The four central parks of Cardiff Bute Park, Sophia Gardens, Pontcanna Fields and Llandaff Fields, are fundamental to the character of the city and a huge asset to Wales.   We owe them to a combination of luck, aristocratic generosity, public campaigning, and foresight by past city councillors and officers; for without these the whole area would have been built on in the 19th century. According to CADW, ‘The whole complex is an asset to the city of incomparable historic visual and amenity value’.   

However since the 1920’s there has been a process of increasing developmental erosion cutting into this green space.  The creation of Western Avenue sliced through the top of the Fields and much of the area to the north became UWIC; the Welsh Joint Education Council was given a slice of Llandaff Fields and is now building a massive new office block; HTV was allowed to build on Pontcanna Fields – subsequently sold for housing; the Welsh Institute for Sport, the Bowling Club and Glamorgan Cricket Club were all given chunks of Sophia Gardens.  Now GCCC has increased its ground capacity to 17,000 and Sophia Gardens sees more car use every day as the GCCC council-subsidised complex is used as a conference centre. Most of Bute Park was intact until recently although the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama was given a major site on North Road and now is expanding on parkland.

In the last 10 years the pace of development has changed and we’re seeing incremental destruction and accelerating inappropriate use.

The GCCC wanted more parking so senior council officers steamrollered plans for over 90 more car parking spaces in Sophia Gardens which were to be ‘managed’ by GCCC. This expanded parking requires the demolition of floodlight tennis courts to allow parking for Sky TV vans. The 2008 Eisteddfod resulted in a huge area of Pontcanna Fields being fenced off from May 2008 for a one week event in August that year.

Now the Council, seemingly led by its senior officers, proposes to drive a massive new bridge into Bute Park and replace footpaths with 4-6 metre wide roadways although  the initial proposal produced widespread public opposition, condemnation from CADW and was refused by Cardiff’s own planning officers in January 2008.

Some of these developments may be individually justified, and in some cases are institutions that may be of national importance, but viewed in its entirety the effect is devastating. Roughly half of the area that belongs to the people of Cardiff has been fenced off or built on and effectively or actually privatised.

How has this happened? Each proposal for development has been looked at piecemeal and the Council and councillors of all parties, who should have been protecting Cardiff’s future, have been swayed by short term gain and illusory promises of profit from development.

What you can do

Join Bute Parks Alliance and add your voice to the campaign for a moratorium on development. Write to your councillors, Assembly Members and MP.  Together we can stop this vandalism of Cardiff’s green heart.

If you would like more information or a membership application please email info@buteparksalliance.org