Drovers' Way playground update

A grim and depressing sight

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Residents will know that we have been working for a long time with Cardiff Council, Redrow and the Clos Parc Radur Management Committee to resolve some serious issues affecting this playground. In fact, over three years have gone by since we first raised this matter with Cardiff Council.

For its part, Cardiff Council has an annual budget of around £90k for the 150 playgrounds it is responsible for. That, clearly, has an impact on how quickly it can deal with this type of issue.

Matters are still progressing, however. And, as the drainage under and around the playground continues to collapse and deteriorate, rainwater now pours out of the manhole and floods onto Radyr Tennis Club's courts - causing thousands of pounds worth of damage.

This has increased the need to resolve this issue as soon as possible. The good news is that Cardiff Council has received a grant from the Welsh Government to further investigate the drainage problem - and to develop models to determine how the flow of water across and under the site should be managed in future. The modelling is expensive - costing around £40k! The results should be available towards the end of March.

At that point, Cardiff will have to find the considerable sum of money it will need to replace and improve the drainage system. It will probably want to do so quickly, however, since it could well be liable for future damage to the tennis courts.

​Then we can turn to the task of renovating the playground itself.

So that's where we are.

We live in the sixth largest economy in the world (based on nominal GDP) - but fixing a children's playground in Cardiff takes over three years. It makes you think!