Month: March 2025

(It’s a question sometimes heard being asked on site, and so here are some reflections on the point.)

Why do the Council want all sites to be self-managed, if achievable?

Over a decade ago, there were severe cuts in central government funding for Councils (although the position’s eased somewhat recently), and they simply can’t afford to do all that’s needed to keep sites in a well-managed, fully-tenanted condition, whether that be the physical work in clearing neglected plots, facilities maintenance etc., or the interpersonal work of showing prospective tenants plots etc. (Sue let around forty plots last year, and each appointment involved typically half-a-dozen emails before the hour-or-so long meeting.)

Cardiff have one Allotments Officer to deal with all the sites in Cardiff, which host over three thousand tenants, and it’s self-evident, that any one of the above duties applied across them all would be beyond their capacity.

The Council offer guidance for gardeners, who want to set up an Association to manage their site. The Guide contains a model Constitution for such Associations, and it’s unlikely that the Council would approve one if it differed markedly in its objectives and organisation from that. (For instance, by promoting the use of the site, or part of it, for purposes which relegated those defined by the various Allotments Acts. Those who’d like to change the Constitution for PPAA, which closely follows this model, should bear this in mind, therefore.)

What are Associations able to do better, or that the Council can’t do at all?

Examples include:

• On-hand maintenance, at short notice, at weekends, and on public holidays, of water facilities and gate locks etc. Volunteers may well – as does PPAA – have the skills to do these things free-of-charge too, whereas the Council would have to organise a paid contractor with a waiting time perhaps of weeks or even months. In the case of a failed gate lock – as usually happens a few times each year – this could be too long a period of severe inconvenience, or of compromised site security, or of both.
• Far closer day-to-day vigilance, arising from detailed site knowledge, leading to improved security, and to prompt action over matters such as fly-tipping.
• Availability of volunteers to co-ordinate manure deliveries from Cardiff Riding School. (This is now essential, as the Council no longer remove the manure for the School.)
• At-will benefits, e.g. the provision of communications facilities, such as a site-dedicated website, social media account, etc. The Council couldn’t offer these at all.
• Subject to available volunteers, the capacity to stage plant sales, and to offer other desirable facilities, such a site shop, space in a communal poly tunnel, and so on.
• One-to-one, unhurried, personal discussions with prospective tenants, allowing them to be given the most suitable plot for their intentions from among those available.
• Freedom to devote some effort to parallel beneficial work, e.g. in enhancing whatever environmental and ecological benefits the site might be capable of offering. (PPAA are currently growing several dozen long-flowering, pollinator-attracting shrubs, for planting in suitable places around the site, and maintain vigilance for invasive species, among other such work.)

PPAA are – like most other Associations – very short of volunteer time, and they’d like to be able to do more. At present the post of Chair’s vacant, and it’s therefore filled at meetings on an acting basis. The Council have nominated Sue as their representative for contact. She deals with lettings and emails, but the long list of duties now asked by the Council for Site Reps means that other aspects of this role are shared, and the Council Guide explains that this is quite accepted and normal.

What would happen if the Association were dissolved?

• All the above services and facilities would end where the Council didn’t provide them, or revert to their procedures and waiting times where they did.
• There’d be no further availability of any personal contacts on site for action on any matter or for referral, that is, no transitional arrangements, and all queries would be subject to the Council’s discretion as to when to reply, or whether to reply at all.
• The site would lose its annual Grant of over £5,000, and PPAA would also have to return its credit balance of typically £15,000, as the PPAA Constitution is silent on the matter.
• Plot lettings would become very sporadic, leading to a rapidly-increasing number of neglected and untidy plots. In turn this would very likely attract the attentions of property developers – or their influential friends – who could claim that the site was failing as allotments, as has happened in many places around the country.

The position of PPAA Committee is quite fragile, and vulnerable to disruption, mainly owing to the small number of volunteers. It’s for this reason, that good attendance at Annual General Meetings is of the utmost importance for everyone on the site. There’ll be more on this topic as the date – yet to be arranged – of the AGM approaches.

PPA Website Team

In 2018 Cardiff Council instructed allotment plot holders to inspect their plots for asbestos, with a view to its removal from site by their specialist contractors. The material referred to was the asbestos-cement sheeting, used by builders for garage roofing etc. and often found on allotments. There’s further information on the unlicensed – as is permitted – removal of this material from the Health And Safety Executive.

However, the disposal contractors were only willing to pick up loose material, and so tenants were advised to place it in the old clubhouse, which was temporarily designated as its repository. The advice was that the sheeting historically used by builders was low hazard if not further broken, especially if thoroughly wetted before handling it.

The scheme appeared very successful, with quite a large quantity being taken off site.

However, PPAA Committee have recently been informed that there’s still some asbestos on at least one plot, its tenant in the end not having taken up the offer in 2018, nor having informed the then Committee that they hadn’t, despite showing enthusiasm for the plan at the time.

PPAA Committee have forwarded this tenant’s report to the Council, and await their response to the request for someone to dig out the asbestos, and to remove it for the tenant (such work not being required of PPAA under its Local Management Agreement with the Council, who remain responsible for the removal of hazardous waste.)

PPAA Committee are aware of some residual asbestos remaining on or behind a few of the brick cubicles awaiting renovation, but would encourage all plot holders to check carefully for any asbestos on their gardens, and to inform the Committee of any significant quantities.

Thanks everyone.

Update: All detectable asbestos on or adjoining the plot mentioned has now been removed, and taken off site by licensed contractor, Care Environmental Surveying Ltd.

Photographs of the relevant parts before and after the work have been taken.

A Disposal Certificate will be forwarded to the Council in due course.

PPA Website Team

Soot is a carcinogen, and so as the Council’s Allotments Guide explains, must never be brought on site. Not knowing, or claiming not to know these facts doesn’t exempt anyone from these conditions either. The only waste materials authorised to be brought and left in the common areas are wood chips from the Council, and manure from the Riding School, so no waste materials or anything else must be left anywhere by anyone.

We’re sorry to report then, that someone’s left a bag of soot under the notice board at the northeast end of site.

Perhaps this was well intentioned – soot was traditionally used on gardens at one time – but for the above reasons we’d ask that whoever left it there please remove it without delay, and dispose of it responsibly.

PPA Website Team

The below file’s from Cardiff’s guide to managing allotments for Associations such as PPAA. It’s about the evergreen oak, also known as holm oak, holly oak, etc., and which is often found growing on PPA site. Their planting’s banned in many countries.

Volunteers have been removing the saplings and young trees of this species, wherever they’ve been found on site, for the past few years.

As the article says, they’ve been colonising areas such as ours, and we’d add that they’re a particular problem in that their shade is so very dense that virtually nothing – not even moss – will grow beneath them, and so they progressively eliminate a great deal of wildlife habitat.

There’re a number of huge mature specimens in Pontcanna Fields Park and elsewhere locally, and squirrels bury the acorns quite assiduously all around, so the saplings are a problem not just on PPA, but also in gardens locally. The banks of the River Taff near Sophia Gardens have been smothered by these trees, notably.

So if anyone should find these growing on their plot, or in their garden at home, then they’d be well advised to dig them out before they get any bigger.

PPA Website Team

As the site schematic plan shows, many plots on PPA are split into two, known as the (a) and (b) plots with that number. The plan’s intended to show the manner in which the plots are split too. That is, where the plots are divided along a line parallel with the shorter dimension of the plot (as most are, since the Council request that it normally be done this way) then the diagram should show this, and where they’re split along a line parallel with its longer edge then it should also indicate that. In most cases then, the (a) part will be that which adjoins a road or trackway. (NB the schematic doesn’t represent the actual plot proportions referred to.)

Plots began to be split many years ago, and it appears that in a very small number of cases the manner in which a plot was split may not have been correctly recorded or later entered on the site plan by the then Committee. This recently led to consternation on the parts of a new and an existing tenant, when the new tenant – and the PPAA volunteer who let the half plot – mistakenly relied on the site plan, resulting in gardening happening on part of someone else’s plot.

PPAA Committee will amend the plan to right this error, but we’d ask that everyone who has a split plot kindly check the above linked plan to make sure that it correctly shows how their plot is split, and if there should be any inaccuracy to message PPAA Committee. Where a plot were split along its longer dimension, could the tenant(s) also please clearly indicate which are the (a) and (b) parts, and also number their plots clearly – as instructed by the Council.

Many thanks everyone.

PPA Website Team

Minutes

Note: all discussions, which are materially relevant to the site, or to plot holders on it are minuted.

Present: Sue Pasek (Acting Chair), Mike Powell, Martin Pasek, Rhys Williams, Jacqui Boddington (Plot holder observing)

Apologies: Wendy Gunter, Gordon Goldsmith, Nerys Lloyd-Pierce, Lewis Evans, Jane Davies

The meeting opened at 19:00.

Previous Minutes:

Matters covered below. 

Chairman’s Report:

Covered with Site Secretary report.

Site Secretary’s report (shared role):

Since the February meeting three plots have been let, with four more viewings booked in.

One structure application has been approved.

Sue attended the Cardiff Council Allotment Site Representatives meeting on the 13th February. With regard to plot holders vacating plots but leaving behind undue mess, council official Anthony Thomas explained ‘colleagues on Waste Enforcement have a Section 9 process in place regarding fly tipping and dumping of waste on Pontcanna Permanent Allotments. This involves interviewing under caution the person alleged to have dumped waste. This may lead to a prosecution. The issue at Pontcanna Permanent Allotments will be a test case. If this works well, we will look to roll this out to other allotment sites’. Please note, that this will not be used to deal with historical waste. 

Treasurer’s report: Wendy (by email)

Wendy requested that all invoices be presented before the end of each month.

Orkastrate

Sue was due to attend a training course for the new system on the 17th February, but it was cancelled at short notice due to IT issues. A new date has yet to be announced.

The delay in the system means that the PPAA is operating with waiting and plot holder lists last issued in July 2024.

Bird Boxes: Gordon and Nerys

These works are now complete.

Plant Sale:

Gordon is to contact Chapter Community Garden re opportunity to sell plants at our next AGM.

Rhys said that he was happy to grow a small selection of plants to sell, and suggested that other plot holders might also be willing to do this.

PPA Polytunnel:

The six new bed holders, for 2025-2027 have now been notified of their bed allocations. The existing holders of the other six beds have tenure until February 2026.

Plot holder John Morgan has volunteered to be the point of contact between the poly tunnel tenants and the Committee. Our thanks go to John.

Manure: Martin

Martin reported that after being contacted by Cardiff Riding School, a delivery has been made to site.

The large tractor and trailer used require all available space in the car parks to manoeuvre, and plot holders who complied with the request to keep the car parks free are thanked. However the deliveries need supervision to keep the car parks clear, and Martin suggested that folding signs be bought to put out on such days to assist with that aim.

Martin has also been in touch with Cardiff Council regarding compost delivery from Lamby Way. In principle compost could be supplied free of charge, but would likely be an annual rather than three-or-four-monthly delivery. This would be considered in detail if there were an interruption to the manure supply for any reason.

Plot Inspections: 

Plot Inspections will begin at the end of March, with a team from the Committee following the Cardiff Council set process.

AOB: 

Rhys mentioned a workshop that he had attended at the Global Gardens Project, and thought that other plot holders might also find them a useful resource.

There was no further business and the meeting ended at 19:40.

The PPAA Committee meetings are regularly scheduled for the first Tuesday in the month, the next being 1st April 2025 at 1900, at The Cricketers, Cathedral Road, Cardiff.

PPAA Committee

Care of children on PPA site

Now that the better weather’s arrived, PPAA Committee have received reports from concerned plot holders of unsupervised children roaming the site. There’ve also been reports of the sort of minor disturbance to plots and to other things that could stem from children amusing themselves, although there’s no further evidence to suggest that this is what happened. Whatever, it’s probably timely to remind ourselves, that it’s in everyone’s interest for those responsible for children to reacquaint themselves with the important information in this article.

Many thanks everyone.

PPA Website Team

It’s important that everyone knows that the right email address for Cardiff Council Allotments management is Allotments@cardiff.gov.uk

Plot holders should also keep in mind, that their tenancy agreements are with the Council and not with PPAA Committee.

PPAA Committee don’t make or enforce the rules of tenancy, and can neither add to nor take away from them. Those acting in good faith are also bound by the Local Management Agreement and by the PPAA Constitution.

For this reason, correspondence to and from the above email address is nothing to do with, and not read by PPAA Committee (unless they’re intentionally copied in on their own email address.)

Other than within the prescribed non-cultivation procedure, if a plot holder should be in dispute with the Council over any matter, by email or by other means, then as it stands PPAA Committee are – as instructed by the Council – not a party to that dispute, and so members will not involve themselves in it. (From the information that we have, it appears that the position in this respect may have been misrepresented recently, and so plot holders are asked kindly to disregard any information at odds with this post’s.)

On the other hand, to contact PPAA Committee, please use the Message Page on this site.

Thanks everyone.

PPA Website Team