It’s been taken for granted perhaps, that since PPAA Committee members are a familiar presence on site, then face-to-face discussions with them are in order, on whatever matter might occur to a plot holder. Custom-and practice to date also tends to support this understanding, correct or otherwise.
However, the formal responsibilities of the volunteers who make up the PPAA Committee are stated in its Local Management Agreement with Cardiff Council.
That is, there’s isn’t any binding requirement for them to offer dispute resolution between tenants.
So everyone’s asked kindly, to familiarise themselves with the procedures in the article Reporting Channels For Victims Of Wrongdoing, and to remember that their tenancy contracts are with Cardiff Council and not with PPAA Committee. That is, only the Council and not PPAA Committee can take enforcement action.
(From time-to-time PPAA volunteers are approached by a tenant, who believes – and sometimes without even any proof – that they have been wronged in some way by another. Having told a volunteer, it sometimes appears that they then expect their problem to be resolved with no further action on their part. If so, then as the facts of PPAA Committee’s brief make clear, their expectation probably isn’t realistic.
It’s become a common discussion point, at meetings of Site Representatives from across Cardiff, that goodwill attempts at informal resolution of such things by them have all too often led to unpaid – and often overburdened – volunteers being subjected to a great deal of unpleasantness.)
The point of this article then, is to emphasise, that there isn’t any formally-agreed obligation between Associations and the Council, which makes it necessary for volunteers to be subjected to the often untoward consequences of their sincere attempts to help aggrieved plot holders in this way.
All this said, the goodwill continues, but nothing can be done unless the plot holder with a grievance puts their claim in writing to PPAA Committee, and has substantive evidence that the person whom they suspect is in fact the wrongdoer. As it stands, if this is done, then the volunteers will continue to do what they reasonably can.
PPA Website Team
