The allure of the allotment
DON’T tell the wife, but I rather like the idea of having an allotment. There is something incredibly 1950s about them.
I have this rather rose-tinted view of toiling on hot summer days and then sitting back in a garden hut, sipping rough cider and listening to Test Match Special.
I suspect the reality of looking after an allotment is rather different.
But with the rising cost of food, the interest in allotments has rocketed in recent times, hence the decision by Lyme Regis Town Council to create 26 new plots at the Strawberry Field to run separately from the association-run allotments at the back of the football pitch in Charmouth Road.
All parish councils have a duty to provide land for allotments and the town council has clearly responded to the demand.
I am not exactly known in my family for having green fingers.
When my parents lived in my house the back garden, all 60 feet of it, was tilled with vegetables and fruit. For a while we even kept chickens, although I’m not too sure how many we slaughtered because they became members of the family.
All gardens in Anning Road were similar and there was much light-hearted banter on a Sunday morning across the garden fences as our fathers provided fresh produce to supplement our diet. Put it this way, we never went without our five a day long before we knew we had to have five a day.
Today those gardens are either grassed over or occupied by garages or car ports.
We discarded the vegetable plots many years ago and my job is to mow the lawns, front and back, a duty I carry out with great grace.
I pretend that I want to grow more vegetables and we do produce a few tomatoes and cucumbers in the greenhouse. We even grew a few peppers last summer.
But back to the allotments. The creation of 26 plots on the Strawberry Field has not gone down too well with nearby property owners, including freehold owner Cliff Powley who sold the leasehold of the land to the town council for new football pitches.
Mr Powley questioned the legality of the land being used for allotments but I understand the town council has had legal confirmation that they are perfectly in their rights to do so and are proceeding with the scheme post haste.
Other concerns have been expressed over the danger of the Strawberry Field becoming an eyesore if allotments are allowed on the land, promoting some strong comments from existing Charmouth Road allotment holders in this week’s letter page.
The point is made that allotments have never been showcase gardens, and never will be, but there has been much comment about the dumping of household items on the allotments, photographs of which were shown to the councillors.
Part of the Strawberry Field will also be used for its original intention - sport and recreation - with the opening of a pitch and putt course which is being run by the nearby golf club.
Those of us who were involved with the ill-fated plans to build a new home for Lyme Regis Football Club will look upon the curent position with some sadness but are heartened by the fact that the town council may not have given up altogether on future sporting use.
Leases for the allotment and the pitch and putt course on the Strawberry Field will be reviewed in 2014 when, depending on the climate of that time, it may well be possible to give further consideration for the land being used for its original purpose.
Double celebration for the Mayor’s family
BY FAR the most enjoyable social event of the week was a double celebration at the Woodmead Halls on Saturday evening.
There the Mayor, Councillor Michaela Ellis, and her consort husband Alan were celebrating their silver wedding (25 years) with Alan’s parents, Derek and Rita Ellis, marking their golden anniversary (50 years).
I can’t remember when I have seen more local faces at a Lyme function and a good time was had by all with local DJ, the incomparable Simon Flux, providing the music.
We’d all forgotten that 25 years ago Alan sported a rather splendid moustache and Michaela had much curlier hair, as demonstrated in their wedding photos. But she’s still just as slim.
I took a bit of stick during the night because I gave the first public airing to the nannygoat beard I am attempting to grow. Don’t ask.
I suggested to one quite vociferous non-admirer that I thought it looked a bit Johnny Depp-like. He replied: “More like Johnny Solway.”
You will have lived in Lyme for quite a while to understand that subtlety of that!
Parking metres in Broad Street?
I HAVE been a strong critic over the years of Dorset County Council’s method of policing street parking in Lyme Regis.
I’ve always thought it was total bonkers to send wardens up from Wimborne to blitz the town with parking tickets and then not be seen again for weeks.
It means you can contravene the parking restrictions one day and get a £30 fine and then get away with it for weeks on end.
I’ve paid my fair share in parking fines in Broad Street, especially when our offices were in the town centre. I admit to running the gauntlet of the parking wardens rather than paying the exorbitant fees charged at the NCP.
Many people who live on the outskirts of Lyme ignore the town in the summer season and do their shopping in Axminster and Bridport where parking fees are more sensible. It costs the town dearly but who can blame them?
But at least we do have a few parking spaces in Broad Street which enable us to pop into town for some quick shopping, especially during the quieter months.
But all that could change. I understand that Dorset County Council is still very much in favour of installing pay and display machines in Broad Street all the year round. This would eliminate free on-street parking completely.
How do I know this? One of my reporters, Paul Crompton, was this week following a story about parking fines in Dorchester and in a statement from county hall it stated that they intended to extend the pay and display machines to other Dorset towns, including Bridport and Lyme Regis, over the next couple of years.
Of course, this is not new information. The county have suggested this in the past but Lyme Regis Town Council have made it clear they are totally opposed to the idea.
Traders will also be dead against pay and display because it will drive more shoppers away from the town.
In a town with such a large proportion of elderly residents, it is important to retain a certain amount of free parking in Broad Street.
The town council will undoubtedly fight the county council if they are serious about the proposal. Remember, you read it here first.
A site for sore eyes...
THIS is the view that strollers along the prom, arriving at the western end of the Marine Parade, are confronted with. Quaint, isn’t it?
The vast cavern of stark concrete is where two houses had to be demolished because of the severe subsidence problems experienced before the coastal protection works were started.
Families were removed from the houses overnight.
No one will deny what a wonderful job West Dorset District Council has done in stabilsing the creeping cliffs of Lyme, remodelling our beach and renovating our gardens.
But the scheme has been finished for two years and still there is no sign that anything is happening to improve this unacceptable eyesore.
I understand from the town council that there are no immediate plans, if any at all, for this promiment site.
I am sure that the neighbouring properties are highly relieved that the land movement has been addressed, without further threat to their own homes, but the traders at this end of the parade cannot be happy to have this area, secured with compound-type fencing, on their doorstep.
If the district council are totally devoid of ideas, perhaps View from Lyme Regis readers could come up with a few for them.
Answers on a postcard please, sent to the usual address, and I will give a bottle of champagne to the best one which we will then forward to High West Street in Dorchester.
I would have thought that the very least the district council could do is to erect some more attractive fencing for the season whilst a permanent project can be planned.
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