The continued development on Cardiff’s green spaces is set to be a key battleground in the upcoming general election.
A meeting last night organised by Angela Evans-Jones, the Conservative candidate for Cardiff West at St Catherine’s Church, Riverside, Cardiff, saw the tensions flair-up once more between residents, university staff and city councillors.
Problems have grown, with developments in Bute Park eradicating the city’s green areas in favour of the SWALEC Stadium, University of Wales Institute, Cardiff, and increased motor vehicle movement within it.
A bridge built to allow articulated lorries greater access to the nurseries, and to aid the set up of major events in the park, has been completed, though it will not be opened to the public until April. And Glamorgan County Cricket Club have recently applied for planning permission to erect another 35-meter floodlight.
Mrs Evans-Jones said: “Bute Park is something which is very important to me because I live on the edge of it, my son cycles around it every day when the weather is good and my husband walks through it to work.
“I think the green spaces we have are very important and makes Cardiff the city it is.”
Mrs Evans-Jones took a back seat for the meeting and allowed Professor Kevin Morgan and Dr Alan Lane, both of Cardiff University, and members of the Bute Park Alliance, to speak and chair the meeting.
Prof Morgan said: “We [Bute Park Alliance] are a group which tries to defend and give voice to the park land which doesn’t have a voice of its own. We were formed to say enough is enough.
“We will not see our green spaces eroded for the sake of development and we are asking the council members and officers to heed their own scrutiny committee report who called on the council for a memorandum of development on their green space policy.
Development in Bute Park
“We want to say to the council we want to work in cooperation with them and help them run the park.”
The group collected a 5,000-strong petition from Cardiff people about continued development on the park during the planning application for the lorry bridge.
Deputy leader of the Cardiff Council, Neil McEvoy, also attended the meeting last night and seemed open to starting a dialogue between any interested parties over the future of Cardiff’s parkland.
“I am here to work with anybody who wants to protect green spaces. For me, the argument has to be for a better Bute Park and not to destroy it.”
But when questioned on the ways the council will try and work with those concerned about green space, the Plaid Cymru councillor failed to offer any real solution. He said: “We need a dialogue, I would accept a call from anyone.”
When pushed further on arranging a discussion, he responded by saying “parks are not in my portfolio” and seemed nonchalant about updating the relevant department.
Coun McEvoy also insisted the meeting was part of a continued Labour backlash, a product of his leaving the party to join Plaid, and stressed it was a politically-motivated meeting.
Coun McEvoy is standing against Mrs Evans-Jones for the Cardiff West seat in Westminster but Prof Morgan was keen to stress the meeting was “above and beyond party politics.”
Plaid councillors for Riverside, Jaswant Singh and Mohammed-Sarul Islam attended the meeting as well as Conservative representative for Pentyrch Craig Williams.
The issues heard by the 75 gathered in the church hall were about the continued destruction of Cardiff’s green spaces and parkland.
Dr Lane, who discussed the problems associated with the erosion of Bute Park, said: “In the last 10 years we have seen the scale of development increase for what I would call improper use.
“We have a legal and moral duty to protect the status of the park.
“Forty years ago the argument for development was strong with the pressures of jobs and so on. But now we know that green spaces are vital and building over them is a serious mistake.”
Coun Williams said: “There are all these organisations across the city which fight their own little battles. What we need to do is bring them together.”
Peter Cox, interim chairman of the Cardiff Civic Society then announced a new charity called Cardiff Partnerships. It aims are to bring together all the groups which are campaigning on single issues across Cardiff and offer help and support to their cause.
The issues raised at yesterday’s meeting concerned Bute Park, Sophia Gardens, Pontcanna Fields and Llandaff Fields but discontent with the destruction of green spaces spreads wide across the city.
The proposed building of two schools on Rumney Recreational Fields — a referendum voted by 93.6 per cent against this — and other proposals in Ely and Fairwater are just some examples creating tensions between the council and residents.
Mrs Evans-Jones concluded: “It was an opportunity to listen to what people had to say, but also to reinvigorate the campaign because I felt it had gone a little bit flat since the bridge application went through — I think people conceded defeat a little bit.”
The strength of feeling shown last night would certainly suggest people are still prepared to fight against what they believe is unjust destruction of green spaces, and with Mrs Evans-Jones and Coun McEvoy running against each other in the general election, it will probably be a key issue of policy in Cardiff West.
