Month: April 2026

This Committee met on the 21st inst.

It consisted of Councillors, Parks Management, allotments Site Representatives who had proposed themselves, the Secretary of Cardiff Allotments Holders Association (CAHA), and others.

Principal points discussed were:

• The problems caused by the long delays in properly implementing the Orkastrate management software and hardware:
• Associations not having up-to-date waiting lists, and running out of applicants for vacant plots.
• Associations not knowing whether the tenancy of a plot has been formally and conclusively ended, and therefore whether they have authority to let it, and the length of time before this is known.
• The waste of volunteer effort in clearing plots only for the above delays to cause them to become overgrown again.
• The failure of the Council to follow through the Plot Inspection process within the prescribed time, meaning that plots remain neglected and volunteers have to repeat the work.
• The disconnect between Allotments and the Council’s billing department meaning that many tenants have not received bills for over two years now.
• Delays in repairing expensive water leaks or even in addressing them at all.
• A lack of accountability.
• Long delays in receiving replies to emails, if at all.

The webcast recording can be found here. It’s two-and-a-half hours long, but a lot of insight can be gained by having the patience to watch it. (In the opinion of the author, the elephant in the room is never mentioned.)

PPA Website Team

Tomorrow, Wednesday, 22nd April afternoon, a PPAA Committee member will be meeting an inspector from Dwr Cymru (Welsh Water) to investigate the underground leak which has been going on for a couple of years now.

Various stopcocks may be turned off for a time, but these interruptions shouldn’t last for more than a couple of hours, and there should be enough in the troughs to cover that.

So no one need be concerned if they should find a trough near them not filling for a time.

PPA Website Team

Further working party:

PPAA Committee are very grateful for the valuable help given by the last working party.

Given the scale of the task it was always going to be that further work would be needed however, and so volunteers are invited to meet again for this on Saturday, 25th April, at 10:30.

As before the meeting place will be by the PPA communal poly tunnel by the southeast gate.

The invitation’s to all on site again, not just those who’ve previously volunteered. Would those interested please contact PPAA Committee (whether they’ve done this before or not).

Sincere thanks,

Mike Powell, Sue Pasek, PPAA Committee

TLC needed around the site:

The planting of pollinator-supporting, flowering shrubs at various points around the site last season was successful, with a considerable number having found suitable homes. PPAA Committee are very grateful to those who volunteered to help with the planting.

Unfortunately, however, many of these are now in danger of being completely smothered by weeds, and a few have already been lost to this.

What is needed, then, is for volunteers to weed around the shrubs, and then, ideally, to apply a good layer of manure as a weed-suppressant mulch and also to fertilise the shrubs. A layer ten to fifteen centimetres thick should avert the need to keep re-weeding the plantings.

Everyone on site is invited to have a look and to see what they might do in this regard, not just those who kindly helped with the plantings. There’s no need to inform anyone if they should fancy a bit of pottering on this. (Committee members are otherwise heavily subscribed at the moment.)

(It’s apparent that a fair few PPA plot holders consider themselves to be ecologically-engaged and concerned people, so this is also a golden opportunity for them to invest something of themselves in improving things in that way on PPA!)

PPA Website Team

Many thanks go to PPA plot holders, Mel, Mike, Jackie, Mandy, Mark, Aman, Caroline, Wouter, Toma, and Jane, who turned out today to help Committee members Mike and Sue with plot clearing work.

As the saying goes ‘Many hands make light work’ and great progress was made on two whole plots in removing rotting structures, rubbish and ‘things which could come in handy’ (but never do.)

Sincere thanks again to all.

PPAA Committee

Present: Mike Powell (Acting Chair), Wendy Gunter (Treasurer), Gordon Goldsmith, Sue Pasek (Acting Site Representative), Rhys Williams, Lewis Evans.

Apologies: Martin Pasek, Nerys Lloyd-Pierce.

The meeting opened at 19:00.

Matters arising from previous Minutes: 

To be covered in agenda.

Site Representatives’s report: Sue

• Eight plots were let during March. Sue reported that she knew of another five, which were  confirmed vacant, but with four of them requiring clearing work before being offered to let. To address the clearance work, an “all plot holders welcome” working party has been organised for Saturday 11th April at 10:30, meeting at the PPAA poly tunnel. Owing to lack of up to date information from the Council, the exact number of vacant plots, and numbers on the waiting list, are still not available.

• CAHA (Cardiff Allotment Holders Association) representatives have met with the Council’s Economy and Culture Scrutiny Committee to discuss issues when dealing with the Parks Department. A full report will be given at next week’s CAHA meeting.

• The PPAA have been approached by the marketing manager for Cafe Square + Fair, located with the new padel courts in Llandaff Fields. They would like to offer plot holders a discount, more details are to follow.

• The plot holders growing subjects for this year’s annual plant sale are hoping to hold the sale at the end of May.

• Two new “pull and tip” trucks have been purchase for plot holders’ use. Many thanks go to Gordon Goldsmith for taking delivery and assembling the trucks. They may be found by, (and returned to) the manure pens at each end of the site.

Treasurer’s report: Wendy 

• Wendy reported that she was in the process of finalising the end of year accounts

• The healthy funds balance was discussed, with expenditure on Autumn 2026 tree safety work and water leak repairs being agreed.

Plot Inspections: Mike

The annual plot inspections will begin during the week beginning April 20th. An explanation of this Council-mandated process can be found here.

AGM: Mike

• The AGM will take place on the 14th June 2026 outside the PPAA poly tunnel.

• Anyone wishing to stand for any of the Officer roles, that is, Chair, Treasurer and Site Representative, or simply join as Committee member, should contact the PPAA Committee.

AOB

• Wendy proposed purchasing a bank card reader. The Committee agreed that it would be a good idea. (Action: Wendy)

• Lewis asked whether it was proposed to install more bird boxes. Gordon replied that birds are territorial, so more would not necessarily be beneficial.

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

The next PPAA Committee meeting will be at 19:00 on Tuesday, May 5th, at The Cricketers Inn conference room, Cathedral Road, Cardiff.