Present: Mrs E Smith (Gore Rd), Mr R Howard (Gore Rd), Mr J Rowden (Bean), Mr T Humphries (Dartford Rd), Dr R Wiltshire (Research Officer), Mr R Johnson (Secretary).

1. Apologies for Absence: None.

2. Minutes of the 32nd Meeting of the Committee: Accepted.

3. Matters Arising from Minutes of the 3nd Meeting: None

4. Research Officer's Report:

a) Advised the Parliamentary Environment Select Committee on recent developments in the management of allotments.

b) Assisted FCF&CG and NSALG in setting up the Allotment Regeneration Initiative (ARI) to be launched this autumn with £0.5 million in matched funding from the Esmée Fairburn Foundation.

c) Attended the 33rd Congress of the Office International du Coin de Terre et des Jardins Familiaux in York 22nd-25thAugust, and assisted the Moderator of the Town Planning Workshop at the Congress at the request of the NSALG. Secretaries note: Dr Wiltshire tabled a report which was accepted by the committee.

d) Facilitated visits to allotments in Dartford (Dartford Road and Gore Road), Bristol and Sheffield by Mr Hervé Bonnavaud (Secrétaire Général, Fédération Nationale des Jardins Familiaux, France) and to allotments and city farms in Sheffield and Birmingham by Professor Shinji Aoki (Toyo University, Japan).

e) Items published in the NSALG's Allotment and Leisure Gardener on the Urban Green Space Task Force and in London Food Links Project's publication Jellied Eel on wildlife on allotments.

f) Agreed to supply items for the next issue of Allotment and Leisure Gardener on the new edition of The Law of Allotments, the outcomes of PPG17 revision, and the forthcoming ARI.

g) Gave talk on "The Future for Allotments" and judged flower and vegetable show at the Allotment Archive Project in Lambeth (13th July).

h) Received response from Dartford Borough Council on our response to the draft Eastern Quarry Supplementary Planning Guidance: the commitment to provide allotments has been included in the agreed Guidance.

i) Since the last meeting, advice on allotments in Local Agenda 21 and related issues has been given to plotholders in Crockenhill, Ealing, Okehampton, Rotherham, South Gloucestershire, wear Valley and Wilmington, to the City Councils in Derby and Stockport, and to East Riding CVS.

j) Since the last meeting an article on the QED Allotment Group (and specifically the Darenth Country Park Project) has appeared in Japanese in a book published by the Japan Horticultural Well-Being Association, authored by Professor Haruyuki Yoshinaga.

5. Joint activities with other QED Groups:

a) QED Pollution and Waste Management Group: No report.

b) QED Health Group: Possibility of a joint project between the Allotment and Health Groups on an initiative in horticultural therapy developed by Mr & Mrs D Crowe at Dartford Road and suitable for use in back gardens.

c) QED Biodiversity Group: No report.

6. Dartford Show 2002 Review and Feedback: Mr Humphries reported that this year's allotments competition was judged by Mr Richard Dolby from the Bexley Allotments Federation and that the Borough Shield was won by Mr Gerry Defeo, New Comer's Cup (Fred Brown Cup) by Mr Terry Le Mar, and the Villages Cup by Mr Ernie Banks. The conduct of the competition in future years was discussed and Mr Humphries was requested to amend the rules to include the following and report back to the committee.

a) A deadline on the date for entry should be introduced.

b) Where possible competitors should be on their plots to assist the judge and answer any questions he may have.

Discussion on next year's festival was held over until the next meeting.

7. Future of QED and DASC: This was discussed and the research officer was requested by the committee to investigate trust status for QED Allotments.

8. Visits and Conferences:

a) Research Officer to attend the inaugural meeting of the Gardening Research and Information Network (GRAIN) at Loughborough University on 12th.September

b) The visit to the HDRA Organic Garden at Audley End was undertaken and enjoyed by participants.

9. QED Allotments Autumn Newsletter: It was reported that the newsletter was nearly complete and would be printed and distributed shortly, but unfortunately would not be in time to include information on the Bexley Show.

10. Any Other Business:

Allotments Survey - The committee discussed the survey document being circulated through Mr John Hedger (DBC) and could not understand why this survey was being undertaken.

11. Date of Next Meeting: The next meeting will be Monday 4th November from 8.00 pm at the Princes Sports and Leisure Centre.

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