We ask all new plotholders to join the Association for a small annual fee, which provides us with a bit of cash to help manage the sites. This is important because the Council, which owns the land, has very limited staffing to deal with all 115 sites (7,000 plots) in the city. So most of the management is down to individual members volunteering for the Committee and helping with jobs which maintain and improve their site.
The Committee is elected from the Annual General Meeting of Association members, held in November each year, and new people are always welcome. You can be co-opted on if you’d like to join before the next AGM, or, if you’d like to help in other ways without coming to Committee meetings, that’s very welcome too.
WEGA Committee
The Committee this year (2023-24) is the following:
Chairperson: Iftikhar Ahmed, based at Northleigh Road
Secretary: Hester Blewitt, based at Northleigh Road
Treasurer: David Read, based at Northleigh Road
Committee members: Maxine Cole, (based at Fairholme Road), Charles Bloom and Tahra Bibi (based at Lime Tree Road), Shane Delaney and Rachel Haycock (based at Blackpit Lane), Karen Watts, Mareen Akhtar (based at Northleigh Road), Meena Haynes, Chris Hodson and Steve Smith (based at St.Margarets Road)
Committee meetings and Site Committees
In 2021 we set up Site Committees to look after the day to day issues on individual sites, leaving the main Committee meeting to deal with matters affecting all sites.
Dates, times and places of Committee Meetings and Site Committees are generally posted on the website so that members can attend if they wish to get involved or observe
WEGA Ltd Cooperative
In June 2022, WEGA set itself up as a Co-operative, sponsored by the National Allotment Society and accountable to the Financial Conduct Authority. This means that all plotholders become Co-op members but also other people involved in the plots or other activities on the sites can also become Associate Co-op members and have a voice in what we do.
Committee and AGM minutes
Minutes and notes of meetings are posted on the website for members to view, once they have been agreed. Some items may not be included for various reasons, but members can use the Contact Us page to find out more about anything which is not clear from the Minutes.
New Association policies and decisions affecting all members and/or plotholders are posted on the Members Pages, and we also keep people up to date through emails, texts and letters (for people without an email address). The Members’ Pages on this website can only be accessed by members (and their partners/families) with a log in and password. Please do not share this with others.
Other ways we communicate include Chat groups. St Margarets Road, Fairholme Road, Northleigh Road and Lime Tree Road each have a WhatsApp group for their members and Blackpit Lane has a Telegram group. The New Shoots Gardening Club at St Margarets Road also has a WhatsApp group. Anyone wishing to join one of these or set up another one, please Contact Us.
Other sources of information – public pages on the Website, notice boards on the sites, and the suggestions on the Links page in particular, can help you make the best use of your allotment.
If you wish to advertise or recommend a service to other plotholders eg toolhire, plant suppliers, sheds, use the Contact Us page or speak to a Committee member about use of the website or a notice board.