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Rochford Allotment Association
Past Events: Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink.... (10th March 2012)
....with apologies to Samuel Taylor Coleridge but the subject of water is on everyone’s lips down at Rochford Allotments. Well it’s as the handout from Chairman Dave Patmore explains it:
“To replace 15ml with 32ml water pipe from the Water-board meter in Stambridge Road and to dig out to a depth of 47cm and to run this new 32ml pipe to the allotment manhole inside gate, this then to have an on/off valve + double check valve (non return) in the manhole. All pipe work to be 47cm underground from beginning to end. To run to the nearest allotment (Plot 2) with 32ml pipe and then to branch two ways with 32ml pipe close to the edge of plots 1c, 1d, 2, 3a, 3b and 4a. From this 32ml pipe there will be 5 junction points and at the junctions the pipe will be reduced in size to 25ml. At the appropriate points the 25ml pipe will go directly down the entire length of the allotment site at 5 points. At every other allotment will be a ball valve water tank. This will mean that every allotment holder will have access to a water tank at no more than the width of his or her allotment. At the moment some allotment holders have to walk up to 200 feet from a standpipe to their allotment. The new proposal can only be of benefit to all allotment holders, and be fair to all, as well as saving money in the long run. This proposal must be the way forward for the Parish Council to consider. This is not just for us but next generation tenants.
“To replace 15ml with 32ml water pipe from the Water-
Rochford Life: Won’t this be very disruptive to the allotments if they are all going to have a trench ploughed through them to lay these five pipes down the length of the site?
Dave: The contractor can deviate a little bit. We’ve got to be sympathetic and understanding. Essentially an allotment holder sees their allotment as their own domain, but a week’s disruption (starting Monday) has a result that will last a lifetime and that must be worth it, mustn’t it? We’re hoping to cause the minimum of disruption but with dip-tanks within easy reach of all the allotments we hope it’s really going to be worth while.
Dave: The contractor can deviate a little bit. We’ve got to be sympathetic and understanding. Essentially an allotment holder sees their allotment as their own domain, but a week’s disruption (starting Monday) has a result that will last a lifetime and that must be worth it, mustn’t it? We’re hoping to cause the minimum of disruption but with dip-
RL: How long have you been planning this?
Dave: We started looking at it in 2010. We’ve got two grants to achieve it totalling £15,000 so no one’s rents are having to go up or anything like that. We’ve had great help from John Bond, the Chairman of the Parish Council, and Janice Rigby the Clerk to the Council. It’s a wonderful opportunity for all and can only benefit everybody, not just now but in the long term as well. These dip-tanks will mean continuous water and no one should have to walk more than half a plot to reach one. There are nineteen standpipes at the moment but I recently watched someone having to carry a heavy watering can over two hundred feel to their allotment, and now we’re going to have fifty four dip-tanks, all close by. In just over a week or it should be completed. We’ve got Les Eldret and Paul Nice here, as agents on the site for the Contractor to liaise with and we’ve got to be sympathetic with holders as much as we can, and yet get it in for the sake of everyone here and for the future. The Contractor is Darren Symonds of D.K.Surfacing who will be using a small trench digger to create the trench and put the pipe in as they go.
Dave: We started looking at it in 2010. We’ve got two grants to achieve it totalling £15,000 so no one’s rents are having to go up or anything like that. We’ve had great help from John Bond, the Chairman of the Parish Council, and Janice Rigby the Clerk to the Council. It’s a wonderful opportunity for all and can only benefit everybody, not just now but in the long term as well. These dip-
Darren, Les and Paul plan the week ahead.
While we were talking the biggest cauliflower I’ve ever seen passed by in a wheelbarrow. Ever wanting to honour achievement we thought you’d like to see this giant which was so big its grower, John English couldn’t lift it up properly. John, with typical modesty, declares it was a complete accident as some seed got spilt in his poly-tunnel and this
“Just a little something I prepared earlier” (Who used to say that?)
....and while we’re here, just a reminder of important dates for this year -