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

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.


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
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...


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


MEMBER COMMENT

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 PRACTICE

I 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 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

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.

Cllr Nigel Howells, Exec member has the scheme in his portfolio
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=LFAESY-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

http://www.labourhome.org/forum/?p=6101

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.



Park campaigners lose road fight - BBC News | All Recreation

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

Tuesday, 30 June 2009

Fib Dem Howells forced to halt bridge work...

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.
Why do we have so much trouble getting Cardiff council to stick to the rules.

The Planning department received a request to clear vegetation on the site on the 23th June and a report by the Council’s ecologist was received on the 24th.

In summary the ecologists confirmed the presence of nesting birds within the site and the planning department have advised the applicant (note the applicant here is Cardiff Council itself) that they do not consider it appropriate to allow the clearance of vegetation at this time.

I have put a copy of the report / correspondence on the planning application file [07-2649-C] which is available at the Planning reception desk in City Hall.

Kind Regards.

Richard Cole

Senior Planning Officer

Cardiff
Council - Cyngor Caerdydd Room 128 - Ystafell 128 City Hall - Neuadd y Ddinas l
Cardiff
- Caerdydd CF10 3ND t - Ff 029 20 871668 e - E rcole@cardiff.gov.uk
f
- Ff 029 20 871826

Monday, 29 June 2009

Dear Rodney..NO EIA on urban development of a sensitive area


To FIB DEM Cllr R Berman leader of Cardiff council

My dear Rodney

Perhaps you would like to answer some straight forward key questions for a change.

Re Bute Park £1.4 bridge and road for lorries ...

Why is there NO EIA on urban development of a sensitive area, nor a full sustainability assessment as in the Parks Strategy.

Why was Nigel Howellls permitted to intervene at the planning Cttee meeting?..

This intervention was contrary to your code of conduct with his conflicting interest!

looking forward to a swift reply

I shall be also writing to the Local government ombudsman to complain.

DUMMIES GUIDE TO GREEN POLICY
for Cllrs Berman, Howells, and McEvoy

No articulated lorries in a LISTED PARK!

Dump the plastic bottles

Ban the use of water bottles in all municial buildings. Would be a a start and hopefully it will catch on to the rest of the country. Water bottles are really such a waste especially when you consider most of us have access to clean, fresh amazing tap water here in WALES.

Just buy an aluminum water bottle and re-use that throughout the day!