Category: Ashford Borough Council

Free 'water butts' for ABC plotholders

28/9/2015

"I had one of those, but the wheels fell off!"

The joint Working Group of plotholders and council officers has been looking into the cheapest way of providing plotholders with waterbutts.

Since the roll-out of the new bins scheme, rather a lot of brown garden waste bins have lost their wheels. One very clever person realised these would make ideal waterbutts, complete with mosquito-proof lids.

Reps have been contacted to find out how many water-butt bins their sites can use. Delivery of the bins is anticipated soon. Plotholders will be able to fill the bins by hose or connect them to gutters from sheds and polytunnels. A tap kit, fitted to the bin quite easily, can be bought from DIY centres.

If you would like to know more about this plan, talk to your rep or, if this is not possible, send your query to the Allotments Officer at the council, Eileen Law at [email protected]

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Agenda for the next Committee meeting of Ashford Allotment Society

25/4/2015

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This can now be seen on the 'Official Business' page. You will note there is to be a discussion of water management (Item 12)

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Congratulations to us all

30/11/2014

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From worst to first
Ashford Borough Council has won the title of 'Most Improved Authority' for it's recent re-organisation of recycling. As some of you may have noticed, prior to the new bins system Ashford was the worst in the country at recycling, so there was plenty of room for improvement. You'll appreciate however, that 'Most Improved' isn't the same as 'Best' and there is still room for further improvement!

Despite the initial moans from some, and some early teething difficulties, the new system has been a great success and we should congratulate all those at the Council who worked their socks off to get everyone onto the new system as quickly and smoothly as possible.

Click on the pic for more details of the recycling system.

One heck of a job!
The bins roll-out was handled by the same department which deals with allotments - a sensible reason why, for a while, it was sometimes difficult to get small allotment matters sorted with allotments lower on the list than all those ratepayers moaning, asking daft questions and generally getting confused (and that was just our family!). The other reason why things have been tighter is of course, that allotments like everything else have had their budget drastically cut. We were very lucky that as part of the re-organisation of the department, we again got a dedicated Allotment Officer; and I use the word dedicated in both senses!

Pumpkins on the compost heap after Halloween Picture

Meanwhile, the council couldn't have achieved its targets without householders being prepared to learn the new system and sort their rubbish like good sensible people. I'm sure there's room for improvement there too.

Above: But the best way to recycle is to compost!

Daft statistics
But what about gardeners who recycle all their non-meat organic waste? Well, idiotically, we make the statistics look worse! Putting all your garden waste out in a brown bin (which of course costs you money to do and the council money to process), looks better on paper than composting it yourself, thereby saving ratepayer's money as well as fossil fuels. Of course, home-composting is the greenest solution of all, but it never appears in the calculations. Congratulations to all those who help the environment by composting, it's just a shame we don't get any formal credit for it.

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Water being turned off for the winter on all sites soon - read this.

19/9/2014

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Eileen Law, the Council's Allotment Officer, has let us know that the water will be being turned off for the winter soon. The council workman will be going round the sites in the week running up to the beginning of October.

If you need water during the autumn for greenhouses or polytunnels, please fill your tanks or water butts before the water is turned off.

Water will be turned back on again at the beginning of March, assuming the weather permits. If we are having a very cold spell, turning the water back on will be deferred.

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Burning bonfires

14/4/2014

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The Council has asked us to draw your attention to the important guidelines on bonfires.

Bonfires are sometimes necessary on the allotment to get rid of diseased plant material, or where it is impractical to take prunings to the dump for industrial composting.

The dump will take all woody and green refuse. It is open everyday, including weekends. There is no charge for taking things to the dump.
Click here to go to the website for the dump.

You should always be aware of the people living in houses nearby and be a good neighbour. Don't have a bonfire during the daytime when people may be in their gardens or drying washing.

Leaving bonfires unattended clearly isn't safe.

You don't need to burn weeds: even tough weeds like dandelions and bindweed will die if composted properly. Anything which can be composted, should be. Weedy topsoil must never ever be taken off your plot. It isn't just against the rules to take it to the dump, it's plain daft. You NEED that topsoil and getting rid of it will ruin your plot. It can be piled onto a bonfire at the end to burn out any remaining roots.

You should not under any circumstances burn plastic or polythene: it releases horribly toxic fumes. All such refuse should be taken to the dump: it mustn't be left by allotment entrances. The council does not clear rubbish from allotments.

Here is the council's leaflet for you to read.
Use the controls at the side and bottom of the box to go up and down or make the print bigger.

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Not forum but committee

23/1/2014

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On Wednesday 22nd January, Penny Winston (chairman) and Gilda Puckett (publicity manager) met with council officers to clarify and improve communication between allotmenteers and the council. The meeting was called by Julie Rogers (Strategic Customer Services Mangaer) but she did not attend, and the council sent Ann Davies and Eileen Law (both from Environmental Services) and Dean Spurrell, who is communications and marketing manager.

A number of areas were discussed, mostly concerning the council's (non) use of email to contact plotholders, the matter of posters, and the council's postal mailshots. Anyone who would like full notes of the meeting may email Gilda at [email protected]

Ann Davies clarified that there will be only one mailshot this year coming through your letterbox, and this will be sent out with the invoices in early March. In this mailshot will come the show schedule, annual newsletter and everything else. PLEASE DON'T 'FILE IT IN WASTE PAPER BASKET' THINKING THERE WILL BE MORE LATER! There won't.

This means, of course, that anyone having no access to email or this website will be rather poorly informed. Please make sure you talk to your neighbours and let them know what is going on! It is more important than ever that people with email register their email with the publicity manager. This will ONLY be used for allotment business and will be shared with absolutely nobody. If you are reading this, please let us have your email if at all possible! The only person who will have access to it is the Publicity Manager

One thing that cropped up a few times recently is a confusion about the word "FORUM". This was used in the early days of the current system to describe the AGM of Ashford Allotment Society, and has come to be applied to the Committee of the Society. It has led to confusion with INTERNET FORUMS, which didn't exist way back then! It was decided that we would all stop talking about a "forum" at all, and use the words in the Society rules. This means ASHFORD ALLOTMENT SOCIETY ( made up of all the plotholders), and the COMMITTEE of the Society, made up of the site reps, the chairman, vice chairman, treasurer (LOL) secretary, bulk buying manager (Geoff), show secretary (Tony) and publicity manager (me, Gilda).

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"Nothing to report, sah!" from William Road site

15/1/2014

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ON THE FLOODING: Immediately after returning from leave, Steve Parish contacted Southern Water to get them to do a full survey to isolate the cause of the problem. There was activity by contractors over there on Saturday 11th so let's hope that was part of it.
ELECTION OF ALLOTMENT REP: nothing has been heard. Eileen Law says they are still waiting to hear back from the ballot winner. The next meeting of reps is on the 22nd, so let's hope the new rep at least knows who they are!

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Brilliant news

13/1/2014

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Someone at Ashford Borough Council has been overcome by Common Sense. We are delighted to reveal that a link to this website, with a modest disclaimer, is now in place on their page on allotments. This is exactly what we originally asked for. Thank you very much, whoever you are! It reads
" You can also find information about owning an allotment at Ashford Allotments (This is an external website and Ashford Borough Council is not responsible for its content)." Nothing wrong with that, eh? If you want to see it for yourself, here's the link back again. You could go round in circles for hours . . .

Right back when the website was set up we offered it immediately as a means for the council to contact plotholders. We are still very happy to post any message they wish in the "Official Stuff" section or on this News and Whats On page.

The editor's job now, is to pull my finger out and go and visit each site, with a camera, meeting the rep and noting anything a potential tenant would want to know. Oo-er, wellies on then!

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Free 'water butts' for ABC plotholders

Agenda for the next Committee meeting of Ashford Allotment Society

Congratulations to us all

Water being turned off for the winter on all sites soon - read this.

Burning bonfires

The Council has asked us to draw your attention to the important guidelines on bonfires.

Not forum but committee

"Nothing to report, sah!" from William Road site

Brilliant news

This website is happy to publicise all garden-related events.
All the news, views and information posted on this website are produced and written by the website compiler, unless it says otherwise.

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The Council has asked us to draw your attention to the important guidelines on bonfires.

This website is happy to publicise all garden-related events.All the news, views and information posted on this website are produced and written by the website compiler, unless it says otherwise.

Categories

Archives

This website is happy to publicise all garden-related events.
All the news, views and information posted on this website are produced and written by the website compiler, unless it says otherwise.