Present: Gordon Goldsmith (Chair), Mike Powell (Site Representative), Wendy Gunter (Treasurer), Lewis Evans, Sue Pasek, Martin Pasek, Adrian Peters, Rhys Williams.
Apologies: None received.
The meeting opened at 19:00.
Matters arising from previous Minutes:
To be covered in agenda.
Chair’s report:
- Gordon opened the meeting by welcoming Adrian as he attended for the first time.
Site Representative’s report:
- Mike attended GDPR (confidentiality of people’s data) and Orkastrate (the Council’s allotments tenancy management system) training on 20/7/2026, at Forest Farm Council office.
- He is now in possession of the tablet device (one per Site Representative, for accessing and managing the system). Currently it is “read only”, and therefore of somewhat restricted use. Improvements in its capacity are promised for the future, however.
- Not all information sent by email to Allotments Officer had been fed into the Orkastrate system. Some of this however, was nonetheless added while he was at Forest Farm.
- Two new tenancies have been issued. There are currently ten vacant plots, with two more to be given up later this year. No structure requests have been received.
- One waste removal session was organised at a cost of £360.
- CAHA (Cardiff Allotments Holders Association) met on 22/7/2026, and Mike attended.
- Outgoing CAHA officers were re-elected unopposed.
- The Council is now using an IT specialist to address issues with Orkastrate, and the meeting in general thought that progress was being made.
- The general consensus was that there was some progress being made with failures to bill tenants, but Mike wondered as to the extent of this.
- Re invoices, Adrian said that the Riverside Community Gardens Association were still waiting to change their Tenancy Agreement from Cardiff Salad Gardens to Riverside Community Gardens Association. Mike said that he would try to progress this.
- At the Sites Representatives’ meeting with the Council, to be held 12/08/26, CAHA will raise: The cost of Pest Control, and whether this is in or out of Parks Department budget, and also how the deposits from the new tenancies will be managed, for both locally managed and non locally managed sites respectively.
Mike will raise the related situation of non-billing by the Council and the requirement to have paid the bill to receive a new tenancy agreement.
Treasurer’s report:
- Wendy reported that the PPAA bank account had a healthy balance.
Water Supply and Sewerage:
- Gordon extended thanks to the plot holders who have turned the water off overnight for several weeks, and to Martin for his work in liaising with the Council to ensure that the repairs were made. A full report on the works may be found here.
Delivery of manure:
- There was an unexpected delivery of manure, after the other allotment sites understood to be due to receive it could not accommodate the full amount. Fortunately Martin and Gordon just happened to be on site to make sure that the manure was delivered safely and to the correct pens.
New Contract roll out 2026:
- The Council have indicated that the rollout will start very soon.
- The Council have requested help from Mike re the contactability of some plot holders. They have now received several updated email addresses and first time email addresses from Mike – with help from Sue.
- The Council have promised – that for plot holders without email – the documents can be signed on a paper copy through the Site Representative. However, their numbers will be small, we understand.
- We understand that new Tenancy Agreements will be sent out by email for signature by “Docusign” (electronic, i.e. no paper needed signature). However, as it stands, Mike has no information that this process has yet begun.
Waste removal, skips etc:
- The Committee recognise that whatever our Tenancy Agreements may say about our needing to remove waste materials from site ourselves, there may be circumstances where it’s unreasonable to expect tenants to do this, e.g. where they have inherited structures from a previous tenant, but which have since dilapidated. The Committee are considering the various options to do justice to such encumbered gardeners, and so these remain under review.
Vacant Plot Clearing:
- At least eight plots need clearing. Others may follow from “Cultivate or Quit” terminations, and following the new tenancy rollout.
- Only one volunteer joined Mike on 19/7/2026. A substantial amount of rubbish was removed from plot 48b which was later taken from site. Mike completed the clearing of this plot and also largely cleared 54b. The clearing of 144b is ongoing.
- Another volunteer session will be organised for after school holidays and with – we hope – cooler weather.
- The amount of work may require paying for someone to clear plots.
- Vacant plot viewing will resume in September.
Green Truck Replacements:
- Following the disappearance of one of the recently purchased green trucks, a further two have been bought and labelled.
AOB:
- Adrian raised petty crime on site and its apparent increase.
- Martin proposed approaching a contractor to tarmac the areas on the main track left unsurfaced by previous excavations.
- Mike is to chase the issuing by the Council of terminations identified by the Cultivate or Quit process. Also the progress regarding plot 103a, that is, the related Council fly-tipping case, after two years of no apparent progress.
There was no further business, and the meeting ended at 20:13.
The next PPAA Committee meeting will be at 19:00 on Tuesday, 22nd September 2026, in the upstairs meeting room of The Cricketers, Cathedral Road, Cardiff.
