All the Oxford Allotment Association on land owned by Oxford City Council are currently preparing to sign a new long-term lease with the City Council, as the old lease expired over two years ago. The Oxford & District Federation of Allotment Associations (ODFAA) reports that negotiation of the details is progressing well, and agreement should be reached soon. To meet the requirements of the new lease we need to update our existing constitution (read it here) to make it more detailed. The City Council has also confirmed that Oxford allotment associations must become incorporated entities, whereas previously they have been managed as unincorporated associations. This means that the EWAA will need to form some type of incorporated body to sign the lease, whereas previously individual trustees took on that responsibility. The purpose of this change is to end the need for trustees to give personal unlimited financial guarantees when they signed the lease, and to improve the governance of associations across Oxford.
This is why we now need your support and help to approve a new constitution, which is the first step in preparation for incorporating the East Ward Allotment Association. Later this year we will need to decide what form of incorporation to choose, and the proposed constitution defines how the EWAA will take its decisions. It puts in place better Annual General Meeting procedures, provides a mechanism to wind up the current unincorporated allotment association and transfer its assets to a new body, and also introduces a new plot-holder licence agreement which all plot-holders must sign when they next pay their annual rent.
Please take time to read through the proposed constitution and the licence agreement (links below) and let us have any queries or comments no later than Sunday 25th February, so that we can respond to any questions well ahead of the Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) which will be held at 12pm on Sunday 17th March in the allotment shop. This should be a short meeting to ratify the two new governance documents proposed here.
- NB – there is a “Translate” button in the top right-hand corner of the EWAA website pages.
- Proposed EWAA Constitution
- Proposed Plot-holder Licence
- Email any queries to contact@ewaa.org.uk
Many thanks for your time, and we hope to see you at the EGM!
EWAA Committee