May 2012 Updated

In the spirit of transparency the working group wanted everyone to see the documents they have been working with. Click on the documents below to read them.

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Comments about this page

  • I heartily agree with the objectives as drafted, and congratulations to the steering group for all your hard work. A couple of points: 

    1. I wonder whether the first one should read “interests and views” rather than just interests. 

    2. I am glad to see an emphasis on wildlife-friendly practices and the duty to conserve wildlife corridors alongside cultivation. Otherwise, theoretically, allotments could become as barren of wildlife habitats as intensively farmed land–it all depends on methods and attitudes. I would prefer, however, that this item was standing alone in Objective no. 10, rather than conflated with “health benefits” etc. There has, recently at least, been a lamentable absence in the allotment department of any awareness of the council’s own wildlife policy, let alone national biodiversity obligations, and as a result the nesting sites of warblers (garden warblers of which only 200,000 pairs nest in the UK annually, and whitethroats) not to mention lots of other little finches etc.,were razed to the ground at Mousecoomb site without any consultation, just to meet the officer’s “targets.” Most of these areas are unsuitable for cultivation anyway. It was an appalling act of vandalism, and we seemed to have no effective avenue through which to influence policy in this matter; I hope this will now change. A lot of allotmenteers on the site were angry and distraught, especially since the wildlife areas, we had been given to understand previously, were to be conserved–yet this was not honoured. Some of our plot-holders had been managing these areas in the interests of biodiversity, and their work was not recognised; we don’t know what is liable to happen next. And surely even council officers must realise that it’s better to have foxes than wild rabbits living on an allotment site!

    By Sally Griffin (11/05/2012)
  • These objectives are far too complicated and much too verbose. Objectives should be short and snappy. You are also asking much too much of the federation ! There are only a handful of volunteers on it.. By presenting them with such a massive list of impossible tasks you run the danger of them being blinded by this list and so ignoring them all.. All plot holders actually voted for was an update of the objectives to include ‘representation’ but that seems to have got lost in this over complex re-write of the entire thing.. sadly not sure about this.

    By Keith Wickham (14/05/2012)
  • I attended yesterdays meeting and voted “yes” to the objectives. However i do agree with Keith Wickham that they are too verbose and need to be shortened in order for them to be implemented. I thought it was a shame that only around 65 people turned up!

    By Emma Bateman (17/05/2012)

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