Cardiff council's plans to develop a new school on the site of a historic velodrome have been dealt a potential blow after local residents unanimously opposed a proposed land exchange that would pave the way for the controversial development to go ahead. Earlier this year the council approached the Maindy Park charity, of which it is a trustee, about releasing land at Maindy Park in exchange for land at nearby Blackweir Fields and Caedelyn Park in Rhiwbina, which is not held in trust.
The exchange was proposed so that land at the site, which is home to the famous Maindy Velodrome, could be used as part of the Cathays High School expansion. Plans to expand the high school were approved by the council in October 2021 with a new modern school set to be built and the velodrome moved to the International Sports Village in Cardiff Bay. You can read more about those plans here.
Local residents, who were already opposed to the high school expansion and concerned over the loss of the velodrome which helped kickstart the career of Tour de France winner Geraint Thomas, hit out at the council once again in May after noticing the proposed land exchange being advertised in a local newspaper. A consultation was then held regarding the exchange, with just over 250 local residents responding to voice their views on the matter.
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The response was overwhelmingly one-sided with 248 out of 253 people responding in opposition to the proposals. The results were disclosed after the Save Maindy Velodrome made a request to Cardiff council under the Freedom of Information Act with the response seen by WalesOnline.
Cathays resident Ant Warland said he was not surprised at the response, adding that there had seemingly been "very little support" for the proposals since they were first revealed. Get the latest news from across Cardiff sent straight to your inbox for free by signing up to our newsletters.
"In some ways I was expecting that kind of response as we'd seen from previous consultations that there is an overwhelming opposition to these plans," said Ant, who is also a member of the Save Maindy Velodrome group. "It seems like there has been very little support for them so far. It's been very minimal, literally just a small handful of people writing in favour of them, compared to hundreds who are opposed.
He had previously told WalesOnline that the land swap proposal "didn't make a lot of sense," adding: "They are proposing to exchange Maindy Park for an area of land that is already public open access. They are not actually giving anything [to] the beneficiaries of Maindy Park. We can already access those things so it doesn't amount to the same as what we had before."
In its role as the local education authority as well as the sole trustee of the Maindy Park Trust, which is responsible for the land, the council has a conflict of interest when it decides on any change of use at the site. It has said that a number of recommendations have been made regarding its decision-making process in this case with a new independent sub-committee potentially introduced to avoid any such conflicts of interest.
A report recommending the creation of a new decision-making process is to be examined by a scrutiny committee on September 26 before going to cabinet two days later. In a statement the council said that any new process would take the findings of the recent consultation into consideration along with other relevant information.
However these plans have also been met with scepticism by residents like Ant. He said: "The council have now admitted that there is a conflict of interest and now they've set up this committee to independently manage it. To be honest I'm not sure how it can be totally independent if it's being set up by the council. To me it just seems like its another way for them to ignore what the community's telling them, which is we don't want this change."
In a statement the council said: "A number of recommendations are now being brought to Cardiff Council's cabinet when it meets on Wednesday, September 28, to ensure there is an independent element in the decision-making process in relation to any land swap. Cabinet members that have previously voted on decisions relating to the Cathays High School project would declare a conflict of interest and so remove themselves from the land proposals decision-making process.
"A Maindy Park Trust Advisory Committee would be formed, made up of three independent members of the standards and ethics committee and/or the governance and audit committee. The trust decision will be made by cabinet members that have not previously voted on decisions relating to the Cathays High School project while taking the recommendations of the Maindy Park Trust Advisory Committee into consideration."
The statement continued: "The council has already consulted on carrying out a land swap which would see a larger amount of parkland at Blackweir or at Cae Delyn given to the trust in exchange for any land required at Maindy for the new school. The new decision-making process would consider the consultation and other relevant information."
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