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.

Berman & parks cause wanton damage 2waxcap meadow of Regional Importance.

Letter 17 April 2010 To R Berman N Howells D Bowen N McEvoy 

We note there has been significant damage to the meadow-woodland in Bute Park between the feeder canal and the Nursery, despite a SINC (special interest for nature conservation) being declared for this area last year on account of the (rare) waxcap fungi.

Could you kindly supply documents showing what assessment was made of potential damage by

• use of tar-macadam which would leach chemicals including PAHs
• use of grass turves which could harbour organisms harmful to the waxcaps
• spreading of quantities of imported soil and sand which could bring in microorganisms and chemicals harmful to the current waxcap-friendly ecosystem. 

We see that the grassland and woodland area affected by the works is as much as 4.5-5 metres either side of the roadways, compared with 2 metres specified in the planning documents.  Can you supply documents to show how and why this substantial deviation from proposals put at the planning stage came about, including who was consulted within the Council?

For constructing pathway/road through the meadow, the planning consent required avoiding damage to tree roots and trees which are of high amenity value.  As the contractors removed grass in excavations prior to laying the base of the widened road and, in doing so, exposed and cut tree roots, please supply documentation on how this was reported by the developer and/or checked by Council officers, and documents on steps taken or to be taken over the breaches of Condition 10. We have filmed this process and you can see the damage occuring on utube.

http://no2lorriesinbutepark.blogspot.com/

We note also that the events manager promised in the presence of a police officer to provide a stewart to prevent accidents to cyclists at the dangerous very wide opening/entrace to the new industrial bridge into Bute Park but failed to do so. We object to staff working in  BUTE park parking vehicles at the bridge entrance. 

Can you also explain why a dropped kerb has been provided for pedestrians and disabled people with a huge lamp post in front of it? This is also in front of the new bridge entrance to Bute Park on North Road. We were told by the events manager and R Berman by email that there had been a safety audit so could you explain how such a dropped kerb obstructed by a lampost is safe and what action you will be taking to remedy this?  

.................................................................

Reply 28th MAY

Thank you for your email of 17 April.

Please be assured that your email has been investigated by the Operational Manager for Parks Services and the Bute Park Restoration Project Manager. They inform me that there is no significant damage to the meadow-woodland in Bute Park, as reported in your email.

They also confirm that a SINC was not declared for this area last year, as you indicate. As a result, no formal assessments were necessary for the use of tar-macadam, grass turves and imported soil. Despite this, the imported soil and turf we used was bought from approved sources and in line with planning conditions.

You mention that the grassland and woodland area is as much as 4.5-5 metres either side of the roadways. The planning drawing shows an indicative 3.5m graded edge from the path but notes the embankment is “to be feathered out at various grades”. The grading from the access to the grassland has been undertaken to achieve a sympathetic visual appearance. Please be assured that this has been undertaken in accordance with planning conditions and we have not deviated from the proposals put at planning stage. As a result, no formal consultation was undertaken and there are no related documents because this was not necessary.

In terms of the planning consent required for constructing the pathway through the meadow, I can confirm that all works have been undertaken in accordance with the arboricultural method statement. I understand that this statement has previously been supplied to you. I can also assure you that the works was supervised by an independent arboricultural consultant and Council officers.   

I would like to inform you that we provided stewards during the whole RHS show operation to ensure safety and effective traffic management. The new access entrance to the park was stewarded by the Council’s Events Team during the show set up and throughout the duration of the show. Might I suggest that any vehicles seen at the bridge entrance were likely to have belonged to contractor staff working on site, or those held temporarily as part of the event management process?

The lamppost that you refer to has been installed to provide adequate lighting in the area. I can confirm that a road safety audit was carried out in April and no specific road safety issues were identified. Therefore, we believe that no further action is needed.

(pic of SAFE lampost in front of pedestrian dropped kerb)

I trust that this information is of assistance to you.

Yours sincerely

Councillor Rodney Berman

Leader of Cardiff Council

...................................................................................................

2009 Waxcap atlas includes:

The following existing SINCs now have waxcaps as a qualifying feature:

• Blackweir Wood (this site includes Bute Park Arboretum).

To say 'no significant damage' to the Arboretum meadow is clearly challengeable in terms of area and appearance.  The reply admits no assessments for impact of tar-macadam, grass turves and imported soil.  The excuse is the Planning consent, but that never considered the SINC.  Previous excuse was the waxcap site(s) was/were not affected, but they could not know.  So rodney Berman and friends - explain that!! 

The Waxcap atlas says it's of Regional Importance, with the only site in Cardiff for one species.  Also that the grassland has been reduced to a "small glade" and the 9 species are hardly seen fruiting 

cllr Rodney Berman and the officers are not qualified to make the assertion that there is "no significant damage" He and 

Cdf Parks Chiefs cause wanton damage to a waxcap meadow of Regional Importance.

Below is the full description from the Atlas / Max

Site Name: Bute Park Arboretum Grid Ref: ST17437735

Habitat: Amenity grassland (arboretum in parkland) Area (ha.): 0.05

Total taxa (spp.): 9 Single visit taxa (spp.): 4

This is the only site in Cardi! for the UK BAP species Date-coloured Waxcap H. spadicea. Despite

regular visits (at least four per year) to this very small site in every autumn from 2002 to 2008,

only a single fruiting body was recorded on one visit in September 2004. The species had

previously been recorded at the site in 1992 and 2000. This is a very atypical site for H. spadicea,

which usually occurs on thin soils over limestone rather than in alluvial plains in river valleys.

Although nine species have been recorded, fruiting by several species has been extremely

sparse; H. pratensis and H. conica have not been recorded since 2002, and H. quieta and H. ceracea 

have only been recorded on a single date each. The site is a remnant of the former unimproved pa

sture which became part of Bute Park Arboretum. It was originally planted with elms, which 

died of Dutch elm disease in the 1970s. It was then replanted with a range of trees. What is left of 

the waxcap grassland is confined to a small glade.