Seeking 2 rowing machines! Can you help?

The Pantmawr Action Group will be holding a Row-Athon at the Pantmawr Inn if we can get hold of 2 rowing machines. Can you help us? Please email savepantmawr@hotmail.co.uk if we can borrow yours for the day. Thanks!

Fundraiser Day at the Pantmawr Inn!

As you are probably aware PAG is looking to raise funds for the legal fees we will encounter during our fight against the proposed development of the Pantmawr Inn site.

We would like to organise a fundraising day on Saturday 19th July.

The venue will be the grounds of the Pantmawr Inn commencing at 12.00.

We hope you will attend and pay us a visit on the day to support the cause. In the meantime we could do with volunteers to help organise and help during the day. If you have any fundraising ideas or would like to take part please contact one of the coordinators listed below. We would especially like to see some local children running their own stalls. If there are any young people wishing to do so please contact Sue Rawlinson on 20624218.

The following stalls need donations of items, if you have any please contact a coordinator and they will arrange to collect from you.
Can and Bottle Stall - Anne Leyshon 20624939
Books, CD’s DVD’s and Handicrafts - Gill/Judith 20623466
Toy Stall - Gail 20693007
White Elephant - Claire 20655738
Cake Stall - Pat 20613234
Plant Stall - Hugh

Attractions for the day include a supervised bouncy castle, pig roast, balloon man, music in the pub after 6.00 pm, face painting and hopefully more. If you have any other ideas please contact us.

All funds raised will go to the Pantmawr Action Group in aid of our legal fees.

Thank you in anticipation
PANTMAWR ACTION GROUP

Latest Pantmawr Action Group newsletter

PANTMAWR ACTION GROUP NEWSLETTER
MAY 30TH 2008

The Appeal against the decision by Cardiff Council to reject the application to demolish the Pantmawr Inn and build Flats and Townhouses on the site is now to be the subject of a Public Inquiry. During the coming week all those of you who sent a letter about the proposed development to Cardiff Council Planning Department earlier this year should receive a letter from them advising you of this. We do not yet know the date on which the Inquiry will be held, but it is likely to extend over a number of days.

We understand that many of you have already written to the Planning Inspectorate at Cathays Park, but you do not need to as your previous letter to the Council will be passed on to the Inspector. If you do wish to write because you have something further to add, you should note that they require 3 copies of your letter. We would also be grateful if you could pass a copy to our Chairman at 115, Caer Wenallt or to another member of the Committee as we wish to monitor the objections that are being made.

This is now a very different situation from the application to the Council. While anyone can speak at the Inquiry, with the Inspector’s agreement, it is important for the success of our case that only planning issues are raised. Any other comments will be ignored. The Inspector will also not wish numerous people to stand up and make the same point over and over again, particularly if they are not directly affected themselves by the development. That will be counterproductive and will not help us to win this Appeal. Anyone who does speak may also be questioned by Lawyers acting for the Applicant and Cardiff Council.

The Action Group have applied to the Inspectorate to be what is called a Rule 6 party. This will give us certain privileges that individuals will not have. We will be allowed to use a Lawyer to present our case at the Inquiry and he will be able to cross examine the Applicant’s and Cardiff Council’s witnesses (eg their planning officers). We would like as many residents of Pantmawr as possible to agree to be represented by us and our legal team. Our case will be very much stronger if we are united. Those whose properties back onto the site, or will be affected by the development in other ways, will still be able to give their views on the effect the development will have on them.

Pooling together will also shorten the length of the Inquiry, which will please the Inspector and should reduce our legal fees. Even so, Legal representation will be expensive and we are appealing for donations which can be proportionally returned if the money is not used. You can send a cheque payable to ‘Pantmawr Action Group’ and include your name and address to our Treasurer, Mrs Jill Edwards, 34 Heol Ffynon Wen, Pantmawr, Cardiff, CF14 7TP. If you prefer, you can give a cash donation to the PAG Committee Member who calls to see you about representation. If you wish to make bank transfer, please consult our Treasurer on 029 20656966. A receipt will be issued and accounts for the group are available on request. We will also be holding a number of fund-raising events over the coming weeks and months. Please support us.

We will keep you informed of any developments via newsletters and our website www.savepantmawr.org. A PAG Committee Member will be visiting every house in Pantmawr soon to obtain a signature confirming your support. This will also provide you with an opportunity to get more information on a one to one basis.

Join us on Facebook here.

Pirates and princesses at the Pantmawr!

The Pantmawr Inn continues to be the hub of social activity for the Pantmawr Garden Village, and on the weekend hosted a pirates and princesses birthday party! PANTMAWR CANNOT LOSE THIS SOCIAL AMENITY!

British BBQ Champion at the Pantmawr this Saturday!

Join us tomorrow for BBQ fun and frolics. Starting early afternoon, Ben - the British BBQ Champion will be serving up tasty morcels all afternoon!


All prices include a serving of salad and a Jacket Potato.

• Rack of ribs US style full rack - £7.99


• and half rack - £5.99


• Hot & Spicy Rump Steak - £6.99


• Smoked Trout - £7.99


• BBQ Burger - £4.99


• Bananas & Baileys - £2.99

See you there!

Assembly to rule on Pantmawr Inn's future as developers appeal

Assembly to rule on pub’s future as developers appeal

Katie Norman, South Wales Echo

DEVELOPERS have appealed against the rejection of controversial plans to build flats and houses on the site of a popular pub.
Proposals to build on the site of the Pantmawr Inn, Pantmawr, Cardiff, were rejected by Cardiff council’s planning committee after a lengthy residents’ campaign against the idea.
But Asbri Planning, which represents developer Charles Church and landowner Mitchells and Butlers, has appealed to the National Assembly.
The Pantmawr Action Group (PAG), which formed to try to save the pub, has said it will continue its campaign against the plans.
The Assembly’s planning inspectorate, based at Cathays Park, Cardiff, will now have 30 weeks to look at the appeal.
Asbri Planning has asked the inspectorate to consider the application on written representation alone, without a public inquiry.
But a public inquiry could be held if the Assembly receives enough demands for such action from the public.
Ward councillor Jayne Cowan said she fully supported PAG and believed a public inquiry would be in their interests.
“It would mean there would be a site meeting and the campaigners could show the full scale of the impact, as they have done previously,” she said.
A public meeting to discuss the situation has been organised at All Saints Church Hall, Rhiwbina, Cardiff, at 7pm on Monday, May 26.

WRITE TO THE PLANNING INSPECTORATE NOW!

Local Cllr Jayne Cowan has just sent us this update...

"Just a short note to advise that I have made contact with the Planning Inspectorate and they have confirmed the following contact details for people wishing to make their representations.

Although the application has not been formally registered, this should be done in the next few days.

The Planning Inspectorate
Crown Buildings
Cathays Park
Cardiff
CF10 3NQ

Telephone: 029 2082 3866
Fax: 029 2082 5150

wales@planning-inspectorate.gsi.gov.uk

wales@pins.gsi.gov.uk

I will also post this on our website www.rhiwbinaward.com"

M&B and Charles Church have appealed

Local Cllrs Jayne, Adrian and Brian contacted the Pantmawr Action Group with the following:

We are sorry to advise that Mitchells and Butler and Charles Church have appealed against the Pantmawr Inn Decision.

We are putting out a flyer to every house in Pantmawr to advise them of this over the next few days.

A public meeting has been arranged for Monday 26th May, 7pm at All Saints Church Hall.

Please contact us with your views which we will forward to the National Assembly for Wales.

Best wishes

Jayne, Adrian and Brian

Email Jayne - JCowan@cardiff.gov.uk

PLEASE CHECK BACK HERE SOON FOR MORE DETAILS.

The Pantmawr PARTY!

Come and celebrate the Pantmawr victory with us, this Friday at the Pantmawr Inn!

Letter from the First Minister

Dear Sue,

I was very pleased to hear that the well supported campaign against the redevelopment of the Pantmawr site was successful and Cardiff Council's Planning Committee recently turned down the application.

I am well aware of the importance of the pub, especially for the Pantmawr residents, and that since the closure of the Heol Ffynnon Wen shops, it is the only facility on the estate available for the local community's use.

It is also an important part of the living heritage of North Cardiff, a place where people can meet and can now enjoy good value food & drink in a well-run establishment.

The future may not yet be totally secure, but the Committee's decision, reflecting local people's concerns as well as needs, is an important step in preserving the Pantmawr for future generations and I wish you and the pub every success.

Yours

Rhodri

Celebratory emails from campaign supporters

The Pantmawr Action Group has received a huge number of emails following the Planning Committee voting NO to development. Here's just some of them:

A short note to say many thanks for all the hard work that you’ve put in on the campaign to stop the Pantmawr planning application. My wife and I moved here last year, and we quickly realised the importance of the pub as a focus for the estate and a place for our three year old daughter to play. We were horrified at the prospect of losing it before we’d really had a chance to get to know it, and I have no doubt that this would have been the result had you not decided to press the case with such commitment and innovation. I’ve attended the last two planning meetings and the site visit and have been amazed at the support that you’ve mobilised. Pantmawr is fortunate to have you. [Pantmawr resident]

Congratulations and thanks to all concerned for achieving this result. By mounting such a professional and well informed campaign you have demonstrated how members of the community can exert a real and positive influence over decisions which affect them. You have also highlighted a worrying naivety and lack of rigour in the way that the planning and highway officers handled such a badly prepared proposal. Hopefully lessons will be learned in County Hall. [Elwyn Owen, Pantmawr resident]

Congratulations. What an amazing result. Everyone worked so hard to ensure the right result was achieved. [Independent Cllr Jayne Cowan]

Latest newsletter to residents

PANTMAWR ACTION GROUP NEWSLETTER – 18th APRIL 2008

PANTMAWR INN SITE PLANNING APPLICATION

You should all be aware by now from other notes around the Estate that the Planning Application for 34 dwellings on the Pantmawr Inn site was rejected by the Planning Committee. Excluding the Chairman, of the six Councillors present and able to vote, five voted to reject the application and one abstained. From a point of view of fairness we should make it quite clear that Adrian Robson, the Independent Councillor for this area on the Planning Committee, was obliged to declare an interest and withdraw as he had publicly stated his opposition to the plans prior to becoming a member of the Committee. A comment that he didn’t bother to vote is inaccurate. The Labour Councillor present voted in favour of rejection.

We would like to record our grateful thanks to our local Councillors Jayne Cowan, Adrian Robson and Gareth Neale for the support they have given us during our campaign to defeat this application. We have also been supported by Julie Morgan MP, Jonathan Morgan AM, Chris Franks AM and others. We would also like to acknowledge the fantastic support we have received from residents of Pantmawr especially and users of the Pantmawr Inn. Without their demonstration of support at the two planning meetings and at the site visit it is possible we would not have achieved a positive result. However, the applicants can appeal to the National Assembly for Wales against the decision by the Council or they could submit a new application to develop the site. We cannot allow ourselves to be complacent.

We should emphasise our campaign is not just about saving the Pantmawr Inn, but about rejecting totally unsuitable developments on the site.

PS. Could the person who contacted the Chairman about Bats please ring him again on 20628484 and remind him of their address so that he can let them have the promised copy of the report on the survey that was carried out last year.

PANTMAWR ON ITV!

We're on the telly!

ITV Wales visited the Pantmawr Inn to cover our campaign. Click here or copy and paste the following into your address bar.

http://www.itvlocal.com/wales/?player=WAL_HomePage_15&void=174839

Echo reports site visit! Balloons lift protesters’ pub demo to a new level!

Story in today's Echo, by Laura Wright.

"A PROTEST group made sure that a council planning committee had plenty to see when they made a site visit to a threatened pub.
Plans have gone before Cardiff council to replace the Pantmawr Inn, in Pantmawr, Cardiff, with flats. But residents have fought the plans from the outset and even set up a naked protest to make sure they were noticed.
This time round, up to 300 people turned up at the pub for the planning committee site visit to show their objections with visual aids yesterday.
About 40 helium balloons demonstrated the height and area of the flats and several signs around the area pointed towards the community’s protest.
Rachel Thomas, of the Pantmawr Action Group, said: “The balloons were very useful because it’s hard to imagine how tall a building is going to be and its effect on the area. Our signs showed how close the flats would be to houses and that the pub is used as a community facility.
“Children play on the grass outside the pub and, if that goes, the nearest park is two and a half kilometres away.
“We’re very pleased with the turnout especially with the sleet, hail and rain.”"

Hundreds brave the rain for the Site Visit

Yesterday the Council's Planning Committee visited the Pantmawr Inn site to get a better understanding of the issues facing the planning application. Local residents turned out in force to show the Planning Committee the strength of opposition to the proposals. Lead by Chairman Bob Derbyshire the Planning Committee looked at three locations around the site.



Jonathan Morgan AM came along to show his support.

The Planning Application states that the entrance to the site is 7.5m wide, however, PAG's civil engineer has measured the entrance as 6.8m, so we showed the Planning Committee this with a giant tape measure!

The Planning Application will now be considered at the next Planning Committee meeting on 16th April at Cardiff's City Hall. Please check back here for details.

PAG hits the headlines again!

Help us to keep our community

HOW daft can council officers be? Planning policy suggests that communities should be encouraged and amenities provided. Yet our council is about to deprive more than 1,000 Pantmawr residents of their amenity by allowing a development of more houses and flats and therefore more residents on the site of the Pantmawr Inn. We have a thriving community spirit with many activities centred on the pub and its environs, but if it is built over, we will have nowhere to go, our community spirit will be lost.

Surely this goes against local authority and Government guidelines and initiatives? We have always been a neglected part of north Cardiff. The roads are narrow and in a terrible state.

We have problems with drains and water pressure, bus services are infrequent and we have no other amenities, but what makes it worthwhile is knowing and meeting lots of friendly people. How will this be possible without a venue, our village pub?

We have sent in a petition with more than 1,000 signatures and more than 100 objection letters to show the many problems with this development, all of which seem to have been ignored.

Also, do we really need more flats in Cardiff?

Come on councillors, don't take our community centre away from us, throw this outrageous, carbuncle of a development out and help us to keep our community together.

Pantmawr resident

Letter from a Pantmawr resident

Many Pantmawr residents have written to the Planning Committee to air their opinions on the plans. Below is a letter from one resident.

Dear Planning Committee,

To my amazement I found out this week that the Planning Officers report has now been received and it RECOMMENDS that the application is GRANTED!!

This development is not in the interests of the community of Pantmawr or The City of Cardiff. It is driven solely by greed!

When the Pantmawr estate was built in the 1950s, the planners were, by circumstance, ahead of the current environmental thinking. They ensured bus services, local shops (now sadly all gone) and a social amenity in the heritage buildings were provided to meet the needs of the estate residents without the need for car journeys. Global warming is clearly, in the very near future, going to drive us back to this type of more localised amenity planning. In the Pantmawr Inn, chosen as the preferred social amenity by estate residents in the 1950s, you already have the sort of localised amenity that future planning will strive to revive. This is the opportunity for the planning of Cardiff to be environmentally forward thinking and community aware by REJECTING the redevelopment.The main detailed points to consider are :1. Traffic density, narrow and inadequate access roads make the site totally unsuitable for the plans. The current appalling state of the roads on the estate will no doubt deteriorate even more.2. Removal will lead to more traffic on the VERY BADLY maintained roads on the estate as residents are forced to travel to distant alternatives not to mention the increased traffic from the proposed 60 bedrooms that will be created. Which will only have limited parking spaces, some of which I believe are located in front of garages! Which in today's society where households have two cars is inadequate. When I extended my previous property the council requested that I made allowance for two cars to be parked on my drive so why shouldn't this development have to provide a car parking space per bedroom to allow a realistic capacity for residents and visitors?3. I also have concerns regarding the height and mass of the development, the density of dwellings, parking, and the ‘type’ of dwellings – which are completely out of character of the existing estate. The amended plans also exclude facilities for the disabled and elderly, with the entrance to one section of flats straight off a section of grass.
4. I like many other estate residents frequent the Inn on a regular basis, several times a week. It is our ONLY local social amenity, it is the focus of our community (we have no local shops or other facilities left) and it would be a major loss were it to go.5. It is surprising to me that the building has never been given a heritage designation, the question should be asked why not? The old out building would also be perfect for developing into community related buildings, a restaurant, small hotel, shops, arts centre or other such, more appropriate, related business's.
6. If the property is turned into flats then I will have to increase my carbon footprint by using some form of fossil fuel burning transport to visit another public house in the area. This is not really in keeping with the council or government plans to reduce CO2 emissions.
7. Any move to change the use of this site for housing or flats would be a disaster and morally WRONG! Surely working with the current land owners, The Arts Council of Wales and local people to create an Arts centre for North Cardiff would be a far better plan.

Hopefully I don't have to remind you of your duties as councillors but your constitution says......................
2.3 Roles and functions of all Councillors(a) Key roles.All Councillors will:
(i) collectively be the ultimate policy-makers and carry out a number of strategic functions;
(ii) represent their communities and bring their views into the Authority’s decision-making process, i.e. become the advocate of and for their communities;
(iii) deal with individual casework and act as an advocate for constituents in
resolving particular concerns or grievances;
(iv) seek to balance different interests identified within the ward and represent the ward as a whole;
(v) contribute to the continual improvement of council services through the Wales Improvement Programme;
(vi) be involved in decision-making;
(vii) be available to represent the Authority on other bodies; and(viii) maintain the highest standards of conduct and ethics.

The very concept of destroying the only meeting place for the community in Pantmawr goes against so many of these principles! Please act with a sense of social responsibility when you consider your decision!

Everyday on the news we hear about councils and governments trying to fight "antisocial behaviour" and build a greater "sense of community" and "britishness". Well here you have a focal point where the community come together. We are not talking about a brown field site here, it is a beautiful building with a green and pleasant garden, the only "public" green space on the estate.

Without the Pantmawr the soul will be ripped from the estate.

Please, Please, Please think carefully before giving in to commercial pressures and granting this application. I am MD of a company in Cardiff myself and I therefore appreciate the needs of the commercial world. But all things in life need to be in balance!
I look forward to common sense prevailing and this totally inappropriate change of usage and planning application being REJECTED.
Your Sincerely,

Pantmawr Resident

Art by Megan!

Pant plans to be heard on 19th March

Those who live on the Pantmawr Estate will have received an update from Cllrs Jayne Cowan/Adrian Robson saying that the Pantmawr Inn plans are to be heard at the Planning Meeting of 19th March. It will be in the Ferrier Hall at the City Hall, Cathays Park commencing at 2.30.

Please keep checking back for more info :)

Did you know?

The Community Pubs Foundation has posted some key facts and figures on their website.


Key Facts:

• 26 pubs closed forever every month


• 8 out of 10 pubs closed forever are demolished or converted into houses


• Only 12% of those who visit pubs prefer town centre themed pubs


• 84% of those who visit pubs prefer a country pub or a community local


• 69% of all adults agree that pubs play an important role in community life

The Pantmawr Action Group is still campaigning tirelessly to save our community pub. Want to get involved? Here's what you can do:

• Email savepantmawr@hotmail.co.uk


• Pick up a car sticker from the Pantmawr Inn and disply it in your car


• Lobby your local councillor, MP or AM to support the cause


• Spread the word of the Pant to everyone you know


• Buy a Save the Pantmawr hoody or t-shirt

KEEP CHECKING THIS SITE FOR UPDATES!

Thanks for your continued support :)