Topic: Communal Tools

[Sinbad7]

If you have communal tools on your site, how do you work it?

Do plot holders pay a small fee for using the tools?  Does one person look after it and get it maintained?  If it is a petrol mower or strimmer how do you work out the price for petrol. oil?

Any advice would be gratefully received

Sinbad

[kt.]

We had a petrol powered rotovator - cost over £1000 four years ago.

1.  We hired it out at £5 per half day.  Pain in the ass was that a committee member had to go to the site each time it was booked in and out.

2.  it lasted about 18 months.  Some plot holders were signing it out and taking it home to do their gardening,  their mates rubble garden, even landscaping business and preparing rubble ground for laying patios!!! 

3.  The repairs bill were to be in excess of £600 so we sold it to the highest bidder from a plotholder.  £150. 

We do now have a petrol powered lawnmower for the paths and grassed areas around the site.  It is not used inside peoples plots as it is individual plotholders responsibility to maintain what is inside their own plot boundary.  The grass is cut by committee members and the mower is not loaned to plot holders.  As allotment supervisor,  I have a petrol powered brushcutter / strimmer with a steel blade provided by the council for around the site.  I strim overgrown plots prior to allocating the them to new 'recruits' to give them a head start. 

[Trevor_D]

We've had mowers available for years, but it's a big site with a lot of grass paths (two main ones and smaller ones between each plot - see my avatar). Recently, we've just invested in a new Hayter and we'll probably get another in a year or so when the older mowers pack up. We've also just bought 2 Stihl strimmers.

All these are for everyone's use, free of charge, although they are kept under lock and key. We have tried to keep a rota of key-holders going, but it just doesn't work, so it's usually a case of finding someone to open up.

We used to have a rotovator, but it eventually died on us and we haven't replaced it. Members had to provide their own petrol for that.

We've also got various tools that aren't loaned out - brush-cutter, chain saw, 2 hedge-trimmers - for working party use only.

[pigeonseed]

This is really interesting, because we've also started discussing whether it would be a good idea for us to have a petrol strimmer for shared use. Our shed can be opened by anyone with an allotment site key.

We also have some old tools in there which no one claims and people use them when they need to. I like that because having no shed, I take only the basics with me.

[Sinbad7]

Thank you Kt and Trevor for your replies.

I am still undecided if this would be a good idea or not to have communal tools for the members.

The decision wouldn't be up to me anyway but wanted to form my own opinions, from others who have communal tools and how it worked out for their sites.

[goodlife]

Communal power tools and Health and Safety issues are something our allotment society stumbled straight away and we decided against it.
We do have ride on mower for main avenues and the job is allocated for couple comittee members only.
Luckily we have few keen machine mad members who are happy to help those in need.
I rather have my own tools as some cannot be trusted to use, maintain and clean any tools or machines so that they would be adequate or safe for next person to use.
I bet something like white rot would spread like mad with communal rotavator ::)

[Mr Smith]

               Phil,
                         Can I have my ladder and hammer back please if you are reding this, :)

[saddad]

We used to have a rotavator for members use but like KT's site it was abused, not cleaned, put away broken etc... so we stopped using it...
 :-X

[picman]

We must be lucky... we have 2 Petrol mowers + 1 sit on, a strimmer and 3 rotovators , members have to be trained to use them and sign a safety form, Fuel and repairs / service are paid via our membership and plot fees (£7.50 pa). had some mower damage last year from stones on paths , and rotovator mistreated, but on the whole members look after them, They were financed from our small shop and other fund raising activities. (36 members 51 Plots) 

[Trevor_D]

There are always members who don't give a d**n about equipment that "isn't theirs" - it is, of course, because we've bought it from their money!

We've gone through hoops over the past 3 or 4 years to try to get this right, and we still get some folk who abuse equipment, or yell if it's not available on demand. But - on the whole - most members are now grateful that we are providing equipment that works.

As for H&S - we approached NSALG a couple of years back back and the opinion then that as it was communal equipment, we were only allowing members to use stuff that was already theirs, so we were covered. (Although we do have a disclaimer; do teach people how to use the stuff; and do have employers' liability insurance.)

[chriscross1966]

Communal power tools and Health and Safety issues are something our allotment society stumbled straight away and we decided against it.
We do have ride on mower for main avenues and the job is allocated for couple comittee members only.
Luckily we have few keen machine mad members who are happy to help those in need.
I rather have my own tools as some cannot be trusted to use, maintain and clean any tools or machines so that they would be adequate or safe for next person to use.
I bet something like white rot would spread like mad with communal rotavator ::)

I was going to say... see if you've got a local Vintage Horticultural and Garden Machinery Club (VHGMC) member locally.... most of the active membership is only too happy to come out and play with their rotavators if you can give them some space to do so in....  the Howard completists (and there seems  to be tons of them) will probably bring several machines that look like russian doll bigger-to-smaller versions of the  same unit ...and are in some respects... if you've got clean soil that needs rotavating get them in and if an overgrown bit  needs a serious strim see if they've got a mate with an Oxford Allen Scythe... if nothing else its retro attituide to safety is a delight to behold.... and we all have liability insurance as long as the audience is fenced off from the action when we're demonstratng our equipment.....

chrisc

[lavenderlux]

We have powered equipment for plot holders use and it generally works fine; we have mowers, rotary and hover, strimmers, rotavator, shredder. We also have things like two push mowers (kept so always available to anyone to use), wheelbarrows and a four wheeled trolley
We have had problems with strimmers in that people mis-use them for cutting areas which need heavy duty strimmers, which ours aren't.
We have written instructions for the equipment use and people pay a 'donation' which covers fuel and maintenance and they have to sign equipment out and back.  One of our field wardens looks after the maintenance and upkeep of the equipment and people are told that if they suspect a fault then they need to tell us when they return the equipment. On our site, the main community areas and trackway are cut by our field warden but people are responsible for cutting the pathways between plots.
The heavy duty shredder is only used by trained people and plot holders can put material such as fruit bush pruning into a bay and we then have a shredding sessions - if people have 'donated' a large amount of material they are asked to help with the shredding (such as barrowing the results to the storage area or they have have this for their compost heaps)
We've just had a secondhand rotavator donated for field use and our field warden is currently overhauling this.  He's a vintage machinery enthusiast, his special interest is vintage lawnmowers and some of the old powered mowers we have had donated he's restored (these are forty-fifty years old) and he uses these to cut the communal areas but they are not loaned out to plot holders but are a great talking point when we have them on display at our open days

[1066]

Fuel and repairs / service are paid via our membership and plot fees (£7.50 pa). ...... (36 members 51 Plots) 

Picman, that is really interesting - like some others we have a real problem with shared tools, they are a bit of a pain - needed, but storing and maintaining them can be costly.
I'm presuming you had to put this suggestion up at an AGM, and then agree a rate for the year?

[picman]

Hi 1066 .. Like you say, our plot fee and membership fee, is agreed at the AGM, It does not really cover the actual cost of fuel and maintenance, but it gives members a reason to look after it. we do get the main mower serviced each winter , around £90 last year ! but we have lots of grass paths . ( we also have two polytunnels we rent plots in that raises some cash.)   

[1066]

thanks Picman - as you say by adding a fee in for tools it gives people a sense of ownership and added responsibility. We too have lots of paths. Think I will suggest this as an idea.

1066  :)

[Mr Smith]

After reading the posts when communal tools do work including machinery, I'm embarrassed that our allotment site could not even get up a committee last year, well done to the folk out there that can make it work, :)

[lincsyokel2]

See, the problem is people dont take care of ther eown tools, and they certiany dont take care of other peoples tools.

I  look after my tools. they are all organised, shrpened, old and kept i ntip top condition. Consequently, having over the decades loaned and lost tools to people, and had them returned blunt and/or knackered, there are now only two people on the entire planet i will loan tools to, because they are the only two people i know who will treat my tools as well as i do, i know the tools will come back sharp and cleaned.