Save Rumney Recreation Ground & Eastern Leisure Centre
RREEL Action Group
The Council's Exhibition
The Council put up what they called an exhibition in Eastern Leisure Centre which was supposed to explain what they propose to do.
As can be seen from the above photo and the PDFs below, they weren't exactly going out of their way to inform anyone of anything. The plans tell us almost nothing about what they propose and are pitifully lacking in any useful detail.
The exhibition was located in the café area of the Eastern Leisure Centre and ran for one week only from Wednesday 11th to Tuesday 17th February 2009.
You can either view or download the plans to view in PDF format from the links below. You will need a PDF reader such as Adobe Acrobat Reader to view these PDF files.
All three sites as they exist at the moment
The Council's Proposal
During the summer of 2007 the Council announced its proposal to build a new Secondary High school on Rumney Recreation Ground. The school would also incorporate the current Eastern Leisure Centre. The closure of the two current schools would ensue - namely, Llanrumney High School and Rumney High School and the land would be sold off for developement. Both these schools are surrounded by large green, open spaces. The Rumney High School site, in particular, holds commanding views across the Bristol Channel, which is considered to be prime land for housing development. The council claim that the capital receipts from the sale of the two school sites would raise capital to develop the new build school and refurbish the leisure centre.
However, local people quickly realised that if this particular proposal in its present form were to continue unopposed and Cardiff City Council were to proceed with this plan, then this would amount to the Council conducting nothing more than a land grab - not only selling off two prime school sites but also proposing to build a new school on our beloved RUMNEY/LLANRUMNEY RECREATION GROUND. It is not the building of a new school, or the amalgamation of the two schools which residents are opposed to, but WHERE the Council want to build the new school that has become the “bone of contention”. The local communities were outraged that the Council appear to be land grabbing and are, in essence, also asset stripping our community for fiscal gain. Rumney Recreation Ground has been an inherent part of our community for generations and, as far as the local communities are concerned, it is not negotiable.
During late Summer/early Autumn of 2007, 8,500 people signed a petition opposing the development of a school on Rumney Recreation Ground. This was the largest petition the Council had ever received.
