Grove Allotment Association Half Year Review 2025/26

Here we review the things we talked about and decided we needed to do at our AGM in November 2025 – the things we have done and the things we still need to do.

Our membership - We currently have 84 members of which 13 are probationary (under 12 months). This compares with 80 members and 10 probationary, in November 2025.

We have fewer vacant plots - It isn’t just the number of members we have that is important it is also the number of plots in use. We have reduced our vacancies overall to just 4% of usable* full and half plots. We now have no vacancies on our upper site and 4 full plots and 2 half plots available to rent on our lower site. The plot we cleared on 9th May is not yet availableas we are waiting for Elm Lodge to assess the state of their gabion walls.

We still need to complete an audit of plots to decide which are permanently uncultivable.

Our Financial Position remains healthy and we report on this monthly.

We have strengthened participation and communication in various ways:

Our website groveallotmentassociation.co.uk went live at the beginning of April. A big thank you to Michaela Daysh who volunteered to be our website administrator and continues to do all the work to expand the website content.

Our WhatsApp news and information group was launched on 28th January. Since then we have posted 57 items of news and information, including information and photos from members. It is the easiest and quickest way to keep up to date with what’s happening.

Gate notices remain the way some members prefer to access information and we have tried to ensure that the most important things that get posted on our WhatsApp group and website, also get posted at all four gates. Of course it’s unavoidably the slow lane of communication.

A Monthly Committee summary is produced as soon as possible after each meeting. This is immediately posted on our WhatsApp group, our website and ASAP at all four gates.

Our Grove Networker role is a practical undemanding way members participate in the management of the association. We are slowly increasing the number of Networkers who provide an informal link with the management committee by just being their sociable self.

Local Government is being re-organised. We again commented on the proposals at the 2nd public consultation in March and expressed concerns about the changes that appear to weaken the relationship between the Council and community associations like ours.

The status of Grove Allotment Gardens and most other Chesterfield allotment associations remains a concern. We have continued work on this, leading the restart of the Chesterfield Allotment Network (CAN) 9th March and meetings Chesterfield Borough Council Cabinet Members. We are working through the CAN on a Community Fund grant application for a water harvesting project that would benefit all Chesterfield allotment associations.

Our first clear up event 9th May was a huge success. We collaborated with Elm Lodge care home and 43 members and friends worked across both our sites, removing accumulated rubbish and clearing overgrown plots on our lower site (a particular concern voiced at the AGM). We filled the two skips provided by Chesterfield Borough Council. We will run another event in the autumn. Demonstrating good management our sites and best environmental practice, both as an association and as individuals is hugely important.

We still need to organise affiliating with Central England Co-operative (now OurCoop) which is something we agreed to do at the AGM.

* Unusable plots are those that are seriously overgrown ands have been out of cultivation for longer than 12 months