Month: April 2025

There’re no Council-maintained or Committee-maintained toilets on the PPA site, and the plot rental’s therefore cheaper than on sites where there are.

However, quite some years ago now, the Riverside Community Gardens – we understand – with the assent of the then PPAA Committee, but nothing more, built a composting toilet shed, in an unused corner of the site, near to Plot 90, for the particular needs of their quite numerous volunteers. They very kindly and generously made the facility available to all plot holders on the site too. (RCG are completely autonomous, and independent plot holders like everyone else. They’re not affiliated to the PPAA Committee, nor otherwise connected with the general running of the site. Moreover, if RCG have since made more private arrangements closer to their plots, then there’s never been any “handover” or discussion of this facility as a legacy for adoption by the PPAA Committee, and our present understanding is that Allotments Officer once remarked that it should never have been there anyway.)

Whatever, we’re sorry to have to report, that this facility’s now apparently been trashed, and treated with reckless disregard or even deliberate nuisance, and left in a state resembling the “dirty protests” of prisoners from time-to-time. Whether this is a result of plot holders’ acts or those of intruders to the site is unclear.

Volunteers have now listened to several, sometimes angry complaints from aggrieved plot holders, but we must emphasise, that owing to the site’s “No Toilets” status, however unpleasant and inconvenient this position might be, no one is being deprived of any entitlement under their tenancy by the fact of this toilet’s no longer being usable, and it’s absolutely not the job of any unpaid PPAA volunteer to maintain or to restore it.

Furthermore, we’ve every sympathy with the RCG volunteers, as to their being presented with this disgusting filth, and if they’ve given up maintaining the toilet in despair as a result, then we fully understand that.

We haven’t inspected the toilet ourselves, but from the descriptions given it would appear to be a serious health hazard, and we’d therefore caution everyone against entering it.

PPA Website Team

This yearly routine’s now under way, as foretold in the last few meetings Minutes, and as mandated under the PPAA’s Local Management Agreement with the Council.

The full process is described in detail here, but readers would perhaps like a few words about just how the people involved go about this.

Basically, it’s done – as far as possible – blind. That is, the site’s divided up into blocks, and Committee members are allocated plots as far away from their own as possible. This is to avoid, or to reduce the likelihood of any possible awkwardness with neighbours, and so on. This approach was decided on some years ago under previous Committees.

(The Council’s nominated Site Rep has delegated her share of the work to other Committee members, owing to the sheer size of the PPA site, and the corresponding burden of all the other work involved with it.)

The great majority of plots – as is almost always the case – aren’t expected to give any reason for concern at all, but where one appears badly neglected or deserted, dated photographs will be taken, and the plot holder contacted to ask if there were any difficulty of which PPAA Committee and the Council should be aware, so that where appropriate (e.g. because of a period of illness) allowances can be made or help offered (e.g. by passing on a request for assistance to those who offer it.)

The terms of tenancy apply to all plot holders equally, so if there should be a temporary difficulty which stops a tenant from maintaining their plot, then there needs to be some kind of workaround while the problem lasts – if it’s going to be anything other than for a short while.

The central purpose of the exercise is to support the full productive use of the site, and also to identify unwanted plots, so that these can be offered to people on the waiting list – who are keen to get gardening.

(Any questions will gladly be answered, either in the comments below, or, for anyone who wants to enquire privately, by email.)

PPA Website Team

There’s apparently an underground leak in the supply on PPA site, which is losing about ten cubic metres of water per day, and the meter indicates that it seems to be getting worse. A cubic metre costs about two pounds, so this would equate to over £7,000 per year, if the water were left on all day. (That’s well over PPAA’s annual grant from the Council.)

The Council proposed that the water could be turned off completely, full time (at the off-site valve), until the leak were fixed, but volunteers offered to turn it on for just a few hours each day, and the Council commended this. If it’s only on for six hours a day, then the cost of the wasted water is reduced to “only” about £1,750 per year.

Two Committee volunteers have so far offered to attend site twice a day – every day – to attend to this. There’s also a plot holder who’s very kindly helped out when they’ve not been able, e.g. because they weren’t even in Cardiff, and PPAA Committee are very grateful to him. The personal and family lives of these volunteers mean that the water will often be turned on around 0900-1000 and off at about 1430-1530, though this may vary quite a bit. We appreciate that those in full time work would perhaps prefer the water to be on at a later time, but there just aren’t the people on hand at these times to do that as it stands.

We’d emphasise the importance of no water being wasted. The Tenancy Agreement gives an implied right to use it for watering crops, but for no other purpose. This means that e.g. any ponds shouldn’t be refilled unnecessarily. (In principle they shouldn’t be refilled at all, but we understand that this could result in the preventable loss of quite a range of wildlife, now that it’s established).

The Council’s Allotments Officer’s also pointed out, quite unequivocally, that no person on Cardiff allotments has any dispensation or understanding from or with the Council to attach hose pipes and pumps or similar equipment to the water troughs for the drawing of water from them.

It’s particularly the case during the drought conditions of late, that while these restrictions remain, we all owe it to ourselves to be sparing and considerate in the use of such water as might be in the troughs.

The Council have a single team working on these leaks – there are those on other sites too – and they’re doing so in order of seriousness. However, we’ve no information on how long our own wait might be. The leak was first noted at the end of last summer, and we’ve been waiting since then already.

It’s a fact of life, that unfortunate things happen, and when they do, they’re often going to have impacts that we might not like.

Thanks to all, for everyone’s patience and understanding.

PPA Website Team

Intruders – and it must have taken some work – succeeded in detaching one of the security fence palings at the top, so that it could be displaced as shown. It’s now been repaired, and the top of the fence garnished with climbing rose prunings. It was the fence adjoining Llandaff Fields Park, near where it meets the listed old wall.

Doors had been forced on nearby sheds recently, and this would explain that. It doesn’t look as though this has been done for any length of time though, the damaged metalwork was still bright.

It solves another mystery too. A few days ago, a gardener messaged a PPAA Committee member to ask if his dog had been seen, having “run through the metal fence”. It was wrongly assumed that it must have been a small dog, or somewhere else, as the fact of the fence’s having been damaged wasn’t mentioned.

In a way it’s encouraging, in that the recent improvements to gate and hedge security, along with the wall repair, seem to have forced intruders to take ever more laborious action to get in.

Let’s hope that they’re too bored to go through it all again this time.

PPA Website Team.

Minutes

Present: Sue Pasek (Acting Chair), Wendy Gunter (Treasurer,) Mike Powell, Gordon Goldsmith, Nerys Lloyd-Pierce, Martin Pasek, Rhys Williams, Jane Davies, Lewis Evans, Mel Ford (plot holder observing)

Apologies: N/A

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):

The meeting opened with Sue welcoming Treasurer Wendy Gunter back after an absence of several months due to illness. The Committee thank Wendy for fulfilling the requirements made of a Treasurer despite her illness.

Since the March meeting eleven plots have been let, three more plots await letting. There have been no structure applications.

Sue reported that the underground water leak onsite still awaits repair by the Council, a “ticket” has been raised by the Council, and one visit to site was made by a contractor who inspected the water troughs in case of any problem there. While the leak remains, the PPAA Committee will continue to turn the water on only for several hours a day.

Treasurer’s report: Wendy 

Wendy stated that she had completed ‘end of year’ for the PPAA accounts and would be submitting them to an accountant for ratification.

Re the accounts, there was discussion after one plot holder enquired about expenditure to be itemised differently.

Our bank, Lloyds, had recently changed the existing free bank account, used by the PPAA, to a Community Account, at a new cost of £4.25 per month.

Asbestos: Jane and Martin:

A plot holder has reported asbestos on their plot and asked to have it removed, and the Council have also been informed. The matter is in hand, and the asbestos will be removed by a licensed contractor.

Plant Sale: Gordon and Lewis:

Neither Gordon nor Lewis were able to report any progress so far, but will continue with their enquires to third parties .

Several plot holders have volunteered to donate any surplus plants grown by themselves toward a small plant sale.

Plot Inspections

Plot inspections will begin in the week beginning 21st April. The total number of plots on site to be inspected will be broken down into smaller sections and several groups of two from the PPAA will be assigned a group. This method worked successfully last year. The Council require annual plot inspections to be made. Their process is explained more fully here.

AOB: 

Rhys intends to start sowing the bramble seeds and also planting young plants along our spine hedge boundary.

Nerys has been donated a further two bird boxes, which will be sited ASAP.

Mike reported that trees marked by the Council, situated near to the Community Gardens, still had not been removed.

Mel raised lack of awareness re the PPAA £5 subs, (as distinct from the rental payable to the Council,) as detailed here.

There was no further business and the meeting ended at 20:10.

The PPAA Committee meetings are regularly scheduled for the first Tuesday in the month, the next being 6th May 2025 at 1900, at The Cricketers, Cathedral Road, Cardiff.

Serious problems from inattention to plot numbering.

The Council instruct all of us to number our plots, and the coming revised Tenancy Agreements will, as it stands, make it a breach of conditions not to do so.

We’re sorry to report then, that a very devoted gardener has recently suffered theft and damage to their plot, due to someone’s reckless disregard for the importance of identifying plots correctly.

It seems that a neighbour enlisted the help of two men with the intention of removing plants from their plot, but failed to make them understand fully which plot that was, with the result that they removed them from the wrong plot, and caused serious other damage in so doing.

The law on criminal damage is clear. If someone intentionally or recklessly causes damage, then they may be found guilty, and the excuse “it was just a mistake” isn’t a reliable defence.

Please, everyone, make sure that we’ve correctly remembered our plot number, and display it clearly. The numbered site plan is here.

Thanks all.

PPA Website Team