GROUNDBREAKING!

Winter 2004

NEWSLETTER of Low Moor Allotments Association

This is the fourth seasonal Newsletter I’ve produced and with Winter starting to feel more like Spring, it’s time to review what we’ve achieved at Low Moor in the first year of the Association’s existence. Here, in no particular order, are ‘Al’s 2003 highlights’:

· all but 1 of 175 plots at Low Moor are taken: a 99% increase from the low point of 2002.

· big improvements in the condition of many plots, partly thanks to support from our neighbours in the Cemetery and hard work by Tim Crosby.

· Marje Stephenson has revived the Site Shop; others have helped keep it stocked.

· cattle are back on Walmgate Stray after FMD.

· two vandal-proof noticeboards are installed.

· the website set up by Kester Clegg has been praised as ‘...one of the best resources available to new allotment tenants, throughout York’.

· volunteers at Working Parties have removed rubbish, asbestos & ruined sheds from plots.

· a perimeter hawthorn hedge has been planted by BTCV as a step towards improving security.

· Angela Johnson’s ‘Kids’ Community Garden’ is taking off as a successful new venture.

· we’ve had several excellent social gatherings!

Not everything’s been perfect: Yorkshire Water’s invasion of our carpark wasn’t welcome, but at least we got £5,240 back from them, as well as free skips for 6 months and 36 water butts. There are still odd petty thefts, but, overall, things haven’t been bad!

· NEWS...

AGM for 2004

Sunday 18th April

3pm in the car park. You’re all welcome! The Agenda will include elections for the 2004-5 committee: contact Al with nominations etc by 31st March.

CHEAP COMPOST Foss Islands green waste compost costs £45 per load when delivered at the same time as a skip: I’ll order more in future. Organic growers need to read the small print.

FREE BULBS

A donation of bulbs has been planted in the car park and next to various footpaths.

ASBESTOS

Please add to the pile in the car park.

WEB SITE INFO

Factsheets from the national Allotments Regeneration Initiative are on our website http://www-users.cs.york.ac.uk/~kester/LowMoorAllotments/welcome.html

A FRESH NEW START...

Locally and nationally, allotments are in vogue, and there’s been a new injection of interest and energy. In April 2003, I reported that the Council was about to draw up a long-term strategy for all York’s sites, to secure their future at a time when all Council activities are potential targets for “financial savings” and land-holdings are seen as potential housing developments (Low Moor seems in no danger!). Their draft strategy document includes the following intentions for sites: advertising and promoting them; making them welcoming & accessible, healthy & secure; encouraging sustainability, conservation & biodiversity; involving the wider community. At Low Moor, we’re already leading the way.

One of the Council’s changes is an admin overhaul. This includes the updated tenancy agreement, which new tenants have been signing since Christmas. The rest of us will have to sign it in September 2004. The new tenancy rules reflect the Council’s vision for the future and (in my opinion!) are an improvement. And, after many years of being very lax, there’s every sign that the Council will be applying the rules more strictly in future.

Another development is that the Council has found an extra £10,000 for paying contractors to clean up long-abandoned plots on all 16 sites in York. Derelict sheds, greenhouses and asbestos structures (of which Low Moor has more than any other York site) are their priority. If you have a structure that concerns them, you will soon receive an offer of help from Angela.

On the subject of cleaning up, lots of people came along to the Working Party on 1st February, including two ‘Millennium Volunteers’ from the University. We had good fun and made a huge difference: we patched the car park and picked up litter, removed a skip-load of rubbish from the Kids’ Community Garden, and planted a hedge along its car park boundary. All in 3 hours! Angela Johnson sends her thanks to everyone who helped. By the time we have the next Working Party, it may even be warm enough for a post-work BBQ...

· MORE NEWS

HORSE MANURE

We’re looking for a supplier to distribute muck for all. Ideas? The guy who sells sack-loads in the car park on Sundays is easy but expensive.

SHOP REBUILD

We will hear whether we’ve got the grant of £9,500 at the end of Feb. The Council’s found £616 to pay for our noticeboards.

CEMETERY PLOT

Our neighbours have taken on the plot opposite Felicity’s Gate to use as a nursery garden.

COUNCIL CHECK

At the end of March, Angela Poole will be inspecting Low Moor to see who’s not trying hard enough: beware!

CONTACT DETAILS

Contact Al Oswald on 639847 or e-mail al.oswald@english-heritage.org.uk

SHOP STOCKED

- spuds & onions in!

SKIP IN CAR PARK

On 5th – 8th March.

Use for metal, plastic, glass, NOT asbestos!