LISA THANKS Cllr MIKE LEDDY FOR HIS HELP IN GETTING THE APPROACH ROAD REPAIRED

Today, I met up with Cllr Mike Leddy to thank him for helping me with the fight to have the approach road repaired.  Photos were taken of us to be used in a local leaflet drop to let local residents know of our sucess. Pity our newly repaired road was covered in snow!! 

This campaign has been ongoing for more than two years. The fight was taken up after I contacted Cllr Mike Leddywho agreed to put pressure on the council on our behalf. 

The Allotments Section were very helpful in this fight but could only go so far because the road does not belong to the allotments but is, in fact, a public highway, so their hands were tied.  It was then passed onto parks manager Simon Cooper who bid for and won the money on our behalf, so ultimately we not only have Cllr Leddy to thank but Simon Cooper and the Allotments Section.

  SUCCESS!

The road has been repaired!

I wish to offer a big thank you to Cllr Mike Leddy and The Allotments Section for their invaluable work on our behalf to get our approach road repaired. 

Thanks to you all for helping me win this fight!

Lisa

Having had a productive meetging with Dennis, the manager of Quadron, this week about our fence, we came to a satisfactory agreement whereby all issues will be dealt with by the time they break up for Christmas,

As an apology for our inconvenience, he also agreed to get several loads of leaf mould dropped off at our site for all members to use - please save me some!!!

AN UPDATE ON THE PROPOSED RULE CHANGE FOR BONFIRES

A change to the bonfire rule has been in the pipeline for the past 12 months. This was agreed with the BDAC and notices were due to go out to every plot holder this year.  For this reason Secretary's have been informing plot holders of the new burning rules - Bonfires are permitted during November and March only.

Because the notices have not gone out, the existing rule:

'Rule 6.2 (Bonfires)

“Bonfires are only permitted between 1 October and 31 March and are solely for the disposal of diseased plant material.

Fires should not be allowed to cause a nuisance to neighbouring residents and under no circumstances should be left unattended.”'

still stands, until further notice.

Please be mindful of our neighbours because sites have been given a total ban on bonfires.

An update on the road

As many of you know, getting our access road repaired has been an ongoing battle for the past two years or so, one I hope, we will win.

After numerous letters, emails, telephone calls and cancelled meetings, I am pleased to inform you that this matter has now been elevated within Birmingham City Council to that of Health and Safety and Legals.  This is on the basis that because the road is in such a poor condition, the threat of expensive compensation claims may force the city to part with the funds, albeit begrudgingly!

Several months ago, I enlisted the help of our local councillor, Cllr Leddy, who has worked very hard on our behalf.  Without his help we would not have got this far. Especially after the Allotments Section decided to withdraw their support in this battle. Technically, the road's main role is access to the park and not the allotments, which means the road is the responsibility of 'Parks' and not 'Allotments'. A fact which 'Parks' have tried to ignore for many, many years, hence the worsening condition of the road.

If the Health and Safety route fails, we, with help from Cllr Leddy, will be progressing to Phase 2 of the operation - media involvement. If this occurs, we will need as much support as possible from our members, locals and park users too.

More news will follow as soon as I get an update.

Lisa Nelder

Site Secretary

A view of some of the craters in the road!

As you all may now be aware, Jean, our website designer, has left the site, so I am now looking after it on the site's behalf.

I have decided to add a blog to the site, this will contain information on what is happening on site and will occasionally contain council and site information. This will be slowly added to as and when I have the time to do so.

Lisa Nelder

Secretary