cardiff council...Your request for a review of the answer to your request which was issued on 23 July has been forwarded to me for attention.
You asked :
Why no EIA or sustainability assessment has been done on Bute Park? Re plans for Bute Park 1.4 bridge and road lorries and then rephrased what appears to be essentially the same question several times.
Although the service area has attempted to answer this in good faith (see below) it does not appear to me that this was a request for information which falls within EIR. The duty under regulation 5 is that "a public authority that holds environmental information shall make it available on request". However you have not asked for environmental information held by the Council but for an explanation of a course of action taken. Neither EIR nor FOIA places a statutory duty on the authority to give explanations or answer questions as such. Without clarification of what Environmental Information you believe you are requesting it seems impossible for me to carry out a review under Regulation 11.
Putting that aside however it seems to me that the service area has answered the request in full by saying "There was no Environmental Impact Assessment conducted for the new Bute Park Access Bridge because it is not considered a Schedule II development within the directive and therefore the development falls outside of the scope of EIA. Such an assessment was therefore unnecessary for this scheme."
I am not competent to assess whether the view taken was correct, and it appears from your question that you may disagree, but it appears to me to be a full answer to your question, and I am pleased to see that the Officers involved have attempted to answer the question even though it may strictly fall outside the requirements of EIR.
Could you therefore please clarify
(a) What Environmental Information held by the Council you are trying to obtain and /or
(b) Why you consider the answer given, as noted above, does not answer the question posed
Yours Sincerely
Phillip Bradshaw
Information Manager
Clerk to the Council
Room CY4B, County Hall
EMail: [email address]
Phone: 029 2087 3346
[mobile number]
Fax: 029 2087 3349
Mae Cyhoeddi Cynnar yn Codi Canfod Cadarnhaol
Proactive Publishing Promotes Positive Perceptions
show quoted sections
Friday, 24 July 2009
Thursday, 23 July 2009
Not so green flag Bute park,
Leader under fire over park politics claims
Green party activists oppose road for articulated lorries in Bute Park! No surprise! Councillor Berman
said he and deputy council leader Neil McEvoy had recognised a number of the Bute Parks
Campaigners at a recent meeting as party members, including former Green Party candidate Anne Greagsby!
City park retains its Green Flag
Jul 20 2009 by David James, South Wales Echo
BUTE Park has retained its Green Flag status despite the threat of new road access hanging over the Grade I listed parklands, it was revealed today.
Judges have given the city centre parklands the award alongside three other Cardiff parks, Roath Park, Victoria Park and Grange Gardens.
In order to achieve Green Flag status the judges needed to be satisfied that all the parks met key criteria for access, safety, conservation, heritage, community involvement and overall management.
Judges visited all the parks and spoke to both staff and public before reaching their decisions.
Councillor Nigel Howells, executive member leisure, said: “I am delighted that four Cardiff parks have been awarded Green Flags.
“I think the quality of green spaces in this city is unrivalled and this award underlines the hard work Cardiff council has undertaken in preserving and maintaining our parks.
“With Bute Park in particular I am especially delighted as the judges were given details about our improved access plans as well as the £5.6m restoration project, supported by a £3.1m grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, to restore, enhance and help people learn about the many historic features in the park.”
The proposed work in Bute Park has provoked a campaign by users of the park who have argued that a £1.4m lorry bridge and expanded roadways in the park further encroach on Victorian parklands that have been shrinking steadily for the last 50 years.
The Green Flag Award is the national standard for parks and green spaces in England and Wales.
Send you views on this award to the Green Flag Award:-paul.todd@keepbritaintidy.org, lorraine.scanlon@keepbritaintidy.org,
tijen.onder@keepbritaintidy.org
Monday, 20 July 2009
BUTE PARK BENEFIT GIG
Fib Dems/Plaid Have started full scale clearance work on bridge into listed Bute Park
BUTE PARK BENEFIT GIG
Live music!
Raffle!
Prizes!
Fun!
Help save Cardiff’s green spaces before it’s too late
MONDAY 27TH JULY
7:30 PM UPSTAIRS, DEMPSEYS,
CASTLE STREET, CARDIFF
Suggested donation £5 waged, £1 unwaged
Speak up!
Join Bute Parks Alliance at www.buteparksalliance.org.uk <http://www.buteparksalliance.org.uk> and savebutepark@yahoo.co.uk annegre@aol.com
Facebook
BUTE PARK BENEFIT GIG
Live music!
Raffle!
Prizes!
Fun!
Help save Cardiff’s green spaces before it’s too late
MONDAY 27TH JULY
7:30 PM UPSTAIRS, DEMPSEYS,
CASTLE STREET, CARDIFF
Suggested donation £5 waged, £1 unwaged
Speak up!
Join Bute Parks Alliance at www.buteparksalliance.org.uk <http://www.buteparksalliance.org.uk> and savebutepark@yahoo.co.uk annegre@aol.com
Thursday, 16 July 2009
Bulldozer Howells Machiavellian gutter tactics
Here we have Cllr Howells blatantly lying in response to my points in email below! see attachment. I make no apology for belonging to the green paper and I hope you might use our press releases.Cllr Howells lies and claims that they didn't clear that vast area to build a bridge ..it was just to remove a large Beech tree. We weren't born yesterday. It is an insult to out intelligence to claim that this was just to remove a tree. And the vehicles on site testing the ground in preparation for the bridge and the men doing that work is documented and witnessed and photographed before planning permission was given.
Please see the photos - Please publish them if you wish. Album of the destruction prior to planning and the vehicles and equipment and men working on the site.
If anyone is playing politics it is cllr Howells and company for using Charles Willey to lend credence to their phoney, woeful equlaity impact assessment which should be done at the policy stage and which like their consultation was incompetent and inadequate. 1,000 plus emails spoke to the contrary and 5,000 signatures on a petition recently.
The green party is against Bulldozer Howells policy of spending £1.4 million on a bridge for articulated lorries into A PARK - BUTE PARK!
Burte Park which will serve as a massive monument to the stupidity of Cllrs Berman, Howellsl and McEvoy Fib Dems/Plaid policy .
They will never be entitled to claim any green credentials from this moment on. They have made a laughing stock of themselves.
There is NO place for articulated lorries in a PARK and no rhyme nor reason for it!
The map was not doctored but used as a 'schematic'?? well.
Howells admits there was no sustainable assessment done as he refers just to meeting the requirement as in the policy
See the policy docs here
points sent toHowells, Berman and McEvoy
Latest dirty trick by Cllr Howells who has ignored 1,600 plus in facebook group plus thousands in a petition plus a 1,000 plus emails plus objections from FOE, Green party, living streets, BPA, historic garden society, civic society and the list goes on!!
Stop the new vehicular and pedestrian bridge/road **for articulated lorries into Bute Park, one of the largest city centre parks in the UK, providing the setting for Cardiff Castle, and listed on the Cadw/ICOMOS Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales as grade I.
I wa
s forcibly ejected from the gallery during a full council meeting where FibDems/Plaid ditched a motion from Lab calling on a moratorium on the project to replace it totally which they laughingly called an 'amendment' to support the bridge/road project.
An executive member was saying it was too dangerous for pedestrians to share a path but better to make a new path elsewhere!
They just don't get it! I was thrown out for shouting 'take the lorries out of the park stupid!'
There have been Machiavellian gutter tactics here in the attempt to push this through such as
1. Work was started before planning permission, knocking down many trees and digging out undergrowth. Work then stopped after protest.
2. Head of Parks Cllr Nigel Howellls with his conflicting interest was permitted to intervene at the planning Cttee meeting contrary to Cardiff Councils code of conduct
3. The MAP of the road published alongside Coun Nigel Howells’ piece in the Capital Times had been DOCTORED to show the council’s proposed developments in a more favourable light.
4. Council officer admitted that the artists image was “ephemeral”, and that in reality the bridge would be larger, higher and more visible.
5.. Cardiff Council ‘information’ material does NOT clarify that the proposed access bridge is more than 28 feet wide, and will be raised on pillars
, and that sections of the current eight-foot path would be more than doubled in width and turned into a lorry roadway raised on an embankment. Nor does it say it would be still wider on curves to accommodate the largest lorries and that still more of the meadow would be converted to a lorry waiting bay.
6. Trying to ignore planning conditions - Public pressure forced them Cllr Berman and Cllr Howells Fin Dems and Neil McEvoy of Plaid Lies to pull back from their plans to start on the bridge. After bringing in heavy equipment and saying the start was imminent, the council contractors have been sent back to wait for nesting birds according to the planning conditions.
7. I am still calling for an EIA on this urban development of a sensitive area,
8. and a full sustainability assessment as in the Parks Strategy.
9. I did ask why there had been no Equality Impact assessment. Now they produce a phoney one which they composed this month, which can not be considered valid as this document purporting to be an EqIA is a travesty as the idea is to engage with the community before the policy is developed. Only a handful of organisations have been approached and many issues not addressed. Cllr Howells writes "The new access bridge will provide an alternative vehicular access for the park and will therefore there are no disability access implications which specif
ically relate to it" Doesn’t mention the raised road that pedestrians will share with articulated lorries and the risks that that poses.
The equality impact assessment does look at the huge articulated Lorries which will give rise to complaints made about noise and exhaust emissions. Pedestrians will feel their safety is compromised, especially on this unsuitable raised path/road. Also the noise and vibration will cause alarm and distress plus concerns about fumes.
* In a survey*:33% hearing lorries were bothered by them
* Heavy Lorries are 13 times more noisy than cars in congestion
* Vibration correlated best with lorry flows
* 37% consider lorries produce worse fumes
Other options were not consulted on, some of these should have been
- no articulated lorries in the park
- moving the nursery
- park and ride for articulated lorries
Decisions Planning committee
Park alliance playing politics, says Berman
Politican doesn't like playing politics..
Park alliance playing politics, says Berman
Jul 13 2009 by David James, South Wales Echo
Comments (7)
Recommend (2)
CARDIFF Council leader Rodney Berman has accused Bute Park campaigners of trying to undermine his Liberal Democrat/Plaid administration.
In his first interview about the row over the road through the park he accused a campaign group of using the issue to wreak political damage.
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| ynotsin wrote: As someone who has had alook at the plans at City Hall I am against this development. The bridge will have to be enough to allow two lanes for articulated lorries. The passing and turning areas also take a lot of space. We don`t want this. Why don`t/won`t you people listen. 13/7/2009 11:22 BST on walesonline.co.uk
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| labrinth wrote: Where do these people get there figures from ? 1.4 MILLION POUNDS to build a road and a bridge ! Who's money do they intend to spend ? Somebody will be making alot of money...
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| SamW wrote: Finally, Berman speaks! Who are these 'other' people who understand the plans Rodney?
You state "Our consultation has shown that this [opposition to the proposals] isn’t such an overwhelming view when people have had the proposals explained to them in a straightforward manner" Where is this consultation? You have asked a few questions about what people think is worse, dog mess or litter, but there has been virtually nothing that encourages a real discussion. This has been proven by your complete failure to even discuss your position with Bute Parks Alliance. Perhaps you should read your own scrutiny comittee report, released 18th June 2009 (pdf file) http://www.cardiff.gov.uk/sport/objview.asp?object_id=14326 One of the reports reccomendations states" "Consider a pause in the development work taking place in Bute Park in order to foster dialogue between the opposing sides of the argument about Bute Park. As identified in the key findings, competing claims on space can lead to problems in parks about priorities and use. It appears clear to the Task and Finish group that competing ideas on this important piece of civic space have developed and become entrenched, and that open dialogue is the only way for this situation to be remedied. Despite the desire for dialogue to occur, this should be not at the expense of jeopardising any funding that Council Officers and Members have worked hard to secure." No doubt, rather than engage in such a dialogue, in your arrogance you will recommend that the council executive dismiss this report altogether. If you fail to behave in a democratic way, then you will be politically critisised. The development's in Bute Park will act as a monument to your failure to behave democratically. 13/7/2009 14:47 BST on walesonline.co.uk
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| | PeterDCox wrote: As a member of the Bute Parks Alliance I resent totally Rodney Berman's remarks. (As a ex-liberal democrat I have no current party affiliation btw.) Of course this is a 'political' issue. And if it affects the LibDem/Plaid administration, then so it should.
Some facts: I personally was invited to give a presentation to Plaid Assembly Members about the impact of the proposed cricket stadium who fully supported our stance against developments in Sophia Gardens (a stance supported btw by deputy council leader Neil McEvoy - how things change when you get into power!). I personally, with two other residents, gave a presentation to Cardiff Council's own Scrutiny Committee (see above) as well as an official one by the BPA: I am delighted that so many of the points we made are reflected in that report. It will be interesting to see what the Executive of the Council does in the face of its recommendations. The report also acknowledges the failure of the administration to engage with the community. I also attended and took part in a recent presentation by vice-chair of the BPA Alan Lane, to the Cardiff Labour Party. They too appreciated the 70 year long erosion of the Bute Parks. If they decide to make it a 'political' matter, then that is for them to decide. Unfortunately, when politicians gain power - often more through guile than the ballot box - they assume absolute power. Five thousand signatures on the 'Moratorium Petition' seem now to count for nothing. But will they count when there is a council election? If Mr Berman - or his deputy leader, let's share the political pain - would like to make a political issue of the Bute Parks and their very existence for our grandchildren, then let him resign and have a bye election. Let the voters choose. 13/7/2009 19:43 BST on walesonline.co.uk
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| | gareth450 wrote: As someone who spent 3 months researching the councils consultation report I can safely say that the general public are on record as being overwhelmingly opposed to the bridge. Over 1400 emails and letters are recorded in the councils own planning report for the bridge, an extraordinary amount of complaints for a single project.
I have had stalls in town and in the park where we had the councils own bridge plans on display and I chatted to well over 500 people about them. I was open in telling them the councils side and the oppositions side and only two people told me that they were for the bridge. During this time I was not a member of Bute Park Alliance. I have no political affiliation as I consider most politicians to have no connection to the issues that are important to myself. More importantly, Rodney Berman why do you have a problem with people who do have a political affiliation, or is your problem that they are not affiliated your band of sheep? 13/7/2009 23:22 BST on walesonline.co.uk
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| | SamW wrote: Yasta, you said, "i did not see a road, just widened paths". 75% of the bridge is a 30 foot wide road, narrowing to 18 foot, it then splays out into a 2000 square foot t-junction. Did you think this was a path? The 'path' is being widened from 9 feet to between 12 and 18 feet. The 18 foot section has been described by Bermans executive elite as a 'passing place'. Perhaps it is a passing place if you are sat in the driving seat of an articulated lorry, as a pedestrian and cyclist its an unnecessarily wide road. Just to be clear, two new roads are being built, one to the east of the nursery and one to the north.
How you missed these features i'm not entirely sure. |
Thursday, 9 July 2009
Cardiff fib dems/plaid lies vandalise bute park
CARDIFF LIB DEMS/PLAID
START WORK ON BUTE PARK BRIDGE FOR ARTICULATED LORRIES
SEEMS they are determined to build a MONUMENT TO STUPIDITY AND
GROSS ENVIRONMENTAL DESTRUCTION of listed city centre BUTE PARK!
Should be engraved with
the Environmental Vandals names
Cllr Howells
Cllr Berman
Clllr McEvoy
who put
articulated lorries before nature
and people.
Saturday, 4 July 2009
Travesty Cllr Howells Equality Impact assessment
There have been Machiavellian gutter tactics here in the attempt to push this through.
Cardiff Council ‘information’ material does NOT clarify that the proposed access bridge is more than 28 feet wide, and will be raised on pillars, and that sections of the current eight-foot path would be more than doubled in width and turned into a lorry roadway raised on an embankment. Nor does it say it would be still wider on curves to accommodate the largest lorries and that still more of the meadow would be converted to a lorry waiting bay.
EXAMPLE of BAD PRACTICEI did ask why there had been no Equality Impact assessment. So they produce a phoney one which they composed this month, which can not be considered valid as this document purporting to be an EqIA is a travesty as the idea is to engage with the community before the policy is developed. Only a handful of organisations have been approached and many issues not addressed. Cllr Howells writes "The new access bridge will provide an alternative vehicular access for thepark and will therefore there are no disability access implications which specifically relate to it" Doesn’t mention the raised road that pedestrians will share with articulated lorries and the risks that that poses.
The equality impact assessment does look at the huge articulated Lorries which will give rise to complaints made about noise and exhaust emissions. Pedestrians will feel their safety is compromised, especially on this unsuitable raised path/road. Also the noise and vibration will cause alarm and distress plus conc
erns about fumes.
- In a survey*:33% hearing lorries were bothered by them
- Heavy Lorries are 13 times more noisy than cars in congestion
- Vibration correlated best with lorry flows
- 37% consider lorries produce worse fumes
Other options were not consulted on, some of these should have been
- no articulated lorries in the park
- moving the nursery
- park and ride for articulated lorries
It is also impossible to understand why the Heritage lottery Fund has asked for this £1.4 million bridge to be put in place and a road built for lorries as a condition of funding for 'restoring the park' except that there emphasis is on the castle rather than the park.
Reports from council officers were 'sexed down' to minimise the impact.
The Highways “Options Appraisal” was altered (between the January and August versions) to support the Parks’ claim of the present situation being ‘unsafe’ and the Project being ‘essential
** Decisions Planning committee
http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&ct=res&cd=4&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cardiff.gov
.uk%2Fobjview.asp%3Fobject_id%3D9508&ei=LFAE
SY-3Lpm-eO3u-esN&usg=AFQjCNHq04Z8X5InpOGdTFH1w2EYHVkFXw&sig2=GSjjyWmdqsa96cYWJv7UJg
Thursday, 2 July 2009
Plaid and Fib Dems form unholy alliance to wreck Capital City Parkland
New Labour attack Fib Dems and Plaid Lies except it was New Labour policy in the first place that fib dems and Plaid blindly followed so much for their policies and complete lack of green credentials!
Welsh Nationalists (Plaid) and Liberal anti- Democrats form unholy alliance to wreck Capital City Parkland - written by john frost
Posted on June, 26 at 10:44 pm
Strange but true. Those vile Machiavellian menaces of Welsh Politics the Lib Dem- Plaid Cymru coalition on Cardiff City Council have schemed away using gutter tactics to drive a bulldozer and wholly unnecessary roadbridge through one of the Capital’s greenest gems- Bute Park. (the nasty spirit of Wales’ most famous political failure- Lloyd George sadly lives on in Cardiff today) Bequeathed to the City on lease in perpetua by the Bute dynasty, the non existent green credentials of these shysters has been truly exposed for the hypocrisy it is. Led by Liberal anti-democrat Party leader Rodney Berman- gutter tactics ensured the rape of this prime quality green space will take place to give easier access for money spinning out door events.
There was high drama in the City Council Chamber with Green Protesters forcibly ejected from the gallery and both Labour and Conservative Members seen to be near to tears in despair. Read all about it at Wales on Line 26 June 09
Should shatter any illusions you may have about Lib -Lab pacts. They are the work of the devil.
Have some “interesting” Liberal Democrat News- please post it- or e.mail to john.frost1839@tiscali.co.uk
Cardiff councillors told to reject development plans for Bute Park or face revolt
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/cardiff-news/2009/06/25/cardiff-councillors-told-to-reject-development-plans-for-bute-park-or-face-revolt-91466-23969987/
COUNCILLORS on Cardiff's two ruling parties were today coming under direct pressure to vote against plans to build a 1.4m lorry bridge into the city's treasured Bute Park.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/8121015.stm
Park campaigners lose road fight. BBC News A bid to halt work on building a new road and bridge in the grounds of Bute Park has been thrown out by Cardiff council. Campaigners called for a moratorium
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