corrupt Cllrs vote for car park in park for sky tv

Outdoor games area in Sophia Gardens will make way for extra parking spaces
Feb 19 2009 by Gavin O'Connor, South Wales Echo

Outdoor games area in Sophia Gardens will make way for extra parking spaces

CAMPAIGNERS have lost their battle to preserve green space and sports facilities in a section of historic city parkland.

Members of Cardiff council’s planning committee last night voted in favour of extending the car park outside the Welsh Institute of Sport in Sophia Gardens.

The decision means the Grade II listed park’s multi-purpose sports area will be lost at the expense of more spaces for vehicles driving into the Cathedral Road conservation area.

One thousand objectors signed a petition and four members of the planning committee were persuaded by their arguments.

But six members voted in the scheme at a packed meeting held at City Hall yesterday.

The development will see 161 car park spaces boosted to 235 – but less than the initial intention of 252 spaces.

Simon Warder, planning director for developers RPS, on behalf of Cardiff Council, said the project would solve the issues related to “casual parking” and have a positive impact.

“There are many other recreation facilities close by, including the multi-use games area in Canton,” he said. Greg Butterworth, 40, of Cathedral Road, addressed the committee and spoke of his disgust at what the approved outcome would mean.

“The council’s special projects department is supposed to serve the people of Cardiff,” he said. “This planning application and the issues around it remain a disgrace.”

The extra space would cater for TV vehicles visiting nearby sporting events such as the upcoming Ashes fixture at Glamorgan Cricket Club’s Swalec Stadium.

Pat Mckenna, of Pontcanna, also spoke on behalf of residents against the plans and said the historic features of the park were suffering “gradual destruction”.

She said: “The bribe of seven new lime trees being planted should not buy this application.

“Far from being preserved, the parklands are being ravaged by development.”

However, committee member, Coun Keith Hyde, who changed his mind to cast a positive vote for the development, said: “We are not really doing a lot other than tidying up the car park. This revised scheme is much better.”

Alliance to protect Bute Park formed

At the Bute Park meeting on 27th Jan we took a decision to set up a campaigning organisation called the Bute Parks Alliance with the initial aim of getting:

A moratorium on all development in the historic central parklands ( Bute Park , Sophia Gardens , Pontcanna Fields and Llandaff Fields) until there is a publicly agreed policy on their future use

Alliance to protect Bute Park formed Echo

AN OFFICIAL campaign group has been launched to oppose controversial building plans in a landmark city park. About 40 Cardiff residents have voted in favour of forming the Bute Parks Alliance – a lobby group which plans to protest and petition against council proposals to expand roadways through the city centre ground and build a £1.4m lorry bridge in its vicinity.

The group, which has existed informally for about a year, also hopes to attract a big name celebrity backer to heighten its profile, and to make use of lawyers and local planning specialists who are sympathetic to its cause.

Professor Kevin Morgan, who organised the meeting, said: “My own personal view is that we cannot do anything about these things until we have a strategy.

“People can sign up to a group and state the skills they have to offer.

“That is one of the key things I think we hope to come out of this.”

If given the go-ahead, the proposed scheme of improvements would run alongside a £3.6m lottery-funded project to restore features in the Grade I-listed park and improve public access.

Work could start later this year with no public consultation, which the Cardiff University planning academic claimed would cause “degradation” of the Victorian green space.

As well as making a firm decision to launch the alliance with immediate effect, residents at the meeting in Cardiff University’s Glamorgan Building on Tuesday night voted resoundingly in favour of establishing seven sub-action groups.

These include lobby and press committees, an internet team and a research and planning division.

Lecturer and member of the newly formed group Gill Boden also put forward a proposal to attract support from high-profile Welsh figures.

“Celebrities sell things, and we should get their names,” she told fellow members.

The campaigners, who are mainly from Cathays and Pontcanna, have been trying to force Cardiff council to reconsider its plans, as they believe the changes could accelerate “long-running and incremental” erosion of the park.

The council has also attracted criticism in the Echo letters pages.

Many readers fear the plans are aimed at raising council revenue by staging extra events or privatising the nurseries.

But Nigel Howells, city councillor and executive member for sport, culture and leisure, said the new road was the only way lorries could be diverted away from North Gate, close to the castle.

He said the road would result in improved access for walkers, which in turn would fulfil the Heritage Lottery Fund’s aim of increasing public access.

sarah.miloudi@mediawales.co.uk