On Sat, 30 Jul 2011 16:54:46 +0100, "Bob Hobden"
wrote:


1. Water is a priority certainly, can't grow anything without.

There are lots of sites without it. We have access to the rainwater
from a huge garage roof if we can get more barrels. Whilst it's not
the same as a tap - there is a hosepipe long enough to fill those
barrels should it not rain.
Paying the water meter for an allotment site is going to cost money.


2. Sheds are thief bait so I personally would ban them, get a trailer for
your car instead, you need that for fetching manure every year anyway.


I don't need a shed. We have rules on what size they can be - as we're
going self - managed.

3. Permanent hard paths are not a necessity, usually everyone has to look
after their own, communal roads/paths however will need maintenance grass
cutting etc so someone has to be responsible.

It has communal paths already. Although with no weed matting
underneath some underused ones are very over grown.

4. As above, usually the same people do the work all the time so stipulate
so many days a year for each plot holder.*

Yes. Think this is essential.

5. Toilets are very important, especially as one gets older, and with more
women taking up allotment gardening it become a necessity both for the
ladies and for the gentlemen that don't wish to be accused of exposing
themselves. There are composting toilets available so they do not need mains
water or mains drainage.

Indeed. They cost money though and unless we can find funding for it
it's going to be years of saving up. There's only 9 plots on the site.

6. Up to you, lots of weed seeds floating across the site could be a
problem, Rabbits are a menace, foxes can do serious damage too. Personally I
don't think an allotment site is the place for one. A communal
seating/picnic area perhaps.

We have one already.

7. Why? So people can see who has the best produce to nick, the best stuff
in their shed, the easiest way into the site...?


It's a tradition at some sites.

8. Lease is surely the first thing you would get sorted out, no point in
planting permanent things like fruit if you haven't got guaranteed tenure.


We have in theory but the paperwork is taking some time.


In everyone's agreement I would stipulate how many hours a year they have to
work on the site. Also they have to keep weeds down on their plots, not let
them seed, not using their plot as a rubbish dump, stipulate the max size of
any sheds and permission required anyway, stipulate trees can only be
planted with permission and restrict it to fruit trees only, do inspections
of every plot , say, 3 times a year and without exception (well illness
perhaps) any that get two letters about lack of cultivation are off.



The lease contains all the rules which the federation has tried
arguing against. I suspect some of them are silly like specifying what
colour your shed has to be.


-- Regards
Bob Hobden
W.of London. UK
--
http://www.voucherfreebies.co.uk