What are they doing to Bute Park?

Bute Park Clutter outside new 'education' centre gives wrong message

What are they doing in Bute Park?
This so called restoration project means this mess and clutter outside the new education centre cafe/toilets  in Bute Park  

Bute Park education centre a wash out with dodgy door

 Were cyclists consulted over the cycle rack newly built by the £920 000 "Education Centre"?  4 stands behind the bin in what was meadow next to the roadway rather than adjacent to the wall appears intended to maximise visual impact - in the Park "restoration" project which is more akin to Park "urbanisation".
Is this design of door safe? 

Plaid Mayor Delme Bowen has to drive 200 yds to listed Bute Park 

 If only they had thought of using permeable surfaces - then the 'all seasons ' cafe wouldnt be flodded. 
This cafe has the added attraction of seating just outside the toilets. 


And if you are disabled then forget trying to fight your way through to the toilets...between the tables!


Disabled people weren't consulted either.


But of course if you are Lord Mayor you need a £1.4 million bridge to be driven for the few hundred yard journey from the City Hall to the 'restoration' commercialisation project led by a project leader with a degree in geology.  


A quick dive back to the car hidden around the corner. How much did the personalised number plate cost? More than a youth club in Splott that you closed? 

Makes a run for it to avoid demonstrators 

Delme Bowen Plaid Cymru you are a disgrace to the people whos money you squander on this vehicle and driver when you could easily walk or cycle. what a white elephant that doesn't belong in any park never mind a listed one. A flooded entrance, toilets and cafe...who did design this? If only you had a proper consultation and shared the plan with public first. But then The libdems and Plaid would actually have to listen to people. 

If only they'd thought of a Permeable Surface

Cllr Bowen to drive into Bute park cos hes wearing his chains?

I asked Cardiff council what restrictions they put on vehicles entering listed Bute park where pedestrians and cyclists must have priority ...I got a reply from the restoration commercialisation project manager Julia Sas, (JSas@cardiff.gov.uk)  who  talking about the Fun Day specifically for opening of new education centre cafe & toilets said "we will have vehicles entering for the set up of the owl sanctuary and RSPB marquees, these will be managed by ourselves and stood down before the event begins. We will also have the Lord Mayor arriving and leaving by car during the event as he will be wearing is (heavy and expensive) chains of office."

However I noticed that Councillor Delme Bowen and his wife, Lady Mayoress Pam Bowen, rode a tandem bike across the Cardiff Bay barrage complete with chains of office Read More shame on you Delme - Get on your bike and leave the car at home!

The new 'all seasons' cafe seating is all outdoors and was flooded today. The seating is in a very cramped small area with one wall being the counter for food and the other the toilets - is this hygienic? Do want to sit nest to toilets while you eat? Uck! And Disabled people, especially those in a chair or  with a walker would not be able get through the clutter to the disabled toilet.

The real friends of Bute Park say the park is for the peaceful enjoyment by the people of Cardiff—people on foot do not wish to be harassed by vehicles, small children need to safely run around. 

If coming into the city by car, please park outside and join us on foot,  If you are Park staff, do likewise and respect our environment . 

Joint us in demanding that Cardiff Council apply strict controls on vehicles in our Park, provide cycles for the Park rangers and electric buggies for gardeners.

1.  Only vehicles with a legitimate operational need may enter the park
2. Vehicle movement during an event is not permitted except in exceptional circumstances.
3. Vehicles  must not damage the fabric of the park, e.g. by straying off hard     surfaces.

£920,000 Cafe for Bute Park

SAVE BUTE PARK

No support for the opening of this Overblown  EDUCATION CENTRE - Big Cafe

the star in Cardiff council’s grandiose attempt to restore commercialise the Park.

… funded from the Lottery at a massive £920 000

… uses the old plant nursery that they closed in favour of importing plants from outside nurseries, including Dutch ones, and ferried in by  juggernaut lorries.

The EDUCATION CENTRE is aimed for

· Horticulture in-house training 

· school groups

· family/tourist information and

· cafe + toilets

It was intended for community use, then evening use was ruled out.  It was originally to be an “academy for horticultural training”.  Tourist information and ice creams etc. are now to be provided at West Lodge and the Summerhouse ‘kiosk’ cafe is fully running.  Let’s predict that the new Centre will be a commercial failure, destined to be closed under a future round of cuts.

What a blow for Lib Dem Cllr Nigel Howells, following the defeat as MP for Cardiff Central!

… a loss-making centre costing £920 000, instead restoring a previous unique feature – the Swiss Bridge over the Castle Moat – at half the cost.

… looks like  misappropriating Restoration Grant funding on a grand scale.

Cardiff Lib Dem Council wreck Bute Park

Happy New Year...
And Cardiff Council is planing more building in Bute Park - a visitor centre now ...........

I noticed in councils latest 'askcardiff' survey which popped through my letterbox after the date of return had expired.. there was a section on Bute Park -
Q37 on a scale of 1 to 5 with 1 being 'poor' and 5 being 'excellent' how would you rate the provision of the following services in Bute Park?
There follows a list of 21 things the first few are in their order...
Car parking
Transport links
Sign posting Lighting
Labelling of the arboretum
Condition of paths.....
Somebody tell Cardiffs lib Dem Council that People go the park to RELAX.  There was no mention of the most important component of an urban park - its greenery. And what about seating places.
The improvements users would like to see in urban parks include good design and management, but no questions on that! They did say that there is a £5.6 million restoration project sported by £3.1 million from Lottery Fund. But they didn't mention how much of that was spent on building a massive bridge to bring  articulated lorries into the park or building better roads for traffic. No chance of relaxing in Bute Park as you are always being harassed by traffic..disgrace.  

Green flag award NOT GREEN

It is beyond belief that Bute Park deserved a green flag award this year...Scandalous! The award is Not 'green' at all!!! Why are the JUDGES identities a secret even with a FOI request? So we can only conclude that the judges must be politically motivated!!  Are you not aware that After a site special scientific interest was destroyed for a road for lorries After CHAMPION TREES LOPPED BACK FOR LORRIES TO PASS After dozens of tress chopped down for building a theatre and a huge bridge for lorries After promoting events rather than preserving the environment and ecosystem After increasing the number of vehicles in the listed park Absoutely Fails on key criteria such as Sustainability, Conservation and heritage, Community involvement and management!! A disgrace - Green flag award is appearing totally corrupt!

 THE REPLY

 th..

ank you for your comments concerning Bute Park.

Green Flag Award Judges, come from a variety of backgrounds, including ecology, environmental issues, nature conservation, horticulture, community engagement, parks and landscape management and other related disciplines.

All judges are volunteers who give their time freely, and are passionate about quality green spaces that can be enjoyed by everyone. They are independent arbiters of the scheme and ensure that the standards set by the awards are high, and fair. Every judge completes a thorough training course, and new judges are mentored by colleagues who have a number of years experience with the scheme.

The Green Flag Award Judges are asked to assess each green space on the management plan for the site and what they observe and discuss during their visit. The purpose of the scheme is to recognise well managed, quality green spaces that meet the needs of all users. The judges who assessed Bute Park have agreed that the park has met the required standards to merit receiving an award this year. A decision that the Green Flag Plus Partnership fully supports and endorses.

As a charity established as a private company, Keep Britain Tidy is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act, and as such we are not required to respond to requests made under this act. We do, however, aim to respond to as many requests as possible. On this occasion you are asking for personal data and as such I must adhere to the rules set out in the Data Protection Act, which therefore prevents me from supplying the information you have requested, which is personal data of the judges.

Please let me assure you that from my own personal experience of observing the judging of a park, I am totally confident that the judges have made a full, robust and completely unbiased assessment of Bute Park, and that the decision to award a Green Flag is the correct one.

We have noted your comments concerning Bute Park, and please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any further concerns about parks and green spaces in your local area.
Yours sincerely

Lynsey Atherton

Public Information Officer

==================

Keep Britain Tidy

Elizabeth House

The Pier

Wigan

WN3 4EX

Telephone: 01942 612602

Fax: 01942 824778

E-mail: enquiries@keepbritaintidy.org

Website: www.keepbritaintidy.org

The fight for Rumney Recreation Gropund

'We fight for generations to come'


The Guardian
This is typical, I am told, for the retired salesman who now devotes his time to leading the fight to save the park he loves – the Rumney Recreation Ground. ...

Another big fight agaisnt the Fib Dem/plaid Cymru cardiff council who don't listen to the public and want to destroy Cardiff Green spaces!!!

Join the Picnic in the park!

Dear All -passing on news of an 'event' in Bute Park!!!

Please could you advertise this in any way you can:

A few of us are having a picnic party to celebrate having such a wonderful park to use. The venue will be on our fantastic new bridge and the time will be between 11pm-3pm on Wednesday the 14th of July.

Why you may be wondering would we do such a thing. Well my merry friends during that week there will be one of the largest private parties in the park that has hit our beloved victorian green space in its history. Three music tents, 60 bands and £25 entrance fee. We need to remind our glorious leaders that there are some people who feel that such events go against the spirit of the parks covenant and that a free public park is just that, free.

I look forward to seeing you all there and hopefully we can have an awesome time catching up with each other and sipping tea with a back drop of trees and HGV's.

Oh and as more is always merrier please spread the word to all you now, even if you decide not to come. We will have some bunting and food but bring some yourselves and make it a picnic to bring joy to a harsh bridge.