CAVC and Cardiff Council bring sport to the Butetown community at Canal Park

Cardiff and Vale College (CAVC) and Cardiff Council have joined forces to bring a much needed brand new community sports facility to one of the most vibrant and diverse communities in Wales.

The innovative ‘Canal Park’ project will see an unused area of land in the heart of Butetown transformed into a top-class multi-sports facility for the community. The existing unmanaged grass area, situated behind the College’s City Centre Campus on Dumballs Road, will be replaced with a new 3G playing surface with floodlighting, two Multi Use Gaming Areas and changing rooms. Development will start during 2019.

The project has been made possible through the award of £1.9million funding from the Welsh Government.

The brand new facility will provide a top-class, secure and managed facility that will benefit Butetown’s four primary schools, local sports teams, and the wider community through a programme of community sports and play activities. CAVC is also committed to using the venue to grow after-school sport and play activities and its Family Learning programmes, already based in schools and community venues across the region, which work to grow skills and remove barriers to education.

Mike James, Chief Executive of the Cardiff and Vale College Group, said: “This is fantastic news for the Butetown community. It represents another example of the Welsh Government supporting innovative, collaborative projects that directly impact on our local communities.

“We are delighted to see this project come to fruition. We look forward to working with Cardiff Council and the local community to develop this exciting facility and a range of sporting and learning activities within it that will grow the wellbeing of the community and help make a difference to so many.”

Cardiff Council Cabinet Member for Culture and Leisure, Cllr Peter Bradbury, said:  “If you provide communities with good quality sports facilities they will use them.  That’s the experience we’ve had with the recently installed 3G pitches in Pentwyn, Grangetown, Ely and Caerau. 

“Increasing participation in sport, particularly in our city’s most deprived communities, is so important and we’re confident that these new facilities will lead to more and more people in Butetown enjoying the boost to physical and mental wellbeing that regular sporting activity brings.”

Education Minister Kirsty Williams said: “Our schools and colleges play a vital role within a community.  That’s why we’ve committed to introducing more community learning centres, and plan to make community focused projects a key aspect of the second wave of the our 21^st Century Schools and Education programme.

“Sport plays a key role in communities throughout Wales, and I’m delighted that our £15 million Community Hubs Grant is able to support innovative projects such as the Canal Park project which will provide state of the art sports facilities that cater for the needs of the Butetown community.”