Poor condition of Cannon Hill Park after last weekends event

Poor condition of Cannon Hill Park after last weekends event

Both Councillor Ernie Hendricks and myself have been contacted by a number of residents concerned about the condition of the main field in Cannon Hill Park. After last weekend’s Olympic Torch Event, combined with the non-stop rain, the main field in the park is looking like a quagmire in places.

To illustrate the point, both Ernie and myself wore some wellies and inspected the park area. See attached photographs. Ernie is in the photos so as to provide some idea of size of the mudd.

As you will see from the photos, the main field has been churned up pretty badly in places. The area immediately next to the former Golden Lion pub is fine.

Ernie has contacted the Constituency Parks manager to understand what work the parks department is doing to get the park back into its pre-event condition. The response is as follows

Good afternoon

Further to your recent enquiry regarding the condition of Cannon Hill Park following the recent Olympic Torch Event and what are our plans to return the park back to its former condition

The Olympic Torch Event was a very successful event for the City of Birmingham and it was a great pity that its construction and subsequent breakdown took place in a month of persistent wet weather now recorded as the wettest June since records began.

The constructors worked very carefully throughout the build attempting to minimise any damage but even they were thwarted when we had the really heavy deluge on Thursday 28th June.  We then had a dry Saturday with an estimated 14,000 visitors walking around the park enjoying the day.

The subsequent breakdown of the event has been carried out under extremely difficult conditions and once again the contractors  have attempted  with great difficulty to remove all of the construction material  off site in continuous rain.  Now we have a very wet waterlogged and damaged field we have to carefully plan its repair. Therefore I have asked the Landscape Practice Group to seek three competitive quotes from landscape contractors who have a reliable reputation in this area of work. and once we have those estimates we will be in a position to set one of them the task of repairing the arena.  

However, we still have one major hurdle to get across - the non stop rain that is still falling onto the park. As I compose this response to you I am aware of a severe wet weather warning from the met Office for Friday which will only exacerbate the situation. We cannot ask any landscape contractors to begin work until we have at least a reasonable window of dry weather. They are not able to work on mud and recreate a firm and secure grass parkland.

So with that in mind please note that any perceived inactivity from the Parks Service gives a false picture as we have to wait for that brief but hopefully dry spell to arrive and once that happens we can then move forward.

Till then can I seek your support and patience in this matter. 

Regards

Simon