Save Rumney Recreation Ground & Eastern Leisure Centre

Has anyone been in touch with the Ombudsman to find out what they are able to take on? The lack of response to letters and e-mails is one obvious complaint. It would be interesting to know if abuse of the democratic process is another. I telephoned Bermans office the other day to find out why they hadn't responded to communcations they acknowledged having receved on the 18th December. The lady told me they had been inundated with communications on this subject and were preparing a comprehensive reponse. I told her 3months was ample time to respond and I wanted a reply asap . I mentioned the ombudsman to her so we will see if that gets a result.

Jon, try Kate Berry she is the Cardiff and County Solicitor at the council. Ralph Cook said she is the person to write to regarding unanswered letters, her email address is k.berry@cardiff.gov.uk

Another one is Mike Davies Clerk to the Council.

Also, Clive Bailey he at  Schools and Lifelong Learning c.bailey@cardiff.gov.uk I wrote to him asking how I could see an Impact Assessment, he replied and said it's with officers and will be sent shortly.

Basically, all these people replied so they might be good to contact.

Good luck

Thanks for that Gaynor I will try Kate Berry as she is the person who signed the official notice. In fact that is my first objection, that the notice purports to be from the Council which I believe to be all 75 members sat in council when in fact it is a decision of the executive. I can guess the reply but I got to say it anyway!! The bottom line of all of this is the Executive has too much power and the the Constitution of the Council needs to be changed asap. Got a reply from Nick Clegg but he can't/won't intervene in local matters but its comforting to know if  we get a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty the Lib Dems will stand by the result - well at least they know what a referendum is.

Yes, Kate Berry seems like a good person to write to Jon. At least you had a reply from Nick Clegg but full of their usual excuses ie. not interfering at a local level. Who will interfere I ask? No one, no even our Labour MP or Labour AM, seems like the council can do as they please. Will you be at the meeting on 7th April? Hope so.

Have just complained to the Wales Ombudsman using the on-line form at www.ombudsman-wales.org.uk/en/public-body-complaint-form/. The Welsh site is not as clear as the English site but apparently not responding to communications can be investigated - or at least in England. Just have to wait for a response I guess. It may help if some more complaints are made !!!

By the way it is over 2 weeks since I sent an e-mail to Kate Berry and had no reply. Is it me? Do I leave them so gob-smacked they don't know what to say. I did sort of suggest the Legal Notice signed by her wasn't legal as it  shouldn't have been headed Council for the City and County of Cardiff which implies all 75 Councillors were involved which we all know isn't the case.

Judging by tonights Echo our Rodney is well aware of the noose  he has put around his own neck. Let's hope the ombudsman gets on his back too.

Interesting about the school Governors of both schools not supporting the plans, as the heads are governors by virtue of office how is that the Council published on their website that Headteachers supported the proposals. We all know why they didn't get a reply - nobody does!!

Dear Jon,

I had ana email from someone called Manny Dessie who explained that Kate Berrie is on leave until the beginning of May.

Manny is Kate Berry's secretary addrEss is: D.Manny@cardiff.gov.uk

A while back I asked to see the Environmental Impacr inforfromation from Clive Bailey at schools and lifelong learning, he's been fobbing me off for weeks, he promised it for after he came back from leave after Easter, but nothin

It is disgusting how our letters go unanswered

I paln to write another letter to the Echo higlighting the lies and inconsistencies coming from the council camp, they all say different things, they should get their facts right.

Seems like the Ombudsman, who apparently is an Ombudswoman is not interested in fair play either.

By the way I sighted the original letter from the Head Masters who were reported as supporting building on the REC, turns out that they support a new scgool in Cardiff East, not a mention of it being on our playimg field.

Lies, lies and more lies.

What a mess!

I have had an acknowledgement from the Ombudsmans Office which states they have had an unprecedented rise in the number of complaints they have received, no doubt many connected with school re-organisation although they don't say.

Looks as if the Governors have their heads screwed on - discipline is a major issue and two medium size schools is preferable to one large school.

Gaynor can I suggest you also complain to the ombudsman about non - replies also anybody else, the more complaints the better and the more likelihood they will investigate. The ombudsmans office have told me they are so busy it will take 8 weeks for a decision to be made.

went into welsh assembly to present Jane Hutt copies of all the letters in the echo since last November with a covering letter, no

reply as having recieved to date which I asked for................

Just got back from hols and have a reply from Kate Berry stating she will seek to get responses to issues raised - I wonder!!

She provided the following details for directing objections direct to the Welsh Assembly

David Weale,           

Schools Management Division,

Department of Education, Culture & Welsh Language,

Cathays Park,

Cardiff

CF10 3NQ

As the Council seem to lose communications it might be a good idea to forward a copy direct to Mr Weale

At last night's meeting, Don (Chairman of RREEL) stated that they had actually received a response to an enquiry, about the procedure for the objection letters, from Jane Hutt personally, which is very unusual as she usually has someone else reply on her behalf, but under the circumstances decided to respond herself. She stated that all the letters have to be allocated a number by the Council, so that each letter can be identified and refered to, if required, by its number. Don said that he would be checking this out by asking for the numbers allocated to particular letters to see if the procedure is being correctly adhered to.

As two new items of information have come to light since the objection period began, it now seems appropriate for people to send in another letter objecting to the Council misleading the public about what the letter from the Head Teachers said (they only mentioned a neutral site, not Rumney Rec by name as the Council claimed) and also that the Council were not entirely forthcoming that the reports from the School Governers contained many objections to the proposals and that they allege to have never recieved the report from the Rumney Governers, yet did not bother to chase that up.

There are still thirteen days left to run for letters of objection to be sent in to the Council. Please send us your letters for copying and forwarding, or a copy for our records if you send your letter direct.

just had 2 replies re: the 'stuff' I hand delievered to Assembley marked clearly For The Att. of Jane Hutt. at end of March..........reply from the office of Jane Davidson ..usual bland 'palming off and pat on the head ' bog standard speak

It would appear that the ombudsman is just as useless as the Council. All they did was contact the council to ensure I got a response to the letter acknowledged on 18th December 2008. And on the assumption I would now get a reply stated that the action of the Council is reasonable and they would not be pursung the complaint.

Well I did get a reply signed by Berman which avoided most of the issues and re-iterated the reasons why they wanted to build the school on the Rec. And apparently according to Lord Berman the management of the school is down to the Head and Governors so if any child gets run over on either of the main road it will be down to them - that's a good one considering the Governors of the current schools have expressed their concerns

Apparently the Executive made a 'rational' decison based on the professional advice provided by Council Officers. So there you go, you do not need common sense to decide where to site a school you need to be an 'Educational Professional'

at 07:32AM on May 23, 2009

It would appear that the ombudsman is just as useless as the Council. All they did was contact the council to ensure I got a response to the letter acknowledged on 18th December 2008. And on the assumption I would now get a reply stated that the action of the Council is reasonable and they would not be pursung the complaint.

Well I did get a reply signed by Berman which avoided most of the issues and re-iterated the reasons why they wanted to build the school on the Rec. And apparently according to Lord Berman the management of the school is down to the Head and Governors so if any child gets run over on either of the main road it will be down to them - that's a good one considering the Governors of the current schools have expressed their concerns

Apparently the Executive made a 'rational' decison based on the professional advice provided by Council Officers. So there you go, you do not need common sense to decide where to site a school you need to be an 'Educational Professional'

AT the time of the opening of the Eastern Leisure Centre there was no road marking back onto LLanrumney Ave. On Sunday lunchTime I was mowing the front lawns with my Dad and witnessed a yound lad swing out in the Avenue bash into a car coming out of Ball Rd. He fractured his scull as he fell off his bike, he was 10years old. My Father and I campaigned for road marking, slow signs and a crossing. I remember around a dozen or so visits for the local Police /Traffiic Control and Council. The Police at the time said that installaion of a crossing at that time would be about £10,000 and the Council did not have a budget also to paint a 'SLOW' sign was £2,000 , again the council did not have the budget. It was years and years later the traffic calming was put there ans as I understand it was Care for the Elderly that lead the campaign...........

at 08:21AM on Apr 27, 2009

went into welsh assembly to present Jane Hutt copies of all the letters in the echo since last November with a covering letter, no

reply as having recieved to date which I asked for................

Bravo Geraldine, the Minister for Education needs to see those letters because she might not read the Echo, probably reads the Western Mail and The Guardia,

at 04:04PM on Apr 06, 2009

Thanks for that Gaynor I will try Kate Berry as she is the person who signed the official notice. In fact that is my first objection, that the notice purports to be from the Council which I believe to be all 75 members sat in council when in fact it is a decision of the executive. I can guess the reply but I got to say it anyway!! The bottom line of all of this is the Executive has too much power and the the Constitution of the Council needs to be changed asap. Got a reply from Nick Clegg but he can't/won't intervene in local matters but its comforting to know if  we get a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty the Lib Dems will stand by the result - well at least they know what a referendum is.

Hi Jon,

I think you are correct when you say they don't know what to say to your questions. A councillor told me that the council thought Llanrumney and Rumney would be a pushover!. Seems to me that we have a lot of intelligent people here, the council must have had the shock of their lives when so many switched on people used intelligent arguments, they must have all fainted with shock and are desperately wracking their brain cells to wriggle out of the web of lies they have spun... lol