Please find below a short Special Bulletin about Ponds, Fences, Trees and Plot Borders.
Click on the image below to download your own copy.
All about Ponds, Fences, Trees & Plot Borders.
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Category Archives: Allotments
Plot Inspections – What are the Criteria?
As you will already know, the WATA Plot Inspection Team carry out plot inspections on behalf of Woodley Town Council (WTC) on a regular basis. The next plot inspections will be carried out in early September.
You might not know that over 100 plots failed the last plot inspections for various reasons from not having plots numbers to low cultivation figures, rubbish on the plot, right up to completely unkept/worked plots. There are currently 61 people on the waiting list ready to take on a plot!
Below you will find the back section of the recently updated 2025 Welcome Pack that focuses solely on Plot Inspections and what the criteria the plot inspection team are looking at during a plot inspection.
This document contains an expanded description of the Tenancy Agreement that we all have signed in January 2025 and like any other agreement that you sign, there is a level of expectation that you are agreeing to its requirements for renting an allotment on this site.
We know that there may be various reasons that some tenants are unable to comply with the tenancy agreement requirements through ill-health, changing personal circumstances such as finding a large plot too much to work. We also understand that not all tenants have enough time to visit their plot every day. Those that we know about are given some leeway during the inspection process, those that we don’t know about, probably fail the inspection.
As mentioned above 100 plots failed the last plot inspection in June! There are 61 people on the waiting list, there are only currently 5 vacant plots available. WATA is working with WTC to improve the inspection criteria and shorten the process of review of plots that fail inspection.
The Committee believes that all plot holders really do want to see a better looking and more productive (cultivated) Allotment site. We hope that by issuing this document, it will help all tenants better understand what they signed up to in the 2025 Tenancy Agreement.
If you have any comments, feedback or questions then let us know by replying to this email.
Many thanks &
Kind regards
Mike McNamara
Chair – WATA Committee
Click on the image to download a copy of the Plot Inspections – What are the Criteria?
H & P Trading Shed – Newsletter
For those who have not yet subscribed to this excellent newsletter from the H & P Trading Shed, click on the images below for their latest edition.
Community BBQ and Best Plot Competition
Please find below information about a Community BBQ and a Best Plot Competition.
Click on each Image to download a copy of the PDF for your own copy.
General Meeting – 23rd June 2025
As we have mentioned previously, we want to start having regular meetings on various topics with guest speakers, the first one is going to be held on Monday 23rd June.
Further meetings will cover subjects such as Bee Keeping, the advance of Yellow-Legged Asian Hornet across the UK & No-Dig to name a few. Let us know if you can think of a subject that we should cover.
So that we can get an idea of numbers, please let us know if you are attending by replying to this post. You can download a PDF copy of the agenda by clicking in the image below. See you there.
New Images from Tenants
Check out these images from one of the tenants on Row B. Click on each images to see high-res image in our Picture Galley page.
Do you have some images you would like to see in our Picture Gallery, then send them to readingroadplots@woodely-allotments.org.uk and we will upload them for you.
We have just published our revised 2025 Welcome Pack
This contains a lot of handy hints and tips for those taking on an allotment for the first time. There is also a section at the back that deals with Plot Inspections – What are the Criteria? which expands on what is in the Tenancy Agreement that we all signed at the beginning of 2025 and will hopefully explain what is behind the Plot Inspection thinking.
Please click on the image below to obtain your own PDF copy of the 2025 Welcome Pack.
Many thanks
The WATA Committee
WATA Site – Fruit Foraging/Picking Map
As the summer finally approaches, I am sure that everyone can see the beginnings of potential fruit starting to appear in bushes and some trees around the Allotment site.
With that in mind, the Committee have updated the site’s Fruit Foraging/Picking Map, this sets out where you can forage/pick fruit that is on areas of the allotment site that are not on tenant’s own plots. The map clearly sets out these areas, which are ringed in red.
The Committee would remind all tenants that you must NOT pick any fruit/produce that is on any other tenant’s designated plot.
If it is not on your own plot, then it does not belong to you and you must not touch it!
You can download a copy of the Fruit Foraging/Picking Map by clicking on the picture below. Happy Harvesting.
Updated WATA Data Protection Policies
This post is to let you know that we have updated our Data Protection Policies. These can now be found on our Allotment Policies & Rules page on our Website.
The content is the more or less the same as when we first issued the documents (2022), however a few minor changes have been made to reflect updates to the UK GDPR itself, and changed Web Links. However, your Data Protection Rights remain the same as before.
This is our updated registration certificate from the UK ICO.
Please let us know if you have any comments by responding to this post by leaving a reply below.
Don’t forget that you can also join our growing mailing list by Opting In using this form.
Kind regards
Mike McNamara
Chair – WATA Committee
Summary of WATA Committee Meeting – 15th May 2025
As we mentioned in a previous post, the WATA Committee are now posting summaries of all of its meetings to keep tenants up to date with the various discussions that are going on both at Committee level and when we meet with WTC. You can download a PDF copy of a summary of the last Committee meeting if you require by simply clicking on the image below.
If you have any questions about the subjects of either the WATA Committee or the WATA/WTC meetings, then please let us know by leaving a comment at the bottom of this post – ‘Leave a Reply‘- or by emailing readingroadplots@woodley-allotments.org.uk and we will get back to you with a response.
Finally, we continue to build up our revised Mailing List, if you have not already joined it, you can opt-in here.
