July 2026 Committee Update
Minutes will be approved at next meeting. This is a summary of matters discussed/dealt with:
We again welcomed four of our Networkers attending our meeting – Heather, Don, Linda and Michaela.
Minutes of previous meeting and summary notice – we approved the minutes of the meeting held on 26th June.
Finance:
Annual returns to HMRC and Financial Conduct Authority - Andrew Conneely, Small Business Accountants Ltd has prepared our accounts and made our HMRC return. Alys will be submitting our return to FCA.
After paying accountant fees and receiving payments for plots our balance is £6042.
Plots - We have successfully let three plots during July. One member has left and a further will be leaving. Following the land use audit we have reviewed the management of plots with several members. We agreed that the Chair and Secretary will consider organising assistance to members having difficulties where necessary on welfare grounds.
Water:
We continue to closely monitor our water use and noted that with the continuing exceptional heat and drought, we have used 191,000litres (191m3) between 31st May and 30th July. This is an average of 3200 litres per day and a cost of £467.00.
Chesterfield Allotment Network Funding for Water Conservation - The CAN is a Transition Chesterfield project and has secured £6,000 from Chesterfield Community Grants for a water conservation project. A notice about this has been posted on our WhatsApp news and information group and at all of the gates. We agreed to prepare a proposal for funding for our two sites and agreed to the Chair and Secretary allocating our own funds to our bid if necessary. The proposal will be reviewed by a project group to be convened by the Chair and Secretary and reported to next Committee meeting.
Chesterfield Allotment Network update – the lead allotment associations for the network met with Councillor Martin Stone, Chesterfield Borough Council, Cabinet Member and officers on 13th July. A copy of the proposals put to the Council by the CAN, notes of the meeting and key points discussed at the CAN meeting held on 23rd July were circulated. At this stage we expect the Council to initiate new five year leases, consider granting statutory status for eligible allotment gardens and the CAN meeting approved further proposals to be put to the Council.
National Allotment Week " Grow to Learn" 10 th - 16 th August
Our open day promoting allotment gardening Saturday 15th August 10 a.m. - 1 p.m. has attracted two requests for visits and we agreed how these would be managed.
Our social event Sunday 16th August 3 p.m. - 8. p.m. will go ahead. However we decided it was not safe to have a BBQ. We agreed to provide a funded bar and invite members to bring food to share. Notices to be posted on WhatsApp and across sites.
Annual General Meeting – we agreed Sunday 29th November if The Eagle Club is available, or earlier. We agreed to explore organising food as well as various other ways to make the occasion a meeting and social occasion.
Plotter of the month – Siphrai Gibson and Geoffrey Cory (Plot 70) and Agneska and Dariuz Rybinski (Plots 46/47) selected this month for their interesting planting and the structure of their allotment gardens and significant level of rainwater harvesting achieved.
Photo Competition – this month prizes went to Don Aldred for his dahlias and photo of a Mint Moth on a cornflower.
Our next committee meeting will be held on Thursday 27th August
Grove Allotment Association Ltd is a co-operative society registered with the Financial Conduct Authority