Nigel Howells confusion on Bute Pake!

BPA had some pretty good press recently including a letter in Wednesdays Guardian and Thursdays Echo. We have it on good authority that the Lib Dem councilors are pretty wound up at the moment. Nigel Howells wrote a response in the Guardian letters today

He is admitting confusion and misunderstanding re. the bridge and road. This can only be the councils fault; lack of information, misinformation and lack of proper consultation. He is willing to discuss these issues with celebrities but not the Cardiff public.

Please write to the Guardian! The more people that write the more likely we will have a letter printed.

letters@guardian.co.uk

Cardiff's green centre is under threat

• The Guardian, Wednesday 6 May 2009
• Article history

We believe that the four Grade 1 and Grade 2* listed historic parks that form the unique central core of green space in central Cardiff are under threat. We agree with the Welsh assembly government that: "The whole complex is an asset to the city of incomparable historic, visual and amenity value." Development has eroded and commercialised the three parks to the west of the river Taff. Now Cardiff council proposes to drive a new bridge and 6m wide roads through the Grade 1 listed Bute Park to facilitate commercial events.

We believe that no more development should take place until there has been a proper independent professional evaluation of the four parks and their future long-term, sustainable use. Consequently we call on Cardiff council to agree an immediate moratorium on development in Bute Park, Sophia Gardens, Llandaff Fields and Pontcanna Fields until a wide-ranging public consultation has been held into their use and a future strategy agreed.
Griff Rhys Jones
Ioan Gruffudd
Chris Monger
Gruff Rhys
Mathew Rhys
Sara Sugarman
Cardiff

Parks confusion

• The Guardian, Friday 8 May 2009
• Article history

Far from being "under threat" our central parks are seen by Cardiff council as intrinsic to the character of the city, one of the greenest and open in the country. We are working to enhance these parks with a £5.6m project to conserve the parklands, restoring historic features and increasing the number of people using them. There has been a lot of confusion and misunderstanding over the proposed access bridge to Bute Park. I can categorically deny this is being built to increase the number of commercial events in the park. The bridge will in fact remove all vehicles from most of the park, making it much safer and more pleasant. I would welcome the chance to discuss our proposals with the signatories of the letter so they can fully understand the rationale behind our plans and realise we have the best interests of Cardiff parks at heart, and are working hard to deliver improvements.
Cllr Nigel Howells
Executive member for sport, leisure, & culture, Cardiff

Destroying Bute Park

What they didn't tell Lib Dem Leader Nick clegg...was how Lib Dem coucnil with Plaid are destroying our listed park!

Look what has happened to our beautiful park

Apr 23 2009 by Martin Shipton, South Wales Echo Bute Park

CAMPAIGNERS against further development within Bute Park have accused Cardiff Council of planning to erect a horticultural building that will look like a prison complex.

The claim by the Bute Parks Alliance pressure group coincides with the release of maps showing changes to the Grade I-listed park since 1942.

Thousands of people have signed a petition protesting against plans to build a new road access and bridge into the park, which the council maintains will improve safety.

Nervousness about the degree of public concern over the scheme is shown in a note by Liberal Democrat AM Jenny Randerson to one of her staff that was inadvertently sent on to the Bute Parks Alliance. The note from Mrs Randerson acknowledges that points made by the campaigners “seem very damning”, although she goes on to say that the scheme got planning permission.

Voicing fresh concerns about a planned horticultural building in the park, Nerys Lloyd-Pierce of Bute Parks Alliance said: “The plans for the nursery are grim. Apart from the fact that the nursery itself will look like a prison complex, there will be 400 square metres of paving around the Stuttgart Garden, on what is currently grass, and there is a tarmac path planned through the lawns to meet the T Junction where the bridge enters the park.

“This area of the park will be changed beyond recognition as its current seclusion and peace will be ruined.

“Comparing the two maps shows how the park given to the city by the Marquess of Bute has suffered encroachment over decades,”

The council’s executive member for Sport, Leisure & Culture, Councillor Nigel Howells, said: “The new nursery training centre, which was granted planning consent in October 2008, will provide an exciting facility to house a new education programme for both school and community use. This will support and develop current educational initiatives available at Cardiff Castle.

“The new development is sited discretely within the existing complex and will feature new landscaping improvements, including the replacement of an existing steel security fence and overgrown conifer hedgerows with rose trellised garden walls.

“The planning application was supported by CADW and was welcomed by planning officers, as it is recognised as being ‘sympathetic to the parkland setting’. Not all the additional paths on the planning application will be required now planning approval for the Bute Park access bridge has been granted.”

Outside Westminster - Hereford & Cardiff | Nick Clegg, Leader of ...
By Nick Clegg Online
Nick & Kirsty joined Cardiff Councillor Nigel Howells and Jenny Randerson AM at the RHS Cardiff Flower show in Bute Park. Nick visited the sanctuary garden, which highlights the plight of asylum seekers in Cardiff and the UK as a whole. ...
Nick Clegg, Leader of the Liberal... - http://www.nickclegg.com/

Film star Rhys backs fight to block bridge

Apr 9 2009 by Martin Shipton, South Wales Echo

Matthew Rhys

HOLLYWOOD star Matthew Rhys has backed a campaign calling an immediate halt to an “inappropriate and intrusive development” in Cardiff’s Bute Park.

The Cardiff-born actor, star of hit US show Brothers and Sisters, has spoken out against plans to build a new bridge and articulated lorry access into the Grade I listed park in the city centre.

Cardiff council says the new measures aim to improve access for lorries heading to the city’s nurseries and major events in Coopers Field. But Bute Parks Alliance, a group formed in January, strongly opposes the plans. And as well as former Ysgol Glantaf pupil Rhys, Welsh Hollywood directors Chris Monger and Sara Sugarman have also backed the campaigners.

Monger directed The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain, while Sugarman directed Valleys-based comedy Very Annie Mary.

Rhys and Monger have led the Los Angeles-based thespian community in supporting Bute Parks Alliance, saying: “We are disturbed and alarmed by Cardiff council’s plans to build an access bridge and drive a two-lane roadway through one of the loveliest areas of Bute Park. Very few cities, and fewer capital cities, are endowed with parkland that allows a pedestrian to walk from their centres to their suburbs. Cardiff, however, enjoys such a fantastic luxury with almost uninterrupted parks running out from Cardiff Castle to Llandaff Cathedral. These parks are not owned just by the people of Cardiff, but by the entire Welsh population since Cardiff is, after all, the capital for all of us.

“Moreover, this parkland – an asset to the city of incomparable historic, visual and amenity value – is not owned, but entrusted to each generation to pass on to the next.”

Bute Parks Alliance is calling for a moratorium on all development in Bute Park, Llandaff Fields, Pontcanna Fields and Sophia Gardens – until a coherent strategy for their protection has been devised. Cardiff council maintains that the building of the bridge and road into Bute Park will improve safety for pedestrians and will not damage the park’s attractiveness.

Tree felling at College of Music BUTE PARK prior to development consent

Help by emailing the Cardiff council leader to save these trees by Writing to the leader of cardiff council rberman@cardiff.gov.uk
copy in the local paper - ecletters@mediawales.co.uk, david.james@mediawales.co.uk,

If anyone would like to join me protesting at the site as soon as they prepare to start work. email me at annegre@aol.comi

The picture is of the site of tree felling in listed BUTE PARK that was due to ONE 'diseased' TREE being chopped down!

Tree felling at College of Music BUTE PARK prior to development consent

Work is due to start on cutting down trees this afternoon and marking other trees for felling. Yet pre-conditions on the development of the new College auditorium have not been met which prevents work at this time.

Also disposal of the area of park for the Auditorium development agreed by the Council/Cabinet is still subject to legal procedures including public consultation

The developers wanted to get the trees down before the nesting season, erecting a compound this week and today starting tree felling. The Tree Officer had agreed (issued a S211 consent), but as tree felling amounts to starting work on the development, the pre-conditions do not allow it.

If consultation on disposal of bits of the Park is meaningful, it could be turned down and the whole project be stopped, yet the park is desecrated with many wrongly trees lost. The Council should enforce the rules and stop the premature tree felling.

The council says "However not all the trees are located on the Council’s land – some are located on the College site, mainly along the North Road frontage. It is estimated that 19 trees will be lost on the Council’s open space. Only 1 was considered to be category A (the most desirable to retain) with the remainder either categories B, C or R (the latter being desirable to be removed because of disease or other factors). Those trees on the Council’s land are mainly sycamore and not therefore of rarity value. However it is acknowledged that as mature trees they make a significant contribution to the wooded screening along the east side of the Park, and from North Road."

No concern or checks has been made for wildlife or hibernating bats or animals.

Write to the leader of cardiff council - tell him also that you will not vote lib dem for people who destroy the environment rberman@cardiff.gov.uk,
copy in the local paper - ecletters@mediawales.co.uk, david.james@mediawales.co.uk,

One diseased tree according to rodney Berman was removed here!

The college itself was built on part of the park and it is this chipping away that is destroying the park. The land concerned extends to approximately 1814 sq. metres (0.18
hectares or 0.45 acres) some 43 trees will be removed as a result of the proposals.

At its meeting on 6 November 2008 the Executive resolved to grant a peppercorn lease of Council land to the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama for the purpose of an extension to the College to house a new Concert Hall and Theatre (Min No. 69).
That land forms part of Bute Park Public Open Space

No concern or checks has been made for wildlife or hibernating bats or animals.

facebook group
whole album here

SAVE BUTE PARK MEETING

Special Public Organising meeting to help stop lorry-roads in Bute Park  

 with Prof. Kevin Morgan

TUES 27 January @ 6pm Glamorgan Committee rooms  Glamorgan Building, Cathays Park

Help develop campaign strategy

Call on Cdf  Council to nullify the Planning Consent, on account of unlawful participation by Cllr Nigel Howells 

Call on the Parks Scrutiny Committee to require a Sustainability Assessment before any funds are approved.

Big wigs in cardiff run scared of facing the public!

Berman is right about the date - Glamorgan Building (Committee Room 1) for 5pm on 12 December for the Bute Park Debate. Councillor Nigel Howells not available either but this is urgent -

Lets hope we can find a senior Cardiff Council lib dem who is free! And someone from the HLF!
Jennifer Stewart

Jennifer doesn't want to attend a public meeting - She says 'To be honest I don't think there would be much more to add to our public statement: - as you know, we are not funding the new access bridge, we are funding the restoration of the historic park. And, as a funder, we have no role, nor locus, in the planning process. These are rather brief, boring messages for the audience! And the real debate will centre on other issues, not our funding.'

But she seems to have forgotten that she wrote to me saying HLF did tell the council that the "success of the HLF project will depend on the success of the new access bridge, and in particular the acceptance of the bridge by all users of the Park including local residents and community groups"

email from jennifer stuart to me

Dear Ms. ...
Thank you for your communication of 19th October outlining your concerns about the proposed new bridge at Bute Park. Although the Heritage Lottery Fund has made a substantial award to Bute Park for the restoration of the historic park, the design, planning and construction of the new access bridge does not form part of this award. However we are conscious that the success of the HLF project will depend on the success of the new access bridge, and in particular the acceptance of the bridge by all users of the Park including local residents and community groups. For this reason we have asked the Council to demonstrate the involvement of users both in the design and long-term maintenance of the bridge. We are forwarding a copy of your email to Pat Thomson who is responsible for the project on behalf of the Council, for a more detailed response.
Thank you again for your interest in the work of the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Yours Sincerely Jennifer Stewart
Pennaeth CDL, Cymru/Head of HLF, Wales-----Original Message-----
Llinell uniongyrchol/direct line 029 2023 4144
www.hlf.org.uk jennifers@hlf.org.uk,

Email From: Berman, Rodney (Cllr)
Sent: Sat, 29 Nov 2008 9:40
Subject: RE: private eye and Bute Park

I have already explained to Professor Morgan that Councillor Nigel Howells would be much better placed than me to participate in the debate on behalf of the Council as the Executive Member responsible for parks.

I have also explained that he is already committed to being out of the country on 12 December (which was the date given to me by Professor Morgan, not 10 December) and that I would also not be available on that date as I am committed to being in mid-Wales.

However, I have made it clear to Professor Morgan that Nigel Howells would be more than happy to participate in the debate if it was possible to rearrange the date and have suggested to Professor Morgan that he liases with Nigel Howells directly.

I trust this clarifies the matter.

Yours sincerely,

Rodney Berman

Leader of Cardiff Council

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