The Faversham News reported yesterday, Thursday 20 September, that the tax bill of £36,782 against Brogdale Orchards Ltd, a subsidiary of the Brogdale Horticultural Trust, which resulted in a Country Court Judgement for failure to pay, had now been paid. The reason that Brogdale Orchards received a County Court Judgement was because of ‘staff shortage’ [...]
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On 29 August 2007 HM Revenue & Customs obtained a County Court Judgement for £36,762 against Brogdale Horticultural Trust’s subsidiary, Brogdale Orchards Limited. At the time of writing the judgement is unsatisfied.
If Brogdale had paid the amount outstanding, it could obviously have avoided a court hearing and the judgement. Since it did not, one has [...]
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Saturday’s Guardian carries an article by Ian Jack on Brogdale and the National Fruit Collections - see ‘ In a field by the M2 grows the largest collection of fruit trees in the world’ http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2164934,00.html
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We write concerning the letter sent out by the Chairman of the Trust to all Friends of the Brogdale Horticultural Trust. We believe that this letter misrepresents the purpose, conduct and resolution of the Special General Meeting held on 28 April 2007. At this meeting Friends passed a resolution to amend their constitution so that, [...]
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“Pears like districts where there is an equable temperature and a large expanse of water does ensure less liability to frost in the spring when the blossoms are out. Pears do well, for instance along the Medway valley, and in the Swale Estuary in Kent.”
The author of this observation, W. Shewell Cooper, the amateur gardening [...]
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There seems no doubt that both the Brogdale Horticultural Trust and MAFF, now Defra, regarded Brogdale as the permanent site for the National Fruit Collections in 1990 when the Trust bought the site and in 2000 when it was sold to Hillreed. That was the position taken when the Friends of Brogdale constitution was drafted. [...]
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In both 1990 and 2000 Brogdale Horticultural Trust successfully argued that the National Fruit Collections should be kept at Brogdale.
Yet in 2007 Brogdale Horticultural Trust admitted that in its Defra bid it had proposed moving the National Fruit Collection from Brogdale. At the Special General Meeting of Friends of Brogdale in April 2007 the Trust [...]
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‘BETRAYED’, so accused the banner headline in the Faversham Times of 24 May 2007. This charge made against the Trust is one with which I agree; and is the reason why I have withheld, for the time being, my £25 sub to the Friends of the Brogdale Horticultural Trust, due on 6 August - [...]
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Following a surprise announcement last Friday, 3 August, Defra reissued the tender for management of the National Fruit Collections, having declared all the bids to the previous tender unsatisfactory. (See new Defra Tender)
For those of us who want the Collections to remain at Brogdale, this would seem a welcome temporary victory, but there is no respite. [...]
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Friends of National Fruit Collections at Brogdale have launched a Petition to keep the Collections at Brogdale and sent their first batch of signatures to Defra last week. We collected over 400 signatures during the Brogdale Cherry and Strawberry Festival and these have been fowarded to Hilary Benn and Lord Rooker.
The Petition is ongoing and [...]
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