SAVE OUR ALLOTMENTS! Lib Dems resist Tory car park suggestion for allotment land

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Sat 26th Jul 2008

Cllr. Cathy Pearcy, John Dixon, Cllr. Fenella Bowden and Cllr. Ed Bridges are resisting a Conservative suggestion that land at Flaxland Allotments should be considered for use as a car park.

Liberal Democrats in Gabalfa and Heath have expressed their horror at suggestions from the Conservatives that allotment land in the area should be considered for car parking.

The land, at Flaxland Allotments, is legally classified as allotment space, but local Conservatives recently submitted a petition to the Welsh Assembly calling on them to consider using it as a car park for the University Hospital.

Cllr. Ed Bridges, Lib Dem councillor for Gabalfa ward, said: "We are appalled by this proposal. This is public land in an area which is desperately short of public open space. This land should be used to provide recreational space for the local community, not to be concreted over to make way for a car park."

Part of the land at Flaxland Allotments is currently contaminated and not deemed suitable for allotment use. The Lib Dems have suggested that this land should be used as a public open space, or made into a community garden until such time as it is safe to revert to allotment use.

Cllr. Cathy Pearcy and Cllr. Ed Bridges have spoken regularly with members of the Flaxland Allotment Association about the need to protect the allotments from development.

Cllr. Fenella Bowden, councillor for Heath & Birchgrove, said: "Parking congestion is clearly a problem in our area, but that problem should not be resolved at the expense of green open space. This land should be used to benefit the local community."

The Lib Dems have set up a petition against the proposal, calling on Cardiff Council to resist any suggestion that the land should be considered for car parking. To add your name to the petition, contact Cllr. Ed Bridges or Cllr. Fenella Bowden.

The Tory suggestion has also been slammed by local Lib Dem Parliamentary spokesman, John Dixon, who said it was evidence that the Conservatives still had lessons to learn on environmental issues. John told us: "This plan shows that the Tories haven't changed their views on the environment one bit. The Conservatives simply can't be trusted to take environmental issues seriously."