Topic: Moral dilemma

[Si D]

The bloke on the next plot has only visited the site about three times this year, just left it to grow wild and blow weed seed all over your plot.  He has a reason for not turning up: one that some would find justifiable and others not.

Anyway, a few months back he got a letter from the council telling him to use it or lose it.

Since then he's been back and covered much of the plot with thick black plastic to remove all the weed and get it ready for planting next year. So far, so good. 

But he hasn't weighted it down well, and you have had to extricate black plastic from the various beds on your plot and return it to his plot, not to mention returning all of his loose plant pots, returning his dalek from where it's rolled across your plot and frequently doing his shed up for him to stop the door smashing itself to pieces in the wind.

So, after a couple of months or more of collecting up and returning stuff only to find it back on your plot a couple on weeks later, would you feel OK about giving up and "appropriating" anything that you found on your plot?  If he can't be bothered to look after his stuff does he deserve to have it returned to him?

[Solorn]

I would speak to the lottie manager and ask him to write a letter to the guy telling him what is happening and asking him to do something about it. If that doesn't work then perhaps you should just put everything in his shed that is loose and drifting.

If he doesn't show within a few weeks then I wouldn't see a probl;em with using some of the plastic that blows across your plot.

[trinity]

I have a similar problem with my plot I have had it for 4 months now I have two one is mine and this is my sisters but we are sharing It is not yet well worked  (yet ;) )
but we have top cleared all the weeds  rubbish and broken glass and fixed the fence and dug the first 4 beds and covered them. the plot next door is about a third cultivated and has a lot of things stored on it I have seen him once! He was being told that he should clear his toms and potatoes by the plot holder on the other side (they where down to the ground with blight )
he has some large pallet (may be fencing  ???) that are about 10 foot by 10 foot and are lying on my plot >:( and are very heavy
 they where leaned on the back of his shed but have fell on mine(smashing the fence )
I need to dig the area that they are on to get it ready for next year. and we cannot move them!!!
 we had 4 people try to move them but it was 2 women and to men from a plot further up (but who are both in there sixty's) and we just could not move them other than to stand them up
 but it is really windy and they have now fell back over the plot is worked by three young lads and no one has seen them since spring apart from when I saw one of them and he stayed for 10 minutes ( the toms and potatoes are still there >:()
so the only way to move them would be to saw them in half but i would feel bad for doing this
I got hold of the allotment officer and he just told me it was nothing to do with me what other people keep on there plot  >:( ???
so I am not sure of what to do
I was going to start my own thread but did not want to start another on a similar topic so put it on here hope that's OK
 PS we don't have a comity.

[SMP1704]

If the dalek and plastic just 'turned up' on your plot one day and you had no idea where it had come from - well best not to say no to the allotment fairy.

BUT..you do know where it has come from and so will the plotter when he eventually shows up - all in all I think it is more aggro than it is worth.

As the shed is open, I would stuff it all in there.

We had a plotter who toiled on his heavy clay, couch overgrown plot for two years (most weekends) and then one day just upped and left - literally the fork was in the ground, bags of compost, tools in shed, wheelbarrow, etc.  So I waited til the end of the contract year and then a bit more before dividing the plot in two half plots.  I have to confess that some of the tools have been 'redistributed'.

[ceres]

As SMP says, if it just blew on your plot and you had no idea where it had come from, it's fair game.  I've had bits of net, plastic, bucket etc arrive and usually I put them at the end of my plot on the path for a week or so and if they're not claimed they're mine.  But since you know whose they are, I think you should return them.

On our site, evicted and given up plots often have stuff left on them but committee members usually get there first as they know in advance.  There was a half plot near me taken by a couple who arrived and put hundreds of pounds worth of equipment on the plot - a shed, fruit cage, those slot together compost bins and some other bits and pieces all flat packed and brand new.  They never re-appeared so they were eventually sent warning and eviction letters with no response.  They weren't on the contact phone number they'd given either so the plot was cleared by committee members.  I was there on the day they were doing it and offered a donation to site funds for the shed which was accepted.  Don't know what happened to the rest of the stuff though!

Trinity, the allotment officer is not right.  If stuff belonging to someone else has fallen on your plot, it is your business.  I would write to the allotments officer and tell him that you are going to get enough people together to move the pallets and lay them flat on your neighbour's plot where they can't fall and hurt someone or cause any more damage.  Then just do it.