‘Our park is a gem, please don’t ruin it’

Mar 13 2008 by Katie Norman, South Wales Echo

CONCERNS have been raised over plans to remove trees to build an access road to Cardiff’s Bute Park.

Protesters have been tying ribbons around tree trunks in and around the park to highlight their opposition to Cardiff council’s plans for a new service road off North Road.

The council is seeking permission to create a dedicated road into Bute Park for council vehicles and articulated lorries delivering for major events. Protesters have raised concerns about the impact of a road on the park’s ambience and the possible damage to or removal of nearby memorial trees.

Anne Greagsby, of Beulah Road, Rhiwbina, Cardiff, is a member of Friends of the Earth and the Green Party. She said: “Parks are supposed to be places of tranquillity. If they want events they should be low-key and environmentally friendly and not involve having to destroy the very park they’re taking place in.

“It’s horrendous to even consider what they’re doing. They’re going to have lorries going through the park when it should be about pedestrians and cyclists.

“This is our beautiful park and it’s one of Cardiff’s jewels. We should be protecting it.

“Are they so desperate to make money from these events that they have to lop down trees and put in roads for articulated lorries?”

The council has already removed and trimmed several trees in the area surrounding the proposed new entrance. It claimed the work was necessary as part of regular park maintenance but protesters believe the council wanted to rid the park of surrounding trees to help ease through the planning application.

Ms Greagsby said: “I just don’t believe that this was a coincidence. It helps them because it stops people bringing up issues about the damage to wildlife and birds. Their attitude seems to be that if there are no trees, there is no nesting and no objections.”

Before the Echo arrived to photograph the protesters, a group of Cardiff council contract workers threatened to call the police.

The council was informed about the threat and, in response, officers asked the contractors to leave while the photographs were taken in an attempt to avoid further conflict.

A spokeswoman said the contractors had been taking soil samples. She said the number of trees to be affected by the proposed new entrance would not be made public until the matter was considered by the council’s planning committee on Wednesday. She said: “A tree report is being prepared to be presented to the planning committee next week.”

She said the park’s beauty was important but a new entrance was needed to facilitate access. She said: “The current access arrangements for vehicles are unsatisfactory and unsafe and, therefore, the application is simply to separate vehicles and pedestrians as far as possible.”

katie.norman@mediawales.co.uk