Cumbernauld Allotments Association
Chairmans Report
A.G.M. 25th October 2000
Work on laying out the new allotments
The year 1999/2000 has eventually seen the new allotments being set out and we now have a total of 22 allotments on site.
On 2nd December we were advised that the contract for laying the new allotments had been put out to tender.
Tenders were to be submitted to North Lanarkshire Council by 15th December and the work was due to start during January 2000 and would take about six weeks to complete.
On 6th January 2000 the Council confirmed that three firms had submitted tenders for this work.
The tenders were to be put before the Council Committee on 2nd February and the work was to commence shortly thereafter.
On 7th February we were advised that the tenders were not submitted in time for the committee meeting on 6th February and would now be considered on 23rd February.
On 8th February the Council agreed to extend our leased area to include the cross drive adjacent to allotments one & three. This required changes to our lease from North Lanarkshire Council and a change was also required to allow the area of allotment four to be changed to hardstanding.
On 2nd March the Council confirmed that the quotation for laying the new allotments had been authorised by the Committee and we would be notified soon of the starting date and proposed timetable.
On 4th May I attended a meeting in Bellshill with North Lanarkshire Officials and the approved Contractor and on 14th May another meeting on site at the allotments area where it was agreed that the work would start on 29th May with completion six weeks from that date.
The work was completed more or less on time and all the new allotments were occupied by 14th July 2000.
This highlights the problem that we have found throughout the last three years. Anything that the Council has arranged fell well behind the original target dates and the work of laying out the new allotments took over three years to complete when the actual work was done in just over six weeks.
Topsoil
While the contractor was laying out the new allotments it became obvious that there was not a sufficient depth and the existing soil was so poor that we spoke to the Council Supervisor about this.
He replied within a few days to advise that the Contractor had been authorised to obtain 60 tons of topsoil to help improve the area.
On 10th August the contractor invited me to join him on a visit to a soil supplier in Hamilton where he had been informed that the soil offered was screened Ayrshire soil.
The soil we saw looked perfect and 60 tons was ordered for delivery on 15th August.
On 29th August, on walking round the area, I saw evidence of glass in the new topsoil.
I contacted the Contractor who attended the site and said that he would notify the supplier of the problem.
A representative of the supplier attended the allotments on 11th September to view the problem and stated that there must have been a fault with the screening program. He could not uplift the faulty soil and after some discussion I agreed to accept an extra five tons of soil in compensation.