Thousands of people have signed a petition to save a Cardiff ice rink following proposals to turn it into a leisure facility. Proposals have been put forward to turn the second ice pad at Ice Arena Wales into an "alternative family leisure attraction" with a 'clip and climb' facility, according to an agenda from a Cardiff Council scrutiny committee meeting held in January.
Ice Arena Wales, which forms part of the International Sports Village in Cardiff, has two ice rinks previously used by members of the public, ice hockey team the Cardiff Devils and figure skaters. The second ice pad was closed as a result of the lockdowns in 2020 and 2021, and Cardiff Council says that it has not been used consistently for a number of years.
In an agenda report ahead of an economy and culture scrutiny committee meeting on January 18, it said the council had received a recommendation to progress dialogue with a preferred operator for Ice Arena Wales, with further negotiations required to refine details of the lease agreement. The arena is in full ownership of the council and it was proposed to "move quickly towards completing a lease agreement with a preferred bidder" to establish the facility's future. A lease agreement is now due to be signed "imminently".
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As part of the preferred bid, it has been proposed to make "better commercial use" of the area used for a second ice pad. The agenda of scrutiny committee meeting states that the area has not been used consistently as a second ice pad for some time due to the "significant energy costs" related to keeping the ice pad chilled, with the energy crisis exacerbating the issue.
It is proposed that the area would instead be converted into an "alternative family leisure attraction" with a 'clip and climb' facility, aimed at attracting children and young people. The intention is that the area would be sublet to a specialist operator.
A Cardiff Council spokesperson confirmed: "The second pad has not been used consistently for some years as private operators found it commercially unviable. Current energy prices have only made realising a profit on a second pad even more difficult.
"The proposal put forward by the preferred bidder to operate the Ice Arena maintains full provision of one ice pad and a lease agreement will be signed imminently. The costs of any conversion to a climbing play area would be carried by the private operator, not the council."
However, a petition has been launched campaigning for the second ice pad to be kept in use, stating that the effect on regular users of the rink would be "phenomenal". The petition reads: "There is already significant competition for ice time between the various sports which has had the ultimate effect of children and athletes losing out on ice time."
At the time of writing, the petition has over 2,700 signatures. Commenting on the petition, Sarah Porter said: "I am a coach there and it would be nice to have ice time available to offer more lessons." One parent added: "My 13-year-old daughter trains with the Comets on a Wednesday night. Training finishes at 11pm, and gets home at midnight. She has no other option - this is the only time ice is available. She’s also unable to join the junior team, as there is no space for her age group. Again, this is down to capacity."
Another said: "My two daughters are members of the synchronised ice skating team, the team never seems to get enough ice time as the competition for ice time on pad one is always fierce. If they turn pad two into a soft play area it would mean this situation would never improve."
Councillors have also spoken against the proposal, arguing that the demand for a second rink is there. Conservative Councillor Catriona Brown-Reckless said: “My children love learning to ice skate there, and I have seen for myself how packed out the ice rink has been this winter, and if they close one of the ice rinks there won’t be enough capacity for both our incredible figure skaters and amazing Cardiff Devils ice hockey players.”
"I don’t understand why they are closing a perfectly good ice rink that is only about seven years old and cost a fortune to build. The ice rink is a valuable community asset and should not just be thrown away.”
Peter Littlechild, councillor for Pontprennau and Old St Mellons said: “If Cardiff ice rink can’t afford to freeze the second ice rink, we should work towards a business plan to make it viable, encouraging other ice sports like curling. If you want to try this in Wales, the only rink offering curling is Deeside. They could expand the figure skating coaching programme creating more ice time available.
"If, at this moment in time, the second rink isn’t viable, we should use the area as a flexible space, to help other sports that already use the unfrozen rink, always leaving the possibility of being able to re-freeze it in future. The last thing we need is another soft play on our ice rink.”
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