Save Rumney Recreation Ground & Eastern Leisure Centre

 

In December 2008 the Council sent out a letter to ALL households in Rumney, Llanrumney, Trowbridge and St Mellons reiterating their decision to build a school on Rumney Recreation Ground.

This appears to be yet another “tactic” employed by the Council. They dismissed our 8,500 signature petition by saying that people will sign anything, they have also dismissed the 3,500 letters of objection.

We refute most of the statements made in the Council's letter.

The original proposal stated they would spend £50m, the letter now states they will be making an overall investment of £81m.

However, the truth of the matter is that the money that they state will be budgeted for “much-needed essential improvements to facilities at Eastern Leisure Centre” comes from a separate budget - parks and leisure. The letter states the “Centre may have to eventually close”, which appears to be a tactic intended to frighten residents.

Putting a new school on one of the existing sites could be seen as one school taking over the other.

Under the Freedom of Information Act we asked the Council to produce evidence to back up this statement, which, to date, has yet to be forthcoming. We have a letter from Chris Jones, Head of Lifelong Learning, which states that there is no actual research evidence to back this up and that this statement was based upon his own personal opinion, yet the Council still insist upon using this phrase.

Building alongside an existing school would cause disruption to the education of pupils.

The St Illtyd's Catholic High School adjacent to Rumney High School conducted a £5m refurbishment - the school did not close and the pupils did not lose a day of schooling due to the refurbishment work. There have also been reports in the local press during December about schools in Newport and the Vale of Glamorgan conducting refurbishments where schools are not closing or being disrupted.

Firstly, Teachers will realise that they may be out of work within 2-3 years time and seek alternative employment. Our children could end up with a shed load of supply and student teachers, thereby disrupting their education.

Secondly, patients don't get kicked out of their beds and wards don't close when Hospitals are being refurbished or rebuilt. There is huge retail development under way in Cardiff at the moment but the shops and flats nearby are not being vacated whilst this work goes on. It is all about mindset and if there is a will there is a way.

Providing a partial new build/refurbishment on Rumney High School site.

The Council state that they will have a shortfall of £5.6m in funding. However, there is another school in Cardiff where the Council are able to find an additional £5.6m to build a new primary school (Lansdowne Road).

A partial build/refurbishment will not provide a state of the art new school.

Buildings do not educate kids, it is excellent teaching staff and good equipment in the buildings that educates kids.

Impact on open space.

The original proposal would have seen the local community receiving an additional 3 acres of open space (1.214 hectares). Under the new proposal, they are suddenly able to find 5.1 hectares, approx: 12.6 acres (1 hectare = 2.471 acres :- 5.1 hectares = 5.1 x 2.471 = 12.6 acres).

The letter states that “the proposed plans would increase the amount of public open space available overall”. However, this is a play on words. For example, school grounds are classed as “open space”, whereas the recreation ground is classed as “public open space”.

The land at Llanrumney High School, for example, is classed as “open space”. However, once the school is closed and developed for housing, what remains will be classed as “public open space”. The green space that will then remain, on what is now the Llanrumney High School site, is in fact the flood plains of the Rhymney River and cannot be used for 3-4 months of the year (People who live in that area keep sandbags in their garages!).

The Council's letter is making it sound as if they are giving us something, when in fact they are not.

They would be building on the largest, open, green space we have - which is also the safest piece of ground that we have, being bordered by main roads and houses. The supplementary open space the Council say we will have already exists and can be found in little pockets dotted around the Wards of Llanrumney and Rumney - these areas are not safe and thus, the Council would not be giving us anything!

Better facilities at Eastern Leisure Centre

The Council state that we will have enhanced facilities to benefit the community. However, wherever a new school is built there will be enhanced facilities as both the existing schools, in particular the Llanrumney High school, are in a pitifully poor state due to several decades of what on the face of it now appears to have been deliberate neglect by the Council in order to trick the communities into accepting their current proposal. The Council would have to make the leisure centre fit for purpose and the money would come from a different “pot” (i.e. the parks and leisure department), so once again the Council are not really offering to give us anything.

More playing fields for the community

The Council's letter states that overall there will be an additional two more pitches. These would not be grass pitches however. They will retain the artificial pitch at Llanrumney High School and have factored this into their proposed plan as two pitches, although in reality (from the perspective of perceivable open space), it is only one pitch.

The Council's proposal says that the available playing field area at the Rumney Recreation Ground, Eastern Leisure Centre site will reduce from five pitches to four pitches. What the Council do not spell out is the fact that they consider one artificial pitch to be equivalent to two grass pitches (because it can be used more often than a grass pitch, which will sustain damage, particularly in wet weather).

Out of the five grass pitches we currently have, only two grass pitches would remain, with one artificial pitch (which as far as the Council's plans are concerned will be classed as two) - this equates to their four pitches at Eastern Leisure Centre site, which in reality will be only three. Once again, a play on words which appears to be deliberately intended to mislead the public.

During the past 18 months of our campaign the Council have failed to respond to numerous requests for information made under the Freedom of Information Act. All of this gives us the impression that the Council are “moving the goal posts” and “massaging” the facts and figures to make them “fit” with their proposal.

Bearing in mind that residents still remember the promise made by the Council, back when the Eastern Leisure Centre was originally built, that there would be no further building on that site, a promise which Alun Michael MP also remembers, these current plans therefore constitute promises made with a questionable agenda, the intentions of which are of doubtful integrity.

They promised this, that and the other, whereas it seems, the Council have their own hidden agenda and it would appear to all intents and purposes that they fully intend to do what they see fit at the time and not keep any promises made to the community, once they have secured the ground.

Local people can only fight this proposal by:

1. Sending in objections once the Legal Notices have been published; this will see the Council having to submit the proposal to the Welsh Assembly Government for consideration.

2. Voting "No" to the proposal in a Local Referendum (which the Council can ignore if they wish to, but that would then give us more "clout" with the Welsh Assembly Government).

3. Our Action Group are employing a Land Lawyer to look into the possibility of applying for Village Green status.

4. Our Action Group have been asked to respond to a consultation document whereby a new Playing Fields Measure will be adopted to protect school playing fields and green open spaces for future generations to enjoy.