For several months now, the Council have been convening a Working Group to draft a new Tenancy Agreement for all Cardiff allotment plot holders, and also to review fees, charges, concessions and so on. (A PPAA Committee member’s been delegated to that group, which consists of Head Of Parks, Allotments Officer and other relevant Council officers, and Site Reps or delegates. The last include representatives from The National Allotment Association, and from Cardiff Allotment Holders’ Association, CAHA.)
The draft’s being finalised now, and it’ll soon be the subject of general consultation as required by law. The expectation’s for tenants to be asked to sign it for the year starting in February 2027, which allows for the year’s notice needed. The Group weren’t unanimous on all the changes, but where there was a general consensus and the change was supported by allotments law it was usually incorporated. Obviously, no one can be compelled to sign, but if they choose not to do so, then – as the Council a bit flatly perhaps put it – their existing tenancy will just end.
There’re quite a few reasons for which this is being done, but a principal one’s the increasing use of allotment plots for purposes, which are nothing to do with those defined by the Allotments Acts and by other laws. Examples in Cardiff are understood to include:-
- The fencing off of a plot with a high corrugated iron fence and locking gate, and its use as a builder’s yard.
- The setting out of trampolines, swings and slides, and use as a children’s play area.
- The use as a place for slaughtering animals for meat.
- Storage for junk by hoarders, when they’ve run out of space at home.
- Use as a private re-wilding area and wildlife reserve.
- Use as a venue for religious gatherings.
- Use in the way of a residential garden, i.e. with extensive lawns, patios, chalets, and other such things.
- The use as a pet cemetery
- Use as meeting place for rowdy outdoor parties on summer evenings.
The list goes on, unfortunately.
It was considered then, that in important ways, the existing Agreement doesn’t make expressly clear many of the specifics, of what should and shouldn’t be done on allotment plots, and one central purpose of the draft is to address this. So it’s probably only fair to tell everyone as soon as we can, that some of the changes may need work doing by plot holders on PPA to bring their plots into line with the proposed new Agreement.
Apart from making much clearer that things like the above examples are formally prohibited, one particular point that’s intended to change is the clarity of definition of “non-cultivation”, and the conditions for bringing a plot to “full cultivation”, which would also be defined more clearly and rigorously. The draft as seen by PPAA’s delegate envisages areas of plots covered by things such as lawn, weed suppressants like wood chip, scrub vegetation (which may often be euphemistically described as wildlife habitat), and other non-productive areas, as not being eligible for inclusion as part of the “cultivated” total, no matter how neatly they might be maintained. This would mean that changes needed to be made to plots on PPA where e.g. overly-wide paths between small productive beds formed too large a proportion of the plot’s total area.
As delegates pointed out though, rules may be changed, but unless they’re enforced, the effect of so doing would likely be limited. The Council accepted this, and so for their part they say that – in parallel with this – they’ll be reviewing their Enforcement procedures, with the aim of streamlining and ruggedising them.
Our understanding is that the Draft Agreement will be published during the coming spring as part of the Consultation, and that an on-line survey will be available, together with postal contact for those who aren’t contactable by email, so tenants should have a far clearer idea of the proposals at such point. It’s probably a good time to remind all then, of the importance of keeping the Council and PPAA Committee informed of any change of email or postal address.
PPA Website Team
