Letter from St Albans District Council

You should have received an email either from us or the Council with a letter about the allotments. If you have not, please let kim.scrivener@gmail.com know. Please click on the link for the letter.

Letter to plotholders from St Albans District Council 12 February 2021

February 2021 update

Please see here for an update on the current flooding situation.

Flooding update

See here for an update on what’s been going on to resolve the flooding situation.

https://burydellallotments.wordpress.com/events/floods-2020/flooding-update-6-dec/

Flooding update

See here for more information about the flooding situation, including links to Affinity Water’s report and an interesting report by Winston Bothwell, one of our plotholders.

The main Floods 2020 page has also been updated.

Flooding news!

https://burydellallotments.wordpress.com/events/floods-2020/flooding-update-6-october/

Flooding update

Please see Flooding update 2 October 2020 on the outcomes of a meeting with the Council and other organisations on 1 October.

Plotholder meeting update 6 Sept

See below for a link to a report of this morning’s meeting on site. Great to see so many people turn out!

 

https://burydellallotments.wordpress.com/events/floods-2020/plotholder-meeting-6-sept-2020/

 

Flood update – please read

Dear all

Some of you have been asking for more information about what is happening about the floods. I have put together a webpage below which you should find interesting and hopefully bring you up to date. This is a fast-moving situation, so apologies for lack of detailed information thus far.

https://burydellallotments.wordpress.com/events/floods-2020/

Please also come to the site on Sunday 6 September 11am for a further update, socially distanced of course. This will not be our usual Sunday coffee, but a chance for you to hear about where we are with the floods.

Herts Advertiser story about the flood

Here is a link to the Herts Advertiser piece about the flood. We will update you further as things progress.

 

https://www.hertsad.co.uk/news/weather-2-19950/st-albans-allotment-devastated-by-flooding-1-6799578

Flooding update

Following an emergency committee meeting this evening we would like to make the following points:

Harvesting produce from your plot must be at your own risk. Until a test of the water has been carried out (and we have instructed the Council and the Environment Agency to do this asap) we have no idea how polluted or otherwise the flood water is. As it has come from a field grazed by animals, it could be contaminated by fertilisers, almost certainly animal waste and other waste from drains and sewage from the surrounding area in addition to other contaminants which could move into plant material and potentially contain harmful bacteria, viruses and chemicals. It could make you ill if you eat these vegetables. Green leafy vegetables take up contaminants more readily and we would advise you not to eat these at all. However contaminants will be diluted to a lower level in water.

Having spoken to people who have entered the site we would like to point out that the water is moving fast and causing disturbance in the soil leading to unexpected ‘sink holes’ which are highly dangerous and could put you at considerable risk. Please do not enter the site solo but take someone with you.

Your committee have instructed the Council, as our landlord, to act on our behalf. In addition we have been in touch with Affinity Water, the Environment Agency and others to enable us to take this forward, but as yet we have no answers. We will ensure we keep you in the loop.