Page 48 - ALG Issue 4 2017

Improvements Take Root at Addison Road
Addison Road allotments in Irlam, Greater Manchester, is a ourishing community asset thanks to two grants totalling £3,140. The investment has been used to improve the area and enable green- ngered users to bene t from better facilities. Charitable organisation Hamilton Davies Trust (HDT) made an initial donation of £2,150 for
the hire of a digger to remove roots and debris, making the Addison Road site t for allotment work.
Earlier this year HDT invested a further £990 to fund the installation of a pathway, making all the plots accessible for users with limited mobility. Mandy Coleman, General Manager at HDT said: “Thanks to the development of the allotments we have a new green space along with improved health and wellness through food growing
opportunities. All this promotes a healthy and economical lifestyle”.
Mandy added: “We are glad that the grants have enabled the expansion of the site – and access to it. Now the allotments are available to a larger number and greater variety of people”.
Don Booth, Salford Allotment Federation, added:
“Three years ago we regenerated part of the site which had not been worked for over thirty years as phase one, providing a further 21 plots and formed a committee to run the site on self-management terms. Now the Committee of Addison Rd allotments have got together with HDT to start on phase two. Our thanks to HDT for their involvement in this project”.
Hamilton Davies Trust is a charity
which supports the communities of Irlam, Cadishead and Rixton-with-Glazebrook. https://hamiltondavies.org.uk/.
Don Booth, SAF
London
Welcome to London
It seems a long time ago that I walked into the meeting room in Cambridge to attend my rst Eastern Region meeting with other county representatives in 2005. Ted Green was one. Not at that rst meeting but later on, he expressed a view that a London Region would be a more appropriate regional adherence for him. A view with which I sympathised, but I was aware then that tinkering with regional boundaries was not the most urgent issue for the National Allotment Society.
The arguments in favour did
seem cogent then and still do at
several levels. London was the
only county local authority that
was split between two of the NAS
regions. It also meant that one
London Borough – Richmond
– had to deal with two regional
representatives. Colin Nickerson
when he was Eastern Region Representative did make attempts to set up a Middlesex County Body but he too came to recognise that even at that date Middlesex did consider itself part of London except for that part of the historic county that was transferred to Surrey’s Spelthorne District. Eastern Region numbers did imply that detaching the London members from it would still make it a viable region and adding the NAS members south of the Thames would produce a region which would not be the smallest. Treading as carefully as I can here, the sense of belonging to London rather than a broader Eastern England region seemed strong. Additionally London is a region recognised by central government - whatever its stripe.
So the motion submitted in December 2015 to set up the London Region was put to the 2016 AGM at York. It was passed relatively straightforwardly. Those that spoke against and voted against did so not so much from a wider principle but for the pragmatic reasons that they would be most directly affected, a view with which it was dif cult to disagree and which I hope has been addressed in some of the discussions that have taken place since. The abstentions
Welcome to our new members...
Avenues Allot Association
Deptford Allot & Gdn Association Manor Gardening Society Marsh Lane
“Benvenuto
a Londra”
(Giuseppe: Plot 100)
were mostly from those who were from outside London and who perhaps felt they were not directly affected. But this motion was essentially top down in effect whereas the earlier views expressed were bottom up. Tying those two strands together
“Bienvenue à Londres”
has required a conscious effort and one which is still ongoing.
That process had to start with the rst meeting held in 2016 after
the AGM. The simple and basic question of whether the setting up of a London Region was worth pursuing had to be put and was accepted - twice. Beyond that the mechanics of what had to be put in place loomed. In part that was helped by the subcommittee of the National Allotment Society that was looking at regional constitutions and I think the traf c was two-way. Other important questions to be addressed were for the membership to be contacted, the committee to be set up and the meetings to be held. Everything was labelled
as ‘interim’ as it had to be until the rst formal meeting held on 12th
(Joane: Plot 144)
“Bem-vindo a Londres”
(Jose & Teresa: plots 16 &17)
August this year. That meeting and the earlier ones were all held at Roots and Shoots, a charity giving support to young people in Southwark and Lambeth.
It has been and is a very supportive environment. The simple
bases of
48
100
NEW SERIES – Centenary Celebrations.
YEARS
Many of our member sites are commemorating their 100th year existence and we would love to hear about it. In each edition within 2018 we will tell stories from sites that came in to being in the early 20th century. Has your site got a story to tell?
Email diane@nsalg.org.uk. The deadline for the next magazine (February 2018) is 28 November 2017.
documents, of cers and committee and bank account are there now but the real challenge to build a fully functioning regional operation to serve the National Allotment Society members in the Greater London area is there to be met in the next few years.
Jeff Barber (Plot 130)