Update on communal facilities

Planning is going on in the background for a communal hut, toilet and storage area. Here is a short update.

 

Firstly, it is worth stating that the reason many allotment association have communal huts is so that they have somewhere to sell cheap seeds, compost and other sundry items for the benefit of the members, and to provide a meetings area to communicate with everyone and hold joint events like plant sales, BBQs etc.

 

Those of you who have benefitted from the free woodchips which were delivered in January, will probably realise that if we have to buy in compost or woodchips in the future, we will need a way of distributing them fairly, and to members only. This can be achieved by having a proper delivery area, which is secure and can be locked at night. The proposed area for improvement is behind the earth bank, near the car park at the bottom of the site.

 

My aim as chairman is to improve the facilities and benefits to members, but also I am concerned that there should be no net cost to HRAA in having such facilities. But if we are going to do this, we want the facilities to be the best we can get, and not simply a small shed on a remote corner of the site ! We want to include a toilet (composting toilet), a secure vandal proof portakabin, a store and ideally a wind turbine to provide power for lighting.

 

The plan currently is that site should be built primarily with lottery funding, and that going forward, the facilities would become self-financing. The Town Council have agreed to submit the lottery application, with our help. The application coming under the remit of the Town Council gives three main benefits: 1. There is no problem over leasing the land from the council, which would otherwise incur lawyers fees; 2. The council can claim VAT back, which HRAA cannot, and 3. The council can write in the application that they are doing this for the benefit of the community, and they can show evidence that they have consulted with us.

Ray has come up with some detailed plans, and costed these up for the initial application, which will be submitted to the National Lottery in the next month or so. We have also been making enquiries with HDC regarding the issues around a wind turbine and whether we need planning permission. Applying for lottery funding is a two stage process, so if we get the nod in May/June we will then have the task of putting together a full application.

 

I hope that you will find these plans exciting and that once you have got on top of your own plots, you will be able to help out when we need working parties, which inevitably we will from time to time, if funding is successful.

Watch this space!

Richard
Chair HRAA