane Allotment Association Hallow Temporary Allotments
Stanton Gardens and Allotments Association Stoke Golding Convent Allotment Society Watery Lane Allotments Assoc
Redditch & Bromsgrove Council 13 Individual Memberships
  REPRESENTATIVE
Mr Tom Terrence
17 Stonefield Close, Walsgrave Keep, Walsgrave, Warks CV2 2PZ 02476 621350 tterrence@btinternet.com
West Midlands report
MENTOR
Colin Bedford
West Midlands
0845 261 3672 cbedford.nas@gmail.com
  As with the rest of the world's arrangements, the West Midlands Region's quarterly meeting in May was cancelled. So, I am reporting on a big event on my site. The situation started long ago with the financial crash of 2008. In order to save money, someone in the local council decided that jobs should be restructured. The Allotment Officer was reassigned, keeping her previous title but having other tasks added to her duties. Part of the deal was that she was to be deskbound and, to compound the situation, the Council amalgamated clerical duties with an adjacent authority six miles away, where she would be based.
With no supervision by the Council, who had long ago discounted the idea of self-management, deeming us to be not sufficiently competent, matters went into a decline. Several people started imaginative construction projects. One person, acquiring a load of scrap wood, decided on a grand plan: was it to be the Taj Mahal, or was it to be an elephant house? We will never know; engineering design was not a strong skill on this plot. The roof was formed of polythene sheeting. However, with no central support, at the first rain it became an aerial pond and, gravity being what it
is, very shortly the roof collapsed. The project had been abandoned as was the plot. Similar activities took place elsewhere and a number of plots became an eyesore and were also abandoned.
The Allotment Officer, still sitting at
a desk six miles away, was moved to new duties in the summer of 2019
and a replacement found. Part of her induction was to have the pleasure of being shown around the allotment sites with her line manager; a tenant on a nearby allotment site, accompanied her. Seemingly they were not impressed. Twelve tenants were offered the chance to relinquish their tenancies and took up the offer.
At the site association AGM in October, a member suggested that, unless replacement tenants were
found quickly, the site may be sold
for building. This is where the site association had begun, fighting a previous proposition in 1986 to build
on the five-acre site. Alarmed at this new threat, a plan was formulated and between Christmas and New Year, a volunteer working party started on a winter project. Armed with a list of the empty plots, an inspection was made by the site Association, dates were chosen, and the plotholders were invited to participate in the plot clearance. With one plot chosen as the dumping ground, the removal of debris to the empty plot began. Piles of unwanted material
were heaped up, and over the course of January, plotholders came and went. The ‘right to plunder’ as with pirates
of old, was quickly established. On no consecutive occasions were the same people in attendance, but that did not matter – the work was being achieved. One plot, over-run with raspberry canes, was laboriously cleared to ground level and its shed placed at the top of the plot on a small ‘shelf’ of land. It was pushed over by one person with one hand, such was the precariousness of the building. It had never been the intention to totally clear the ground, so no digging was undertaken (we have to leave something
Piles of unwanted material were heaped up, and over the course of January, plotholders came and went. The ‘right to plunder’ as with pirates of old, was quickly established
for the new tenants to do).
By the end of February over 60 hours of work had been undertaken. On the first Saturday in March, a bonfire was lit, having been deemed that it was less environmentally unfriendly to burn the woodpile than to transport it elsewhere. Two lorry loads went to landfill, and a scrap metal merchant removed the metal. There is talk
of additional carparking and even a communal meeting place, financed by Lottery funding (?). Around the corner, lurking, was coronavirus, but we were unaware of the impending severity of its implications.
By splitting the plots in half, over 20 people from the waiting list will be accommodated. The ‘Open Day’ with strict social distancing, took place on 16th May. Not ideal, but better than nothing. 30 would-be-tenants came. I wish that I could have been there, but social isolation for the over 70s means I should not go out. Hey ho, the next project has appeared – organising our funding application.
John McNab
Secretary, West Midlands Region
Calls to 0845 numbers cost 3p (ex VAT) per minute plus your telephone company’s access charge
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