Viewpoint: Protecting Maindy Velodrome

Maindy velodrome. Pic: Whitchurch cycling club

Jeremy Sparkes from the Maindy Park Campaign explains why Cardiff council are in difficulty in their attempt to build on Maindy Park

Cardiff Council wants the green space and community velodrome at Maindy Park, Cathays, for a new school but cannot proceed as it is protected by a covenant and a charitable trust - Maindy Park Trust - which prevents the land being used for anything other than recreation and leisure use.

This creates a huge legal problem for the Council because they are also the sole trustee of the Trust and are required under charity law to protect and uphold the covenant. 

But, instead of following the advice and guidance of the statutory regulator - the Charity Commission - the Council has spent the past two years firstly denying there was a conflict of interest and then trying to find a way round the law. 

They have prepared an application for the Charity Commission seeking approval for them to take over ownership of the charity land in return for land that is already used as a park over two miles further away.

In the run up to the Council elections in May 2022 Cardiff Council said it would follow guidance from the Charity Commission on its conflict of interest over the charity land at Maindy Park … but now they have ignored that guidance.

Instead of having genuinely independent trustees as is best practice, they invented an Advisory Committee packed with place-men who are deeply embedded in the Council’s governance structure and paid outside advisers who already have a strong financial and commercial relationship with the Council.

The community campaign to save Maindy Park and its velodrome, which nutured Wales’s Tour de France champion Geraint Thomas, continues to put in a huge effort to keep the Council’s contrived process firmly in the spotlight to ensure transparency and accountability.

We have been liaising with the Charity Commission, Audit Wales and our elected regional Senedd members to ensure they are fully aware of the flaws and legal failings in the Council’s proposed land swap and its stewardship of the Charity which holds the land.

A year ago Labour Councillors believed they had set up a cosy done deal … but now we’re making it hard for them to seal any deal that sees the people of Cardiff lose out.

Jeremy Sparkes, Maindy Park Campaign