When Cardiff council placed details of plans to "dispose" of 59,240 square metres of land - about the size of eight football pitches - at Hailey Park in Llandaff North there was outrage.
Hundreds of people were concerned and community group Friends Of Hailey Park issued a statement on Saturday, June 4, saying it was "extremely concerned at the scale" of the development and shared residents' "frustration and disappointment". Meanwhile, Llandaff North Residents' Association called for an an emergency public meeting to be held on Thursday, June 9.
Hundreds of people joined the event for the 'Save Hailey Park' meeting to stop more than a quarter of the space from being lost. "Our two councillors know nothing about it and will be making enquiries after the jubilee weekend. This sell off is just one of several damaging attacks on our park, and we've organised this public meeting for residents to come along, find out more, and have their voices heard," the organisers wrote.
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Hundreds of people went on social media to voice concerns, and the ward councillor, who is also the city council's cabinet representative for parks, said she would find out the details and get back to people as soon as the council reopened after the bank holiday.
Now it has emerged that the 59,240 square metres of land was a typo, and it should have actually read just 1,500 square metres, about a fifth of a football pitch.
The popular park is frequented by dog walkers, cyclists, families and sports team, and provides a range of play and sports facilities. It is located right next to the Llandaff North RFC's clubhouse on Radyr Road. Their teams use the park's pitches for training and matches. The park's pitches are also used by Whitchurch Rugby Club. You can read all our latest Cardiff stories here.
They also explained that no green space will be lost, and that the term "disposal" is a legal term which has been misconstrued. In the case of Hailey Park, it relates to a proposed community lease to allow a local sports club to invest in facilities, and only relates to the existing changing rooms, car park and access road.
A council spokesperson said: “An advert was placed in the Western Mail on 27th May 2022 by Cardiff Council under s.123 of the Local Government Act 1972, outlining a proposal to dispose of 59,000 square metres of land at Hailey Park. The advert should have referred to 1,500 square metres.
“The proposed disposal is for a Community Lease to enable a local sports club to secure grant funding to enable investment in the existing changing rooms and to provide a drainage scheme for the two adjacent sports pitches shown edged blue. The land would remain in council ownership and to be clear, no green space would be lost, if the proposal is agreed.
“The Community Lease only relates to the existing changing rooms, car park and access road, shown edged in red on the plan, which is c1,500 sq m, and not the whole park as originally suggested. The Council is seeking representations on the proposal to lease the land to the local sports club land prior to proceeding.”
Cllr Burke-Davies, a Labour councillor for the ward, tweeted the above explanation and added: "For my part, I have spoken to officers of the need to ensure local members are appropriately briefed and aware before publication, the need for attention to detail, transparency and understanding of the process. We can only serve our communities if we know what’s happening.
"I want to work with communities across Cardiff to protect & enhance our green spaces but being accused of lying and corruption before having the opportunity to gather information is distressing, unhelpful and inflammatory."