Those of you who garden on the Green Lane site, and have recently had sheds broken into or produce stolen or damaged, will know that our priority is to obtain funding for new security fencing and gates. This will be an expensive project and cost in the region of £22,000. The council have made it clear that they have no funds available for this and so it is up to us to raise the necessary funding.
Anyone who has ideas of how we can raise funds or who to approach for a donation – please get in touch. Any company offering a donation will be acknowledged on this post.
If you have any ideas and are willing to get involved by letter writing etc. then please get in touch either by email using the Contact us link below or by contacting the Allotment Association Chairman.
If tenants on other sites have undertaken similar projects and are willing to share their ideas please add your comments to this posting.
Donations to date and thanks to:
Marshalls Seed Company
website
Thompson and Morgan seed Company
website
Suttons Seed Company
website
Dobies Seed Company
website
Posts
As Green Lane Allotments has pointed out the cheapest quote the Association has received so far is for £22,000 not including VAT. The Asociation currently has a bank account set up for collecting monies for the fence fund if anyone gets anything to put in it.
ReplyDelete£22,000 would get us a 2.4m high palisade fence on the three sides that need it, including 3 new gates, a 4m wide gate at the bottom of the site and two 1.2m wide gates at the top of the site. (Palisade is the metal posts with pointed tops). Unfortunately the planning office may not want us to have palisade and would prefer the anti climb mesh or paladin fencing, this costs around £17,000 but can be cut through. Steve Slade is writing a letter on our behalf requesting that we are allowed to use the paladin fencing. I am preparing the planning drawings at the moment which will go in, in the next couple of weeks with Steve's letter and the fee of £135 which Steve has said the Allotments department should be able to pay. I think it would also be a good idea if we could get a petition from all allotment holders on site stating that we want palisade fencing, one reason been that if we have paladin and it does get cut through, we can't afford to repair it, or wait a year or 2 for the council to repair it! I will put a petition on the notice board tonight if anyone wants to fill it in.
I am also planning on asking one of the planners down to the site to show them round and get their opinions, I will be speaking to the site secretary beforehand to get a date we can both make, once that is sorted I will put a notice on the board so that anybody else who wants to air their views to the planners can!
At the moment we are looking at going for funding from the National Lottery as other sites in the are have had success there. The Coal Mining Regeneration fund has also been suggested and I am trying to find information on it. Councillor Holmes was prepared earlier this year to give us £1000 from the community chest towards a chemical WC, so we could probably get that next April to put towards the fence.
Finally the quote received so far for £22,000 is only valid for one month due to fluctuating steel prices, so I think we should add 10% to that figure. Also it assumes several things:
1. The supplier/installer can get their vehicle to within 3m of the fence line.
2. There is no undergrowth to cut back prior to installing the fence.
If we can get permission for them to drive across the school field and easy access to the fence at the bottom No.1 shouldn't be a problem. No.2 however could be and could add an additional £7/m for clearing of the undergrowth.
One further thing, if we have to use paladin at the top of the site where the public footpath is, I think we should also think about putting a hawthorne hedge or similar against it, so that nobody wants to cut through it! This can be done in two ways, we increase the cost of the funding application to cover the cost of a hedge, or we all start growing cuttings now of fast growing spikey plants!
Apologies I got muddled with palisade and paladin, Steve is writing to request we can use palisade not paladin !
ReplyDeleteWhat does the council do with the £2K plus they take in rent each year
ReplyDeleteWorks christmas party?!!
ReplyDeleteWhat are the donations so far received ?
ReplyDeleteI will post a notice on the site secretary's notice board explaining exactly how much so far has been received to date. For reasons that I will explain there I don't want to indicate how much the fund stands at on this blog at this time. Don't get too excited as these are very early days and we have yet to apply for any substantial awards. It could be a long haul!
ReplyDeleteIf you are a tenant on Green Lane you may be interested to know that we are planning to hold a raffle to help expand the fund. You are likely to be approached in the next week or so on when visiting the site so please have your cash at the ready.
It would also be great if when approached you would be willing to take a few tickets to sell to your friends and family.
If we all manage to sell just a few tickets we may be able to make a worthwhile contribution to the 'fund'. In the long run if our efforts can make our site more secure then this can only benefit each and every one of us.
Details of the raffle will be posted on the notice board this weekend.