Allotments
Ruth reported that her correspondence with the Bowdens Charities and the Council on the issue of increased allotment provision had progressed since the last meeting.
Her last letter to the Bowdens Charity had requested that they let her know the time frame they envisaged for the planned clearing of unused and overgrown allotments mentioned in their response to her original letter. It was agreed that she should wait for a reply to that request before further action was taken to encourage them speed up the provision of more allotments.
Her letter to Harborough District Council about increased allotment provision by them had received a full and helpful reply from the Leader of the Council, Coun. Swatridge, indicating that, over the years, increased allotment provision might be possible with the use of section 106 agreements with developers. However, the letter indicated that the council was not currently in a financial position to buy land for allotments.
Ruth agreed to draft a reply to the letter from Coun. Swatridge which might refer to the possibility of the council leasing land for the purpose. She also handed out, for further distribution to interested residents in the town, copies of letters each requiring signature by six residents asking for greater allotment provision. She reported that Kerry was looking into the possible use of petitions as a means of making the case to the Council.
Ian agreed to research the legal position on allotment provision, section 106 agreements and petitions to local authorities.
Ruth would investigate the possibility of using the September Church Fair at St Dionysius as a forum to campaign on the allotment provision issue.
Food Buying Group It was agreed that it was desirable to get the food buying group up and running as soon as possible and Ian and Sue agreed that they would be happy to join Sarah Clarke - and anyone else interested - in a sub-group to achieve that.
Suggested dates for a food buying sub-group meeting to start the ball rolling were:
7.30.pm on Wednesday 1st July at 29 Victoria Avenue or Thursday 16th July at the same address.
Could Sarah and anyone else interested in making a start on this project contact Ian on isn@le.ac.uk with suggestions about which if those dates or which other dates might be convenient for this?
Garden Sharing There was a general discussion of how such a scheme might be set up. Sue agreed to gather information about the scheme that operated in Farnham in Surrey and to feed that information back into the group.
Suggestions about possible ways forward were discussed. They included attempting to start a scheme through church, neighbourhood or other groups where people already had the community cohesion and mutual trust needed to encourage such a development. Another possible approach would be to set up a register or information exchange system, maybe with suggested arrangements about sharing produce etc., and leaving it to people with spare garden space and those wishing to grow food to make their own individual arrangements after they had met each other and were comfortable with each other and with the feasibility of a garden sharing relationship.
Bee Keeping Ruth reported that three new bee keepers were starting hives in Harborough this weekend.
Date of Next Meeting
7.30.pm on Tuesday 21st July was suggested as a suitable date for the next steering Group Meeting unless this proved inconvenient for too many people in which case a different date could be agreed.