The committee encourages all plotholders to report all incidents of antisocial behaviour and all encounters with or evidence of antisocial intruders on the site to the neighbourhood beat team as quickly as possible. This will help them to build up a real time picture of what is happening when & where on the site which will greatly improve their chances of meeting some of these individuals in person.
contact our local beat officer Simon Humphrey
You can also call 101 and ask for the Montpelier & St werbugh’s beat team.
If you are concerned about these issues you may also wish to raise them with our local councillors:-
jon.rogers@bristol.gov.uk
gus.hoyt@bristol.gov.uk
Montpelier & St werbugh’s beat information page
The current focus of trouble is the corner of field 1 near the junction of Ashley Hill and Hurlingham road – there have been several acts of vandalism since 16th April 2012 and a group of 4 males aged 18 to 20 have been seen on several occasions and have refused to leave the site when asked to do so.
We are looking at ways of supporting plotholders to set up rainwater harvesting systems to use run off from shed roofs etc.
We have a possible source for a significant number of free 200L plastic tanks, and we have a definite source of recycled plastic guttering and downpipe.
The tanks we hope will be delivered to site for us but we need someone with a van or trailer to collect a load of guttering and downpipe from Sea Mills asap (before someone else bags it!).
Anyone interested in getting involved in any way – as helper or to request some materials please contact us via the website link above.
It’s now April and we are into the period of the council ban on bonfires on all their allotment sites. So it’s no more bonfires till November – just stack the suff you intend to burn in a corner of your plot, preferably held off the ground by a mesh or pallet so it dries out.
We have been spotted:- “A colleague of mine went past the allotments yesterday and saw a huge smokey bonfire on the site. It was late afternoon, and the fire was on the left of the internal path that runs up past the cottage as you look up the hill. When she got home the smell was in her house. Please can you remind tenants that bonfires on allotments are banned between 1st April and 31st October. Tenants who ignore this rule can be evicted from their plots if they continue to flout this rule.”
You would not believe the amount of work this ban has saved the council team in investigating and responding to complaints from neighbouring householders – and there is plenty of better things they can do for us with that time, please respect it.
The volunteers day was a great success with over 400 hedge whips planted (thanks to Ashley Vale Action Group’s grant for the purchase cost, and Keith for making it all happen). Also an excellent piece of work on the Tip field path which needed clearing, thanks to John O’Neil (field rep) Terry, DaveA, Ruth and others for this.
The plot letting days have been very successful and we are now close to 100% occupancy with the waiting list down to 46 names.
Field reps will be surveying the site in the next two weeks to identify any unworked plots, which will be served notice to improve before being offered to people on the waiting list. This normally leads to a dozen or so plots becoming available – be warned if you haven’t touched your plot this year!
BTCV will be on site several days during April to upgrade the diagonal path from the farm to the top Stony Lane gate and attend to one or two other jobs.
There is a new batch of woodchip in the yard and we hope it will be the start of regular deliveries.
There are plenty of leaves in the bankers .
Spent hops from the brewery continue to arrive at gate 9 – please think of fair shares and if you’re lucky enough to be on your plot on a week day leave some for the weekenders.
The site water supply is now on.
The council assures us the new locks will be fitted before the end of this financial year. The new keycode will be harder to remember – this is forced on us by the design of the locks which will only accept a “strong” 6 charecter code. The code will always begin with “C” – which clears any previous key presses – but if I tell you any more I would have to kill you. Field reps and committe members will pass out the code and we will include it in the next email newsletter, we hope to avoid a mass mail shot which would cost us over £100. If you know anyone you feel we should write to on paper please let us know.
Printable copy of this article for use on noticeboards News_from_the_website_2012_march.pdf
One of our committee recently found a plotholder removing a dozen bags of soil from the site ….. “some clay for my pizza oven”.
Just in case there is any misunderstanding: it is NOT OK to remove ANY topsoil, midsoil or subsoil from the site for ANY purpose.
Soil erosion and reduction in ground level is one of the sites biggest problems.
Is the world going mad or is it just us?