Parts of park to close for the summer

PARTS of Bute Park will be closed off for the entire summer due to the Champions League final.

Coopers Field in Bute Park will be home to a huge hospitality village for the football final on June 3.

It will be the biggest event Cardiff has hosted with 200,000 fans expected in the city.

The hospitality village will be built within a compound inside Bute Park at the rear of the castle.

Building will begin after the RHS Spring Flower Show in mid-April and will be deconstructed by the end of June. Because the ground will be covered for the flower show and then the hospitality areas, the grass will die and will need to be replaced.

Coopers Field will therefore remain closed for 13 weeks from the end of June.

After the structures have been removed, the top layer of soil will be removed, the ground will be levelled out and a hardwearing rye grass seed mixture will be sown. The grass will then need to be treated with fertiliser, mown and irrigated.

Other affected grass areas will be fenced off and regrown from seed or will be reinstated with turf.

Gates and footpaths will be closed for the villages to be built and then taken down. For deliveries to be made, people will need to be kept separate from working areas and vehicle access routes.

The southern half of Bute Park will be fenced off to the public over the match weekend but park businesses will be largely unaffected. Some will have to close for security reasons on the day.

The towpath which runs along the east of Coopers Field and the cycle path that crosses Bute Park from east to west between Fishers Bridge at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and the Millennium Footbridge opposite Sophia Gardens will all close over the match weekend.

They will also close “during the most intensive periods of the hospitality village build and break down”.

Tents for 5,000 spectators will be put up at “fan camp” in Pontcanna Fields.

The softball will be moved to another site but the cricket pitches will be protected.

There will be closures between Blackweir Bridge and Pontcanna changing rooms, however a temporary pathway will be installed to mitigate for this closure and allow continued access across the park.

The Pontcanna car park and changing rooms will be closed for the duration of the camp.

It is said that the ground will be in a better state once it has been replaced.

A statement on the Bute Park website reads: “Coopers Field is very popular with major events eg RHS Show, Sparks in the Park, the Roald Dahl Pyjama Picnic, Pride Cymru, music festivals and concerts and over a number of years, these take their toll on the ground.

“Weather conditions, the grass growing season and diary pressures limit the ability to reinstate on an annual basis, so the chance to reinstate Coopers Field in such a comprehensive way is a rare and positive opportunity.”

As part of the legacy agreement to the city, a wildlife camera system will be installed.

More details about the closures will be released nearer the final.