Pontcanna Permanent Allotments, serving over two hundred Cardiff gardeners, traditional and organic
The Council have asked PPAA Committee to publicise this.
Relevant information, and the on line Survey, can be found here.
(It’s a general Council questionnaire, not one produced by Allotments Office. The place for any comments is in the Survey therefore, and so they’re not open on this article.)
PPA Website Team
In addition to the fire, it appears that the criminals have used a power tool to saw through the padlock’s engaging lug on the Riverside Community Garden’s steel shipping container, and the doors were left open.
The newly-built shelter was in a certain amount of disarray, but there wasn’t any evidence seen of an attempt to burn it.
It’s possible that the criminals didn’t know the extent of the Community Garden, and perhaps burnt the chalet that they apparently did because it was a more elaborate structure, and which they wrongly attributed to it? However this is no more than speculation on the author’s part.
We’d urge all plot holders to inspect their plots for any theft or damage.
PPA Website Team
PPAA Committee members were awoken at around 0230 this morning by the police ‘phoning. They were with the fire services on site. A structure had been on fire and the gate had been forced.
Owing to the method used to force entry to the site, it seems that the intrusion was a determined act and not casual criminality. (The Western Avenue gate will be modified to avert this apparent method of entry in future.)
We lament the severe distress that this must cause to the plot holders concerned – whom, we understand, the police have notified – and express our sincere compassion to them.
We haven’t inspected the rest of the site for evidence of further crimes as yet.
PPA Website Team
PPAA Committee took delivery of two hundred mixed pyracantha on Thursday, and the planting of these is under way. This may take a few sessions over the next week or two.
There shouldn’t be any particular obstruction caused by this work, and if there were, then it should be of brief duration, but we thank drivers and everyone else for their understanding on this in advance. (We acknowledge that already shown during the previous work too.)
We also thank the six plot holders, who’ve offered help with this work, and for that already given with the preparation needed to bring us to this point.
PPA Website Team
The above picture shows the present state of the manure pen by the Western Avenue end gate.
Someone has improvised a causeway out of waste materials to enable access across the large puddle and the mud to the residual manure, which has now all been used.
Would the persons who did this therefore:
a) Please kindly remove all of this material from the pen.
b) Dispose of it responsibly off site if it isn’t required anywhere else.
(There’s no volunteer effort available to do this.)
Once both of these actions have been carried out – but not before – the PPAA volunteers will be able once again to authorise and to supervise deliveries of manure to this pen – as and when it might become available.
Kind thanks.
*Update – please see comment below.
PPA Site Volunteers.
Spine road hedge improvements
The removal of the unsuitable, fast-growing, thornless subjects is complete, and the build up of clippings etc. has all been raked out. This means that the new hedging – mixed berry colour pyracantha – can be ordered and planted.
This will result in a dense, very thorny, tough, evergreen hedge, with attractive and highly wildlife-beneficial berries. It will grow at a similar rate to the hawthorns, berberis, hollies, and other subjects, which remain from the original hedging. It will provide better, more secure nesting for birds, and only require cutting once a year, which can be done in autumn or winter. (In order to maintain access for vehicles – and to remove nuisance to pedestrians and cyclists – the former hedge needed three or even four trims a year.)
This not only reduces greatly the burden for volunteer effort and/or cost for paying for the work, but also preserves and enhances the future maintainability of the site. (PPAA Committee are required under their local management agreement with the Council to maintain hedges. Clearly, they have failed in this obligation if they allow such hedges to become unmaintainable by whatever volunteer effort or resources they might have.)
Communal poly tunnel bed draw
As previously announced, the draw for beds, for two growing years, is still open, and closes at midnight on the thirty-first of this month, January 2026.
It seems likely that the initial draws – including last year’s – attracted most of the people interested, which perhaps explains the relatively quiet response so far. So those already with beds subject to the draw, but who’d like to continue for another two years, are advised that if they applied too, then the signs so far are that there’s a real chance that some of them could do that.
Council bills
In principle, all plot holders who intend to continue with their plots from February this year onwards should have received a bill in November.
However, owing to the Council’s approach to introducing the new Orkastrate system for managing allotment tenancies, anyone who began their tenancy at any time since around June 2024 may very well not have received a bill for a second time. This is because the Council’s billing department – we understand – are still working from the previous, manually-updated file system, which, it appears, ceased to be updated by Allotments Office from the moment that the Orkastrate system introduction was begun. We emphasise that PPAA Committee have faithfully communicated to Allotments Office all details of every letting. This is everything that they’re required to do, and owing to budgetary and staffing matters at the Council, they’re unable to influence matters further. Notwithstanding, Sue spent a morning in person with Allotments Officer, on the understanding that the latter was updating the Orkastrate system from Sue’s personal records. This will still have no effect on billing, however, for the reason stated earlier in this paragraph. Another incidental effect – it seems possible – is that those who have resigned their tenancies may nevertheless continue to be billed by the Council.
This problem affects all sites in Cardiff. Allotments Officer has, we infer, indicated that when the system is properly updated, those tenants who have so far not been billed will receive backdated bills to cover the whole unpaid period, and so we advise everyone affected to prepare for any possible financial impact of such. We await further clarification on this point, however.
PPA Website Team
The PPAA communal poly tunnel, at the southeast end of site, has twelve beds, of several square metres each, for the use of tenants. They’re filled with Council compost, and this may have been supplemented by their gardeners.
Each of these is available for two continuous seasons (that is, two whole growing years), beginning on March 1st, so the next allocation will start 1st March 2026.
The twelve beds are split into two groups of six, and the respective sets of tenancies are staggered by a year. So each year, in February, a draw is held to select six tenants. (There are often more people wanting beds than beds.) Entry to the coming draw will close at midnight, 31st January 2026.
Current bed holders reaching the end of their two year term are more than welcome to enter the draw for a bed for a further two years. However, if the number of new applicants equals or exceeds the available beds, then priority’s given to the new applicants.
The beds will be allocated for the two growing seasons 1st March 2026 to 31st January 2028, to align broadly with plot tenancies (2nd Feb to 1st Feb), and to allow bed holders to maximise their use of the beds over the winter.
Conditions for entering the draw:
Entrants must be PPAA plot holders, with a valid Council Tenancy Agreement for the coming year, and be paid-up full current members of the PPAA (five pounds annual subscription.) Only plot holders named on the tenancy can apply, and only one application per holding is allowed. Successful candidates can’t sublet or transfer their grow bed to other plot holders.
Successful applicants will need to pay a further five pounds a year, towards the poly tunnel’s upkeep.
Should a successful candidate stop being a tenancy holder, then their grow bed will be given up, and reallocated (if there’s a reasonable period left to run.)
PPAA plot holders, who fulfil the above conditions, are cordially invited to enter the draw.
The draw’s open from now on, but as mentioned, it closes at midnight on 31st January 2026, so those interested should email PPAA Committee before then. Please state clearly:
Name (required)
Plot number (required)
Full PPAA subscriber for 2025/26 (required)
Council Tenancy Fees paid for 2025/26 (*required, but we understand that owing to the Council’s backlog of updating records, some haven’t yet been billed. Due account will be taken of these facts on a case-by-case basis.)
Whether able to join poly tunnel working party? (Not essential)
The draw will be held by 8th February, and beds will be allocated for use from 1st March next year.
PPA Website Team
The Council have sent out the email below, along with the attachments shown as files on this page. We’re publishing it in case any tenant whose contact particulars are either missing from, or not up-to-date in the Council’s records might happen to see this here when they wouldn’t otherwise. Tenants who don’t use email will be contacted by paper letter.
We would clarify, that many, perhaps most, of the changes in the new Agreement, and which were considered by the Working Group, were proposed by the Council themselves. The Working Group also included Allotments Officer, her line manager, Head Of Parks, Ecology Officer, and other Council management.
We’d also emphasise that – as the email says – plot holders need do nothing at this stage. We’d further remind everyone that the Consultation is now closed, and so our understanding is that no further change will be made to the document in response to any representation.
PPA Website Team
Under Schedule 3, (4) of the Local Management Agreement between PPAA and the Council, PPAA are responsible for cutting hedges:
“4. Grounds maintenance
Hedge cutting, grass cutting, and strimming of uncultivated areas throughout the allotment site.”
In recent years, PPAA have dutifully done this, either by their own volunteer effort, or by paying to have this done, and this year’s been no exception. As a result there was no need for any further work until the hedge grew again. Notwithstanding, an operative has recently done this again, apparently using an agricultural flail cutter. This has happened repeatedly, over several years now, and we assume that some Council department arranges this, but despite now numerous enquiries as to who arranges this and why, no reply has ever been received on the matter. There does seem to be a pattern however, where if PPAA cut the hedge, then so does the Council, but if for some reason they don’t, then nor does the Council either, though perhaps that’s just coincidence.
The beech section of the hedge has now been cut quite rigorously, but little difference has been made to the rest, for obvious reasons.
The purpose of this post is simply to let anyone know who might have wondered why on Earth this had happened, that – as ever – it was nothing whatsoever to do with PPAA Committee.
(We read that Cardiff Council has been running a large budgetary deficit for some time, and so would appreciate it, on behalf of all Council Tax payers, if some sort of explanation as to this apparent waste of resources would finally be given.)
PPA Website Team
Committee members are quite often asked by tenants “There’s a plot near me, which has been unattended for some time now. Why hasn’t it been let?” or “I’ve had my plot for over a year now, but still haven’t been billed?”
These are very good questions, and this is the reason:
The tenancy contract is between tenant and Council, but owing to its Local Management Agreement, a PPAA Committee member – usually the Site Representative – attends to the practicalities of letting vacant plots to new tenants. Clearly, before this can be done, the volunteer needs to be certain that the plot is actually vacant. That is, that the former tenancy has been conclusively dissolved. This is where the difficulty presently lies.
The previous system for managing tenancies has been ended. It used to involve the Council’s Allotments Officer keeping files of waiting lists, vacancies, tenancies of plots etc., for all of Cardiff’s sites. She was dependent on Site Reps sending the details of new tenancies, non-cultivation, and so on, to keep these files updated. At regular intervals the updated files would then be shared with Site Reps across Cardiff, enabling them to let the vacant plots to people on the Waiting List for their site.
These files stopped being updated around summer 2024, and the data is being transferred to the new system. In principle, when it’s fully implemented, it should be very good, with Site Reps able to access and to update the system in real time on the devices issued by the Council. However, everyone’s asked to understand, that – in the context of budgetary strictures – the Council only have one officer for Allotments, who has to deal with over three thousand tenancies. It will therefore take some time to transfer the data for all sites to the new system, and this will happen far sooner for some than for others. The greater problem though, is perhaps that even once this is done, that data will be typically eighteen months old, and a significant amount of it will no longer be correct.
Sue attended the Council’s Site Representatives’ meeting on Wednesday, and it emerged that owing to the understandable sense of urgency on the part of Site Reps, one-to-one sessions of a few hours are being arranged between Allotments Officer and the Rep for a given site. This is so that they can correct the Council’s obsolete data – from their personal records for their site – dating back to when the Council stopped updating the files on the previous system. Sue intends to arrange such a meeting in due course for PPA. Much of her work will involve updating the records, to show the tenancies of plots, which have been let since summer 2024, and to enable their holders finally to be billed.
(It also needs to be borne in mind, that even once this data is up-to-date, the system still won’t be fully accessible as “live” by Site Reps, but just be “read only” – for the time being at least.)
Sustainable self-sufficiency in food is a very good thing for any country, and this article from Private Eye explains why maybe the most environmentally responsible and, indeed, patriotic thing, that those of use who are fortunate enough to have allotments can do, is to make the fullest and most productive use of them that we can.
PPA Website Team
