Friends of Hailey Park
AGM letter to members 2026Dear Members, We are promoting our AGM, which will be held on Wednesday 8 April at 7.30–8.30pm in the Llandaff North Scout Hall. All welcome whether members or not. Members can attend and vote for committee members for the following year. We welcome expressions of interest to stand for the committee and items for Any Other Business (AOB), from any members via our email before 25 March 2026 at: [email protected].
Hailey Park is 100 years old this May. We had a successful Centenary launch event in February. We held a Wassail, which celebrated our community of park users, the Heritage of hailey park and our community orchard. We were supported brilliantly by Llandaff North Community Choir in this with thanks extended to them. We posted a lovely article about this on our Facebook page from student journalist Emily Cartwright. Again we are happy to receive interest and support for centenary events from our members.
Our plans for the Transport for Wales and Local Nature Partnership funded Centenary Heritage Trail are advanced and should shortly be installed on Hailey Park. We will develop our website to include further information from both research and from community memories of using Hailey Park in collaboration with the local Awen the Library all being well.
We continue to plan and seek funding for a Circular Centenary Wildlife and Wellbeing Trail. Locations on this trail will highlight the need to increase biodiversity and the way our connection with nature promotes our protection of it as well as our wellbeing. Watch out for further details to enfold.
We continue to work to our formal Constitution that is recognized as a partnership agreement by Cardiff Council. We have Governance and GDPR statements that allow us to work a more hybrid model of decision making so that it is more inclusive. This involves the use of technology as well as face-to-face meetings. We will seek to approve these again at the AGM. We are currently reviewing the tools we use to administer all this.
Our subscription remains at £3 per individual or family. It's a nominal fee that allows us to administer business and to seek grant funding.
Friends of Hailey Park have had another very busy year with all the different issues arising and we track these at our formal meetings. We liaise and correspond with a wide variety of people and organizations with a stake in Hailey Park and this has seen a huge increase in correspondence over the past year.
We maintain regular information and chat on our Facebook page and website in particular. Our Facebook page has attracted a large number of extra followers this year following a review of our policy and posting practice. We have had to suspend our regular newsletter for the time being due to lack of volunteer time. We are also on Instagram but have continued to suspend activity on X.
Our aims are that Hailey Park remains a shared inclusive community park with a focus on the protection and enhancement of nature and biodiversity and on recreation in its widest definition.
We work to maintain a balance of recreation and that all uses of the park maintain a respect for and protection of nature.
We continue to work closely with our longstanding community park ranger Gareth Stamp from Cardiff Parks Department on the management of the park, issues arising and our monthly volunteer work days. These focus on increasing biodiversity as well as general management of Hailey Park. It's a social space too so please come and join us when you can to help out or for a chat.
We attend the quarterly Friends Forum meetings to share ideas with other park friends groups across the city.
We continue to promote our sustainable travel statement and shared care conduct and principles in the use of all paths in Hailey Park including the Taff Trail.
We attend monthly Working Group meetings with Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water, the ward-based councillors and both Llandaff North and Gabalfa PaCT and Whitchurch and Tongwynlais PaCT to track and promote any issues that need resolution.
We have met and corresponded with council officers from both the council Sports Leisure and Development and Highways Departments regarding plans and construction of both the Multi Use Games Area (MUGA) and Taff Trail construction this year. We are liaising also about council plans for a cafe at the former bowling green area.
In December 2025 and February 2026 we celebrated the opening of the Taff Trail in association with Llandaff North Residents Association. We held a community opening ceremony and had a vote and naming ceremony for the squirrel bench that Knights-Brown construction firm installed. The winning name is Cyril the squirrel.
We are always grateful for the continued support of our members and we hope that our community of park users will enjoy these legacy projects for years to come. In addition we are still working through ideas for some celebratory events during 2026.
Anita Smith
Chairperson Friends of Hailey Park
