No car park in Sophia Gardens for Sky TV!

Take Action now – your Park is not safe with R Berman Lib Dem

For the third time Cardiff council comes back to planning committee to push through this plan for MORE CAR PARKING in Bute Park in Part of Sophia Gardens, Sophia Close, Riverside

Take a minute to email the planning department!
Find the application here which is 08/1465W on the agenda on the council’s website for 18th Feb (page 324); this Wednesday!

This proposal is to increase the car parking for the new cricket ground. On “Test Match” dates the area will be used to house outside broadcast vans and trailers. Surely this is against policy 1.N of the Unitary Plan which clearly states “car parking will be reduced” in favour of public transport.

It is against all planning directives and laws recently promoted by Government and Council, i.e. the UDP, LDP and European SEA all promote the environment and protect open recreational spaces. Nowhere does it say
“remove sports facilities and open spaces to make parking for the Council,private companies and Sky”

There is a requirement is in the Park & Green Space Strategy which says
"Ensuring that all new developments or changes in the service are properly assessed for sustainability prior to implementation." I can see no report on any such assessment

An objector states that the application remains a disgrace.
He draws attention to the strategic agenda of the Welsh Assembly
government Local Plan, policies (Open Space 2.53, Historic Parks and
Conservation Areas 2.5.4.), are identical to application 08/01518/W that was refused contrary to para. 4.5 SPG June 1996. Amenity would worsen from noise and comings and goings of traffic.
Nowhere does it say turn public facilities in a protected historic park in a
Conservation Area to a car park. Also the photos of two proposed views
supplied by the applicant in their submission are grossly incorrect to the point of incompetence or corruption. (these have been withdrawn by the agent now that this crime has been pointed out)

Some work has already been carried out before planning permission -Under the description DESCRIPTION OF PROPOSED DEVELOPMENT
“The submitted plans show: Removal of grass-crete and 39 car parking spaces along the spine road to Pontcanna Fields and its replacement with grass and timber bollards (already carried out)”

The council claim disgracefully that ‘much of the original character and features of Sophia Gardens has been lost’ due their neglect and petrol head approach but the park is still registered Grade II, because of its historic importance as the first public park in Cardiff and one of the earliest in Wales, and as such every opportunity should be taken to address the failings
of the mid to late C20th and try to reinstate this park as one of the nationally important ensemble of parks in the heart of the Capital City.

As the Welsh Historic Gardens Trust point out the commercialisation and dilution of these important parks must be halted to ensure the survival of this important legacy from the Victorian and Edwardian eras, that will reap huge benefits to the City as the effects of global warming increase plus the benefits of green spaces that impact positively on the physical and psychological health of the residents of Cardiff and its many tourists

It isn’t too late to write to the planning department and your councillor and copy in Lib Dem leader of the council R Berman: rberman@cardiff.gov.uk,


I think this film is made for R Berman and Cardiff Councillors - AGE OF STUPID!

Planning; Development Manager Development Control City Hall Cardiff CF10 3ND
029 2087 1135 developmentcontrol@cardiff

.gov.uk

Find your councillor;
http://www.writetothem.com/write?who=all&type=UTE&pc=CF23+5NN&fyr_extref=http%3A%2F%2Fgardengrabbing.blogspot.com%2F