Everyone else: Bet they are selling the land because of the cuts!
Me: Don't be daft they cant do that.....can they? ......
OMG they are evicting us! I'll chain myself to my useless plot tree...I'll squat in my shed...I'll turn up at No10 and beg 'him' to tell them to get lost...I'll get a letter from my GP...
Why the panic??
We had a scary letter in the post a few months ago telling us the future of our site was to be talked about at a meeting at a community centre. I must admit, I was nervous. But somewhere in my tiny brain was a few cells saying (it's brown field, it's narrow, there are laws protecting the land, it's the Green spaces staff who are in for it and they want us to go solo).
My tiny brain cells were right. The nice lady who showed me round my plot back on the first day was the one who was at risk and she was tasked with convincing us that association was they way forward.
My back history with a committee run site was not great. Busy bodies, spying, stealing, accusations of stealing, point scoring, bullying, cliques, racists, ageism and sexism - were just some of the experiences I'd had to deal with on my first site. Naturally, my stomach sank. My current site was ten times more friendly, ten times more private, no one taking notes, and people seemed to like helping each other!
To cut a long meeting into a nice bite size blog post...We had to decide what roles would need to be filled, then ask for volunteers for each roll. I was happy to see a guy much younger than me take on a senior roll as vice chairman and I opted to be in charge of the notice board. I also managed to put forward the idea of a community plot and education hub. A nice only two women opted for rolls, non the less both seem strong willed...(one being ME!)
So a much better representation of people. Our next meeting is in April. The council lady sold the benefits to us as being in control of an actual budget of funding of a few hundred pounds (something we would loose completely if we resisted). She's a lovely person and restored my faith in allotment sites the day I decided to move. Even though I had to start again from scratch she made me feel so much better as she worked full time and was shocked to hear about previous attitudes.
So could be a great thing and if by being involved in the committee will help stamp out any potential bullying phobias I now have then I'm excited to be a part of it.
I'll keep you updated, more will become clear at the next meeting....but one thing is for sure...
The site is SAFE!!
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