Save our park!

I do not usually use my blog to campaign, but I would like to make an exception today for the sake of Bute Park in Cardiff.

We are most fortunate to have an extensive and beautiful park running through the heart of Cardiff. It has areas of formal ornamental gardens, is home for rare and unusual trees and plants, supports a varied wildlife, has sports fields and wild areas. The park is well-used and loved by Cardiff residents and many events take place in Cooper's Field near Cardiff castle, such as fireworks extravaganzas and horticultural shows.

There are a number of interesting sculptures in the park, such as the amusing one featured in this photograph. 'ö-Dzin has taken many wonderful photographs of Bute park—on his journey through it on his bicycle comuting to work—and you can see some of these at his fickr pages. Our lovely park graces the banks of the river Taff, with a number of bridges of differing styles traversing it.

Pontcanna Riding Stables nestles within the park and it is possible to ride round part of it on horseback. When I rode regularly at this establishment, before and after buying Dee from them, I used to cycle to the Stables along the Taff trail which is accessible near to my home. It was a real pleasure to visit Bute Park so regularly and witness its varying guises as the seasons and the weather changed.

The park was given to Cardiff by the Marquis of Bute in 1947 for the enjoyment of its citizens. However naughty Cardiff council are now planning to put a road through the park and build on part of it. This would be disastrous for the future of the park and set an unfortunate precedent. Many ancient trees will be destroyed for this development, and large areas of grassland.

If you too love inner city parkland and feel that it is an essentiual facility for the health of city dwellers, please sign the petition to urge Cardiff Council to abandon their plans to destroy part of our park. It does not matter if you live outside the UK, or have never visited Cardiff, please sign the petition online if you value the undisturbed continuation of this historic and beautiful park. Thank you.