Author: A Place To Grow Your Own

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.

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

(It’s a question sometimes heard being asked on site, and so here are some reflections on the point.)

Why do the Council want all sites to be self-managed, if achievable?

Over a decade ago, there were severe cuts in central government funding for Councils (although the position’s eased somewhat recently), and they simply can’t afford to do all that’s needed to keep sites in a well-managed, fully-tenanted condition, whether that be the physical work in clearing neglected plots, facilities maintenance etc., or the interpersonal work of showing prospective tenants plots etc. (Sue let around forty plots last year, and each appointment involved typically half-a-dozen emails before the hour-or-so long meeting.)

Cardiff have one Allotments Officer to deal with all the sites in Cardiff, which host over three thousand tenants, and it’s self-evident, that any one of the above duties applied across them all would be beyond their capacity.

The Council offer guidance for gardeners, who want to set up an Association to manage their site. The Guide contains a model Constitution for such Associations, and it’s unlikely that the Council would approve one if it differed markedly in its objectives and organisation from that. (For instance, by promoting the use of the site, or part of it, for purposes which relegated those defined by the various Allotments Acts. Those who’d like to change the Constitution for PPAA, which closely follows this model, should bear this in mind, therefore.)

What are Associations able to do better, or that the Council can’t do at all?

Examples include:

• On-hand maintenance, at short notice, at weekends, and on public holidays, of water facilities and gate locks etc. Volunteers may well – as does PPAA – have the skills to do these things free-of-charge too, whereas the Council would have to organise a paid contractor with a waiting time perhaps of weeks or even months. In the case of a failed gate lock – as usually happens a few times each year – this could be too long a period of severe inconvenience, or of compromised site security, or of both.
• Far closer day-to-day vigilance, arising from detailed site knowledge, leading to improved security, and to prompt action over matters such as fly-tipping.
• Availability of volunteers to co-ordinate manure deliveries from Cardiff Riding School. (This is now essential, as the Council no longer remove the manure for the School.)
• At-will benefits, e.g. the provision of communications facilities, such as a site-dedicated website, social media account, etc. The Council couldn’t offer these at all.
• Subject to available volunteers, the capacity to stage plant sales, and to offer other desirable facilities, such a site shop, space in a communal poly tunnel, and so on.
• One-to-one, unhurried, personal discussions with prospective tenants, allowing them to be given the most suitable plot for their intentions from among those available.
• Freedom to devote some effort to parallel beneficial work, e.g. in enhancing whatever environmental and ecological benefits the site might be capable of offering. (PPAA are currently growing several dozen long-flowering, pollinator-attracting shrubs, for planting in suitable places around the site, and maintain vigilance for invasive species, among other such work.)

PPAA are – like most other Associations – very short of volunteer time, and they’d like to be able to do more. At present the post of Chair’s vacant, and it’s therefore filled at meetings on an acting basis. The Council have nominated Sue as their representative for contact. She deals with lettings and emails, but the long list of duties now asked by the Council for Site Reps means that other aspects of this role are shared, and the Council Guide explains that this is quite accepted and normal.

What would happen if the Association were dissolved?

• All the above services and facilities would end where the Council didn’t provide them, or revert to their procedures and waiting times where they did.
• There’d be no further availability of any personal contacts on site for action on any matter or for referral, that is, no transitional arrangements, and all queries would be subject to the Council’s discretion as to when to reply, or whether to reply at all.
• The site would lose its annual Grant of over £5,000, and PPAA would also have to return its credit balance of typically £15,000, as the PPAA Constitution is silent on the matter.
• Plot lettings would become very sporadic, leading to a rapidly-increasing number of neglected and untidy plots. In turn this would very likely attract the attentions of property developers – or their influential friends – who could claim that the site was failing as allotments, as has happened in many places around the country.

The position of PPAA Committee is quite fragile, and vulnerable to disruption, mainly owing to the small number of volunteers. It’s for this reason, that good attendance at Annual General Meetings is of the utmost importance for everyone on the site. There’ll be more on this topic as the date – yet to be arranged – of the AGM approaches.

PPA Website Team

In 2018 Cardiff Council instructed allotment plot holders to inspect their plots for asbestos, with a view to its removal from site by their specialist contractors. The material referred to was the asbestos-cement sheeting, used by builders for garage roofing etc. and often found on allotments. There’s further information on the unlicensed – as is permitted – removal of this material from the Health And Safety Executive.

However, the disposal contractors were only willing to pick up loose material, and so tenants were advised to place it in the old clubhouse, which was temporarily designated as its repository. The advice was that the sheeting historically used by builders was low hazard if not further broken, especially if thoroughly wetted before handling it.

The scheme appeared very successful, with quite a large quantity being taken off site.

However, PPAA Committee have recently been informed that there’s still some asbestos on at least one plot, its tenant in the end not having taken up the offer in 2018, nor having informed the then Committee that they hadn’t, despite showing enthusiasm for the plan at the time.

PPAA Committee have forwarded this tenant’s report to the Council, and await their response to the request for someone to dig out the asbestos, and to remove it for the tenant (such work not being required of PPAA under its Local Management Agreement with the Council, who remain responsible for the removal of hazardous waste.)

PPAA Committee are aware of some residual asbestos remaining on or behind a few of the brick cubicles awaiting renovation, but would encourage all plot holders to check carefully for any asbestos on their gardens, and to inform the Committee of any significant quantities.

Thanks everyone.

Update: All detectable asbestos on or adjoining the plot mentioned has now been removed, and taken off site by licensed contractor, Care Environmental Surveying Ltd.

Photographs of the relevant parts before and after the work have been taken.

A Disposal Certificate will be forwarded to the Council in due course.

PPA Website Team

Soot is a carcinogen, and so as the Council’s Allotments Guide explains, must never be brought on site. Not knowing, or claiming not to know these facts doesn’t exempt anyone from these conditions either. The only waste materials authorised to be brought and left in the common areas are wood chips from the Council, and manure from the Riding School, so no waste materials or anything else must be left anywhere by anyone.

We’re sorry to report then, that someone’s left a bag of soot under the notice board at the northeast end of site.

Perhaps this was well intentioned – soot was traditionally used on gardens at one time – but for the above reasons we’d ask that whoever left it there please remove it without delay, and dispose of it responsibly.

PPA Website Team

The below file’s from Cardiff’s guide to managing allotments for Associations such as PPAA. It’s about the evergreen oak, also known as holm oak, holly oak, etc., and which is often found growing on PPA site. Their planting’s banned in many countries.

Volunteers have been removing the saplings and young trees of this species, wherever they’ve been found on site, for the past few years.

As the article says, they’ve been colonising areas such as ours, and we’d add that they’re a particular problem in that their shade is so very dense that virtually nothing – not even moss – will grow beneath them, and so they progressively eliminate a great deal of wildlife habitat.

There’re a number of huge mature specimens in Pontcanna Fields Park and elsewhere locally, and squirrels bury the acorns quite assiduously all around, so the saplings are a problem not just on PPA, but also in gardens locally. The banks of the River Taff near Sophia Gardens have been smothered by these trees, notably.

So if anyone should find these growing on their plot, or in their garden at home, then they’d be well advised to dig them out before they get any bigger.

PPA Website Team