Dear Plot holders,

It’s less than six months since we suffered the worst floods this century,  and we owe a huge debt to everyone who has helped us overcome that adversity. 

We need now to be more resilient and return to our normal rules and regulations.

Firstly, please start managing your own rubbish. I’ve pasted on social media photos what should NOT be in our debris corrals. Please take home your portable waste such as empty compost bags and pot plants.

We don’t want your Anchor chip wrappers, your Costa cups or your empty tinnies and wine bottles .

This is known as fly tipping ….  you face fines , and I promise our committee will pursue all means to throw folk off their plots if we catch cctv of anyone dumping rubbish anywhere.

It’s cost around £20,000 so far this year to remove flood debris from Bradley Fold and that’s what the corrals have been for … the big stuff that plot holders can’t possibly move by themselves. 

We can’t afford to continue like this.

The committee has paid for a final skip this week to clear the corrals, and we have now shut them until autumn. 

We can’t keep cleaning up the minor stuff. Take home your own portable waste, compost your cuttings, create brash piles and dead hedges that are fabulous for wildlife.  Do not dump anything in the corrals please until we reopen them later in the autumn.  Them’s the rules and without rules, life will be poor, nasty, brutish and short. More on this if anyone wants to read Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes. 

If you have big debris , or major challenges that require help, please come to our Sunday shop and fill in a triage form to ask the wonderful volunteers to get involved.  We’re updating the forms and we are asking everyone now to offer to help in some way…a shift in the shop, watering or weeding a plot in transition, or tending to our baby hedge aiming to create a secure boundary with the golf club.  We all need to pull together to keep a strong and safe community and we have a great core team…. we need everyone now to do a bit of volunteering to play their part. 

Make sure you read and re-read your green book to know our site rules …all dogs on leads, no new structures next to the roadways, compost heaps on every plot and to be more resilient, please also number your plots, sheds, water butts. Please lock the gate when you enter and leave site. It gives me no pleasure to nag you, so please be helpful and respect our community and everyone in it.

You’ll have noticed we are upgrading the taps, thanks again to our volunteers and in particular Phil. The community plot by the Polytunnel is going from strength to strength.  And we are creating a wildlife area by the turning circle to encourage more diverse ecology.  The committee has also agreed to invest more in a better camera system to deter the petty thieving and offending. 

Of course challenges remain. Our perimeters are still not secure and we are in liaison with our neighbours and the council to solve that.  Watch this space. 

The council is having an inquiry into the causes of the flood and has asked for experiences … we’ve submitted a response on behalf of the shop and I encourage you to also submit a form on behalf of your plot…  https://surveys.manchester.gov.uk/s/flood-survey/ [surveys.manchester.gov.uk] 

There’s more information too from the Environment Agency about riverside repairs at https://thefloodhub.co.uk/river-mersey-embankments-at-didsbury-and-northenden/ [thefloodhub.co.uk]

In other news , plotholder Sean is helping to upgrade the website , thanks Sean, and hopefully you will soon see major improvements.

Dates for your diary: our summer fiesta with barbecue and shared spread of delights will be held on Sunday June 22 at 2pm. More details closer to the time but we lost our brick bbq in the flood…if anyone has ever rebuilt a bbq, do let us know, thanks! 

We will also be holding produce days to collect excess fruit and veg to deliver to local charities, and kitchens. Do let us know if you can help with that either delivering, picking or introducing us to good causes.

Meantime, enjoy your growing and your produce, best regards on behalf of everyone on the committee, 

Janine Cottingham

Chair