Why is Cardiff Council so far behind the curve on looking after our city’s green spaces and trees?

By Penny Owens

People who live in Cardiff have organised at least 19 campaigns over the last decade to save green spaces and mature trees in our city. These people know the value of nature to us all, and gave large amounts of their time and energy to saving nature. So why is Cardiff Council so far  behind the curve when it comes to looking after our city’s green spaces and mature trees? At the heart of all of this is the question who benefits from the land that makes up our city. Is it Cardiff residents who benefit physically and emotionally from these green spaces and trees, or is it developers and contractors who benefit financially from building on this land? Has Cardiff Council encouraged the pendulum to swing too far in favour of developers?

With the most recent campaign in Cardiff starting up to protect two trees in Neville St, this brings the number of nature campaigns in Cardiff over the last decade that Cardiff Civic Society is aware of up to 19. These campaigns involved the following green spaces and mature trees: Brittania Park, Caedelyn Park, Danescourt Wood, Flaxland Wood, Hailey Park twice (at the pumping station and the Taff Trail), Hendre Lakes SSSI, Howard Gardens, Llandaff Road trees, Llanishen and Lisvane reservoirs, Llwynfedw Gardens, Maindy Park, Neville St trees, Northern Meadows (including Forest Farm Nature Reserve and Lady Cory Field), Parc Coed y Nant, Red House Meadows, Roath Mill and Roath Brook Gardens, and Rhydypenau Wood.

Cardiff Civic Society would like to have a complete list of all nature campaigns in Cardiff over the last 10 years or so. If there are any such campaigns we have missed out, whether this involved just a few people or more, please let Cardiff Civic Society know by emailing us now or commenting at the bottom of this article.

All of these campaigns, whatever their size, have involved local people in huge amounts of their time and energy. Cardiff Civic Society thanks each and every one of you for your commitment to saving nature in Cardiff. Many of these campaigns had to run for years, for example the Reservoir Action Group campaigned from 2001 to 2023 and at one stage had over 2,000 members. Others ran petitions which gathered thousands of signatures. The Save the Northern Meadows petition has nearly 14,000 signatures, and Save Roath Mill and Roath Brook Gardens had 8,700 signatures.

The key question for Cardiff Council to consider is why is it so out of step with thousands of Cardiff residents when it comes to the value we place on the city’s green space and mature trees?