Minutes for PPAA Committee Meeting, 6th May 2025, at Pontcanna Permanent Allotments, Cardiff

Present: Sue Pasek (Acting Chair), Wendy Gunter (Treasurer,) Mike Powell, Gordon Goldsmith, Nerys Lloyd-Pierce, Martin Pasek, Rhys Williams, Lewis Evans

Apologies: 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):

Sue reported that she had let four plots during April, and viewings were ongoing.

The PPAA plot inspections teams had completed the first round of the inspections and as a result a total of twenty-eight “Letters of Concern” had been sent. The process also flagged up six plots where the tenants had notified the Council of their intention to end their tenancies, but unfortunately the Council had not passed on the information to the PPAA.

Owing to the Council’s ongoing move to the Orkastrate computer system, there have been no new plot holder or waiting lists since June 2024.

[Edit: Content removed as not to affect, possibly, legal proceedings]

Sue is to attend the bi-monthly Cardiff Site Representatives meeting on 14/5/25.

Treasurer’s report: Wendy 

Wendy confirmed that the annual grant from Cardiff Council had been received. She also confirmed that the Site Representative’s fee had been paid and that the recipient, Sue Jones had donated it to the PPAA funds.

New Tenancy Agreement Progress: Martin

Martin reported that the final draft document had been submitted to Cardiff Council’s Legal Services. However, it seemed to be uncertain, as to whether the mid-May target date, originally understood to be the time for circulating the document to all Cardiff Allotment tenants for comment would be met.

Clarification of Cultivation:  Jane

In Jane’s absence, the question of how the Council define a plot as being “cultivated” was asked to be raised by her. 

Sue referred to the Tenancy Agreement as – when reasonably understood – being the guide to the basic requirement for cultivation. 

AGM: 

It was agreed that this years AGM would be on Sunday 8th June 2025 at 11:00, outside the PPA Communal Poly Tunnel situated at the south end of the site. All plot holders are welcome and encouraged to attend, but only the person(s) named as the plot holder on the Council Lists will be able to vote.

Although this year a large scale plant sale has not been possible, it is hoped that a small range of plants can be on sale on the same day, and plot holders are encouraged to bring along any surplus plants to donate to the sale.

Toilet: Nerys

Sue opened the discussion by stating that PPA is designated by Cardiff Council as a No Toilets Site, and that the lower plot rental rates reflect this. With this in mind there is no requirement for the PPAA to provide or to maintain any toilet facilities on the site.

A recent survey of two hundred and twenty-six subscribers on the PPAA website had asked the question as to whether plot holders were concerned by the abandonment of the ex-RCG toilet. Of non-Committee comments in response, one person said that they were, one was for its removal, and one comment seemed to be neutral. (Ten plots had no email address, and so were not part of the survey.)

No one on the Committee considered themselves to be in a position to offer any material action aimed at replacing, building or maintaining any toilet facility on the site, and so all agreed that no such action by PPAA Committee would take place.

Noise Nuisance: Martin

Several plot holders had remarked upon the loud unpleasant noise, assumed to be from a random bird scarer animal noise player, coming from the direction of Llandaff Fields Allotments.

Further investigations suggest that its origin is actually further away across the river. If anyone has more information about this, then PPAA Committee would be interested in sharing it.

AOB

There was no further business and the meeting ended at 19:45.

The PPAA Committee meetings are regularly scheduled for the first Tuesday in the month, the next being on June 3rd 2025 at 1900, at the Pontcanna Permanent Allotments, outside the poly tunnel.

Note: in view of correspondence recently received by PPAA Committee, it’s considered that it needs to be pointed out, that their intentions are as may be indicated by the Minutes. If tenants should receive information differing from that, from any individual Committee member acting in a personal capacity, e.g. via their personal email or otherwise, then that information may not have been endorsed by PPAA.