Home Grown Hornsea

1^st November 2018 Held at Floral Hall Café

1. Present- Alan Tharrat, Paul Hanson, Glen Hemsby

2. Apologies- Suzanne Keam, John Rodgers, Donald Cowan, Heather Downs, Thom Strid

3. Approval of minutes of 2017

4. Election of Officers: Chair- Alan Tharrat, Secretary- Thom Strid, Treasurer- Paul Hanson

5. Chairman’s report

The shop unfortunately had to be closed in July as sales were not sufficient to cover costs. Plans to include a café had to be abandoned as the building was too cold to be attractive to customers and the shop on its own couldn’t generate enough income. We had to conclude that Hornsea is not yet ready for health foods.

Nevertheless, many lessons were learnt and good contacts made. Some materials and stock were donated to a new Café/Restaurant- Thyme and Tide which plans to offer vegan food and which we are able to use as a collection point for the Suma buyers’ group which enables our regular customers to continue to buy health foods. Other remaining stock was also donated to local groups.

Despite a continued shortage of volunteers another good year was had on the orchard with all the trees and fruit bushes very healthy and producing an abundance of fruit. As news of this spread many people from the community helped themselves to some of the fruit and the rest was donated to local groups and volunteers. The season culminated in a visit from BBC Radio Humberside who spent the afternoon broadcasting from the orchard and were able to have a go at scything using our new scythes bought from funds kindly donated by the Rotary Club.

6. Treasurer’s report

Accounts

Balance as of 1 Nov 2017:             7,495.66

Expenses

Shop Expenditure                            13,778.74

Insurance                                            100.80

Tools for Orchard                             290

Orchard Rental                                  56

Total                                                      14,225.54

Income

Shop Income                                      8859.53

Donations                                           250

Total                                                      9109.53

Balance as of 1 Nov 2018               2,379.65

7. Plans for 2019

Arrangements are already in place to plant trees in Hall Garth Park in conjunction with the Civic Society and the Town Council. The first planting day is scheduled for 8^th December. The next stage will be to convince East Riding Council to allow us to plant more trees on their land.

Contacts have been established with the Volunteen team from ERVAS, who are keen to bring young people to volunteer at the orchard as well as with tree planting. Alan is designing a management plan to make the orchard more user friendly and improve wildlife habitats and it has been suggested that any new volunteers can begin by focusing on this.

Through the Community Action Group run by the ERYC Health Department we are pursuing the idea of taking over the library (which is to be relocated to the Leisure Centre) to form a Community Centre. We are currently negotiating with ERYC and if an agreement can be reached a business plan will be drawn up in conjunction with the other interested parties.

8. Any other business

Alan suggested that we look at ways to make the town more pedestrian and cycle friendly.