Council criticised over cycleway scheme in historic park

Ted Peskett, local democracy reporter

Cardiff Council has been heavily criticised for the way it developed a new cycleway in one of the city’s most popular parks.

A meeting of two of the local authority’s scrutiny committees on Thursday, October 30, discussed the scheme to improve the area in and around Roath Recreational Ground.

Councillors, members of the public and other stakeholders told the council it needed to learn lessons from the scheme, which recently saw “M4-style” lighting installed along the new path at the grade I-listed rec.

Not listened

The lights were later removed, but campaigners and residents said it was another example of how the local authority had not listened to more opinions before carrying out work.

One resident, Peter Banks, said at the meeting: “What we have got is a great big black tarmacadam road that goes for 400 yards, then you have got to get off your bike, cross Ninian Road and continue on.

“We haven’t got a nice, environmental, blended cycle path. We have got a great big road, black tarmac going through the middle of a beautiful listed park.

“That is the reality. I don’t think anyone would object to a gentle, sympathetic cycle path going through the park. Why would you?”

Frustrated

Members of the Save Roath Rec campaign also said they are not opposed to the idea of a cycle path, but are frustrated about the way the council has carried out its work.

One of their main concerns was that the council built the shared pedestrian and cycle path further into the rec than it said it would in earlier consultations.

A member of Save Roath Rec, Lucy Griffiths, said: “We are conservationists and support active travel. Our concerns have focussed on the delivery and the finishes of the scheme.

“The rec is a grade I-registered park. Highways did not apply for planning to build 10m into the field, so Welsh Historic Gardens Trust and Cadw procedures have not been followed. Has the council broken the law with this?

“Ninian Road is a conservation area and residents must observe the council’s conservation appraisal. Why did the council not observe the rules that it enforces?”

Works at and around the park include installing new crossings, bus stops and paths.

Cardiff Council’s director of planning, transport and environment, Andrew Gregory, said the scheme will play a crucial role in promoting travel by walking and cycling.

He said: “What people tell you is that they don’t feel safe cycling unless they are segregated from traffic.”

Mr Gregory also said the shared path on the rec will be an “amazing” facility for families to teach their children how to cycle and the paths being replaced are a “mess” and difficult to navigate for cyclists and people with pushchairs.

He added: “Although they are very popular… we all know in wet weather they become unusable.”

However, Mrs Griffiths said those paths were only in that condition because they weren’t maintained.

She added: “In my living memory… it has never been maintained. I have sprained my ankle on it. There are ditches because it is so well used.

“Really, it is like [using] a sledgehammer to crack a nut. They just needed to maintain the parks and could have widened it to include the bikes. That seemed like a sensible solution.”

Consultation

The consultation process was something the council was criticised for, with one transport expert saying the “fragmentation of the information is hard for public accessibility”.

Councillors and residents also picked up on this, saying the communication was not widespread or clear enough.

Mr Gregory himself said there was room for improvement in terms of the way the council engaged with people about the scheme and the communication that took place over it.

The chair of Friends of Roath Park, Margaret Richards, said she did not have direct contact with the planning team on the scheme and saw information about the scheme plastered on lamp-posts.

When work commenced on the shared path at Roath Rec, people soon found out the number of pitches would be reduced from four to three, leaving one rugby club having to “scramble” for a new home.

Cardiff Saracens Rugby Football Club said it supports the cycle path and understands the need for people to reduce their carbon footprints.

However, on the reduction of the pitches it added: “This was information that was not given readily as we were heading towards the start of the 23-24 season when we were informed of this and as such we had to scramble to keep our home at Roath Rec.

“We had to re-arrange matches to be played away because we didn’t have a home pitch to play on. We had to buy our own rugby posts with the help of fundraising from the local community.”

The council said the reduction of pitches is a temporary measure, but it will be reviewing how many pitches are required at each site across the city.

Heritage impact assessment

In a statement read out at the scrutiny committee meeting on Thursday, Cadw also said the council should have carried out a heritage impact assessment from the outset.

This, and council officers saying they needed to move the shared path further into the park because they realised having it too close would affect the copper beech trees lining Ninian Road, caused councillors to raise concerns.

A Conservative member of the environmental scrutiny committee, Cllr John Lancaster, said it struck him that a lot more pre-consultation work needs to be done on future projects.

Liberal Democrat member of the economy and culture scrutiny committee, Cllr Rodney Berman, also questioned if more thought could have been put into where the council placed the new path before going out to consultation on it.

The multi-million pound Roath Rec project will also involve changes to some of the junctions nearby.

Right turns from from Wellfield Road on to Marlborough Road will be prohibited, as will right turns from Marlborough Road onto Penylan Road.

Speaking on behalf of residents who raised objections to this, Jeremy Sparkes, said: “Our community, which includes Marlborough Road Primary School, is deeply concerned at the impact the proposed junction changes will have in generating more traffic past the school’s principal pupil entrance and on our narrow residential streets.”

In his representation, Mr Sparkes quoted from a statement made by the primary school’s governing body, which read: “If these proposed turning movement bans were to come into force, we have no doubt that we would see an increase in traffic using alternatives routes around the school site specifically to work around the new prohibitions.”

Cardiff Council said these restrictions were being brought in to reduce the delay to traffic at the junction.

Disagreements

Summing up at the end of the meeting, Mr Gregory said: “The scheme we are getting to at the end of this engagement, we still think is a good one, but lets be clear there are differences, there are disagreements. We acknowledge that.”

He also said the shared path had to be 5m wide because Welsh Government policy requires footways to be 2m wide and cycleways to be 3m to 4m wide.

The issue of the location of the path was raised again, with Mr Gregory saying they wanted it as close to the trees lining Ninian Road as possible without damaging their roots.

He added: “You end up with something, yes that is more than what we would have wanted in certain respects but it was there because policy needed it.

“There [are] differences we don’t agree about, the transport modelling, that is clear.

“Claire has done extensive modelling, but we understand… local residents may feel differently. We worked to the best advice we had in terms of transport.”

Head of transport at the council, Claire Moggridge, said: “I am satisfied that the consultation process done by officers who work for me was very robust. They have worked very hard and I support them 200%.

“We consult with many people, not just the local residents and everybody has conflicting views.

“It is difficult, but as Andrew said, we acknowledge that maybe we can look at that again and we are committed… to look again.

“Each scheme is different. How we consulted on the closure of the bus station historically followed a certain communication process, how we consulted on the tram train… followed a certain process.

“Every project requires to be assessed in its own means. This is by no means a large value project for us and maybe that is where we made the error.”