Save Rumney Recreation Ground & Eastern Leisure Centre

 

WE MUST STAY POSITIVE AND KEEP UP THE FIGHT !

Since CARDIFF COUNCIL published the statutory notice, March 20th, people have been writing to object. During this time some AMAZING NEW EVIDENCE has been made public.

LIST OF OBJECTIONS

• Cardiff Council did not bid a single penny to the Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) in February 2009 to re-build or re-furbish schools in our area to make them fit for the 21st Century, when they submitted bids totalling £35.4 million. Over 70% of bids were made for schools in Liberal Democrat or Plaid Cymru wards.

• Council Leader Rodney Berman told us at the public meeting on Feb 3rd that he had gone to WAG for more money but they wouldn't give him any. He told the Echo the same as recently as April 25th. Berman has deliberately sought to MISLEAD US and BLAME WAG.

• £5.6 million more the Council claim it would cost to build the school at Rumney High. For Deputy Council leader Neil McEvoy's ward the Council put in a bid to WAG for £5.8 million for Ysgol Plasmawr and for Liberal Council Freda Salway (responsible for education) the Council put in a bid to WAG for £4.5 million for Ty Gwyn Special School.

• The governors of Llanrumney and Rumney High Schools are both opposed to the Council's plans - their opposition only became known on April 20th 2009, 16 months after they were written and sent to the Council, when the Echo received leaked copies of the reports the governors had sent to the Council.

• Llanrumney High Governors wrote; "it seems as if a 'split site' new school is being created. Surely this should be avoided at all costs."

• "The Governing Body finds it difficult to see why this new school is costing the £50M allocated."

• "No through progression of pupils, 11 - 18, which is a major reason why parents look for an alternative school..."

• Rumney High Governors wrote; "The bussing of pupils off-site for games is unacceptable in a school for the 21st Century."

• "11 - 18 is the preferred option of many teachers. We strongly believe that any new school must be 11 – 18..."

• "At present we have one proposal which is ill-conceived and articulates no sense of vision for a 21st century school in the heart of its community."

• The Echo revealed on April 20th 2009 that the Council's Solicitor Kate Berry admitted that the Council HAD NEVER RECEIVED OR READ the report of the Rumney High School Governors.

Dear friends and supporters,

 The Council has so far:

• IGNORED our 8,000 signature petition

• IGNORED our 3,500 letters of objection

• IGNORED the 93.6% "NO" vote in our recent Local Referendum.

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• Selling off 2 prime school sites, large enough to accommodate a new High School. The community will lose 3 areas of open space ie 2 school sites and Rumney Recreation ground.

• The decision is not educationally based, it is financially based.

• It is immoral to build on playing fields/parkland, when 2 suitable school sites already exist.

Once built on the grounds will be lost forever.

• Residents did not want the Leisure Centre built, fearing future development, but finally agreed on the promise it would be "this far and no more" (reference Alun Michael MP).

• Rumney & Llanrumney contain areas of deprivation (Communities First) and these are the people who most benefit most from parkland/playing fields and green, open space.

• The school buildings will be 3.3 hectares. The remainder of Rumney Rec will be used as school playing fields. The community cannot access the grounds during school hours, taking away their permission to use the grounds "as of right" and restricting access.

• Loss of Rumney Rec will have a detrimental effect as it lies at the heart of our community. The loss will have a massive negative impact on the health and well being of our communities

• It is our only quality space, being flat and centrally located. People feel safe and secure using these fields, being surrounded by roads and housing.

 

• Compensatory land on offer is at the periphery of the district, hard to access and on steep ground making access difficult for elderly people and mothers with small children. Compensatory pockets of land are known to attract and encourage anti-social behaviour.

• There are over 525 trees on the recreation ground. Over 200 native, broad-leaved trees will be destroyed to make way for the new school. Trees reduce carbon emissions from two busy highways and provide habitat for our native wildlife such as birds, squirrels, hedgehogs and bats. Replacement trees will take many years to become established.

• Trees reduce noise pollution created by two busy main roads. Loss of trees will increase noise pollution, particularly with 1650 schoolchildren and additional cars emerging on the site. Residents, many of them elderly, already suffer high levels of noise due to traffic congestion.

• Traffic congestion will increase and cause havoc for residents trying to leave Llanrumney estate, via Llanrumney Avenue. Additionally, traffic along Newport Road will increase. Both roads are already at a standstill, without the impact of additional cars and schoolchildren. 1650 pupils between two busy highways and near several junctions is a major safety concern. The addition of traffic from two new estates (ie at the school sites), will exacerbate the situation.

• The loss of Rumney Rec will have a devastating effect on our community. The grounds are a focal point of our community and have been for over 100 years. It has a proven track record of influencing social cohesion. People exercise, walk their dogs and meet each other socially, whilst benefiting from its exemplary environmental characteristics.

• The Council has IGNORED the majority of resident's views - an 8,000 signature petition and 3,500 objection letters during the consultation phase. The consultation exercise was just a necessary process. It is evident the Council were going to bulldoze through the proposal regardless of local opinion.

• 93.6% of residents voted "No" to the proposal in a recent Referendum. The turnout was larger than the last local election and achieved in only 5 hours, with no proxy, postal votes or information on where people should vote. The Council have totally disregarded people's views, another example of their arrogant intention to bulldoze the proposals through.

• The "downsized" school for 1650 pupils will be on a 3.3 hectare site. It does not meet government recommendations of 10-11 hectares and is a retrograde step.

• Recommendations state that schools should encourage members of the community to use "flexible" school space, not for schools to use existing community space.

• Schoolchildren will be transported to extra playing fields at the current Llanrumney High site an is an admission that Rumney Recreation grounds are, at the outset, too small for the new high school.

• All school grounds have to be fenced for children's safety, thus creating further barriers to access.

We believe the Council will fence off the grounds, if not now then at a later date.

• The School's demands over the grounds and Eastern Leisure Centre will take precedence over others wanting to use the playing fields and amenities. Access to both will be restricted.

• No provision has been made for future population growth. If school expansion is required, more green space and playing fields on the Rec will be lost.

• The Cardiff Deposit Local Development Plan (LDP) not to build on greenfield sites is at odds with the proposal to build on Rumney Recreation Ground.

 

• Rumney Recreation ground should not be regarded as a brownfield site. Eastern Leisure centre was built on the site to complement sporting activity on the grounds. The majority of the site is parkland.

• Capital receipts from the sale of school land will help finance schools reorganisation plans "City wide".

• The Council argue they need £5.6m more to build on Rumney High. This is a small price to pay to safeguard our parklands, a valuable community asset and part of the City's cultural heritage.

• Fewer grass pitches will be available and rugby pitches lost. The City is already suffering from a severe lack of playing fields for sporting activities.

• Sharing the playing fields with a school for 1650 children will leave playing fields with little time to recover, especially in bad weather. The school authority will have to give permission for their use.

• A new High School could be built on Rumney High or Llanrumney High site; the Council's argument about "health & safety issues" is flawed. There are many examples of building and renovation work taking place on occupied school sites.

• The new school, if built, will be the second largest school in Cardiff, built on the second smallest site and will be the first new school ever built on split sites. All to save money. Hardly a "21st Century State Of The Art" school and will not stand the test of time by serving the community well over the next 40 - 50 years

 

The Council have now published their legal notices.

They posted a notice (as per their usual pseudo covert fashion) in the "Western Mail" on Friday 20th March and have nailed up a few notices in the area around the Recreation Ground. For those of you who don't buy the Western Mail (which as the Council are well aware is MOST OF US) and so didn't get to see the Council's notice, you can view it or download it from this link:

 

The Council have stated that their legal notices will be published in the “Western Mail”. The Council are keeping within their statutory obligations by doing this. However, the most popular newspaper read by local people in the area is the evening newspaper, the “South Wales Echo”.

People are also suspicious about the timing of this decision. The fact remains that the Council had moved to proceed with their proposals prior to the issue of their legal notices over the Christmas and New Year period. Fortunately, we managed to get our local Councillors to submit a “call-in” on the decision which disrupted the process and the Council were not able to issue Legal Notices until this matter had been discussed by their Scrutiny Committee. The Council also broke their own Rules because a “call-in” Notice has to be discussed by the Scrutiny Committee within 5 days of it being submitted. This did not happen because they were “inquorate” and the meeting had to be postponed until early in the New Year. That meeting took place on the 12^th January at County Hall and was attended by around 150 of our members.

The timing of the announcement and where Legal Notices will be published appears to be yet another tactic adopted by the Council intended to minimise the impact and amount of objections they expect to receive.