Since the AGM we have been awarded 3 grants.
One from the Councillors Community Initiative fund to create a wildlife area at the back of the site and three from Liverpool City Council to build a raised bed in front of the car park area, lay a pathway in and around the new polytunnel, purchase signs for the main gates and purchase notice boards for the woodland and wildlife area.
They totalled £2400, since December 2005 we have received 15 grants totalling at £24,709.
Since 2006 Liverpool City Council have spent over £50,000 in development works on our site. We now have the communal Allotment Project completed and we have groups from Knotty Ash Primary School & Children’s Centre signed up to use the plot.
I’d like to thank George Holmes for all of his hard work. The council are going to carry out works to develop 9 new plots (1 full & 8 half) at the back of the site. They are going to finish the drain which they did last summer and bring in 400 tonnes of top soil. This work should be completed in the next couple of weeks.
We are getting a new office on the site which has been funded by Knotty Ash Youth Centre and Liverpool City Council. The current office will be used as a meeting room and as a classroom for groups that use the communal allotment. This should be on site in the next few weeks.
We have started to look into the possibilities of extending our site into part of the derelict Thingwall House Site. If possible we’d plan to apply for funding to the Lotterys Local Food programme to develop the site into allotments with Security of the site being our number one concern.
We now have a management plan in place which seeks to provide the framework of aims, objectives and priorities for the successful management and development of our site. A copy of this report is available for anyone to view in the site office and is also on our website.
We will produce a yearly report which will be presented at the Annual General meeting which will inform of the work we’ve done to achieve the aims and objectives which have been set out in this management plan.
I’d also once again like to point out that officers and committee members are not paid for any of the work they do and they don’t get free rent on their plots. All the work they do is done in their own spare time and on a voluntary basis.
Daniel Barrington Chairman February 2009
Comments from Peter Cowell, Operations Manager, Outdoor Services, Liverpool City Council ‘Ashfield allotments Association have achieved an extraordinary amount of progression over the past 3 years in site development and should be congratulated for their on going forward thinking. Liverpool City Councils initial input was to complete a 3 year cycle of applying the infrastructures to secure the site and improve the drainage, since then the allotment has continued on a progressive upward trend led by the committee and is fast becoming a hugely popular and successful site.’