News

This Summer, the Penarth Pier Pavilion is presenting open-air theatre in the Kymin. Watch out for details. The season begins with Peter Pan!

https://www.visitthevale.com/events/peter-pan-at-the-kymin-gardens

You can learn about growing and join with the community every month in the Kymin Community Gardens project. Run by Penarth Growing Community the community gardens are a chance to get involved in community growing and wildlife gardens across the town.

The community gardens project meets regularly on Saturday mornings each month and is informal and friendly. More details about joining a session and saying hello here:

http://penarthgrowingcommunity.co.uk/the-kymin/

Friends of the Kymin

Chair’s report March 2022

Dear Friends,

It is such a pleasure to see Friends gathered for the AGM, the park open to the public, the Kymin community growing project begun, and the Kymin house not sold off, nor long leased, nor scheduled for inappropriate development - but retained for public use!

I’d like to begin with thanks. Thanks to the public who came to the meeting I called in 2019 to express support for the Kymin’s continued future as a public park and community resource and thanks to those people who have served as a committee to for the FoTK, and those who have come to work in the park. Thanks to the people across the town, Friends and members of other organisations who have campaigned over the past few years to have the Kymin retained for the community, and to the officers and park staff of the Vale of Glamorgan Council and the elected members whom we’ve dealt with, all of whom have been so friendly supportive and informative about the Kymin, and whom we continue to work with. We’re grateful to members of the South Wales Police who sometimes engage with the park in such a constructive way, and for their offers of help. Lastly, but most importantly, thanks to those of you have signed up on the website for the occasional newsletter and have thereby become members of FoTK

This is our first AGM, and a short formal meeting. We’ve been an informal group in the way in which we operate, and that has been a strength, but it was necessary to come together to have a formal AGM, after all the lockdown and Covid restrictions. This will now be an annual fixture. Thanks to Alison and Ben and the comms team for arranging it, and special thanks to Alison and Sam, our Secretary and Treasurer for the excellent support and shaping they have given to the committee and our work.

I shan’t speak for long, but in reporting will emphasise the positive developments that have occurred over the past few years since the initial concern that public access to the Kymin might be restricted in some ways.

In December 2018 Penarth Town Council announced that they would return The Kymin to the Vale of Glamorgan Council. The Park passed to the Vale of Glamorgan in 2020, and in 2021 Kymin House and some of the grounds were offered to recreational/leisure industry businesses on a 99 year lease.

In all this period, the strategy of the Friends was to be a source of good information, and alongside this we opened conversations with Council officials and elected members. We were grateful for the excellent information and assurances received, and we made clear in conversation and in letters that we strongly supported continued public access to the Kymin park, and urged that an appropriate and sustainable use be found for the Kymin House that retained public access to the lawns and terraces.

The Vale of Glamorgan decision not to award a 99 year lease, but to retain the Kymin and seek to develop into a sustainable building with some form of community offer is greatly welcomed. The Friends have continued to hold conversations with Council officers and elected members, introducing to the Council community groups in the town who are interested to help with the Kymin.

Practically, on a daily walk-in-the-park basis, we are so very grateful for the Parks Community Officer of the VOG Jon Greatorex who has worked so hard and with such positive effect to co-ordinate Council parks support with community projects that have begun in the park during Covid-19 lockdowns.

Gwyrddio Penarth Greening approached the Friends and Jon with a community orchard proposal, and after consultation and planning, we were delighted to help with the establishment of a community orchard in the park.

A community raking event in the autumn attracted nearly 20 people and the very successful activity allowed the beginning of a meadow area on the top grass bank. It was lovely to see so many volunteers, including families with children, contributing to the park’s development.

The new community growing project has been developed by Sally who came with GPG to suggest that a Keep Wales Tidy grant might be applied for that would supply a community growing pack. With the support of the VOG the application was successful and Sally has now led volunteers in establishing the project on the Lower Boule Court. During the first week of constructing the new growing beds the Keep Wales Tidy team said they’d never worked on a project with so many volunteers. We’d like to congratulate Sally, GPG, Keep Wales Tidy and the Vale of Glamorgan Council on such a positive start, and encourage all members of the public to get involved.

With the Covid-19 pandemic restrictions slowly receding it is good to be able to organize and meet in the park. Suggestions have now been made by park users about the use of the park for children’s play, and we’ll add that topic to our conversations as we begin to embrace Spring and the coming summer.

We’re in conversation with young people and young adults who regularly enjoy the park and who would like to be involved in restoring benches and making the park’s Pagoda feature an attractive and pleasant place to visit. It’s great to have a younger generation of park user’s so passionately wanting to be involved. We should all take this offer very seriously, and the Friends will do our best to assist these young people of the town who want to help in the Kymin.

The Friends see the natural environment of the Kymin as very precious. The cliffs, and coastal woodlands are home to animals and a wide range of vegetation and trees. The protection and enhancement of this is of great importance, and to this end we’ve this last year begun a community mapping project. It is well begun, but this year will see us inviting friends and members of the public to join with experts to explore the beauties and treasures of this wonderful little bit of coast and coastal valley.

Members of FoTK have been active in working with and consulting with a range of nature groups and experts, including, Plantlife on the development of the meadow, The British Trust for Ornithology for advice and understanding of the Kymin’s Tawny owls, Local Nature Partnership of the Vale of Glamorgan for advice on community involvement, Local bird experts on how to organize a bird survey of the Kymin and area, A mammal expert who lives locally on the ecology of the Kymin, and we’ve submitted a request for details from the South-east Wales Biodiversity Records Centre to access reports of past wildlife surveys.

This coming year, with the Pandemic receding, will give lots more opportunity for Friends and the public to come together to both simply enjoy the park and also help with our continued enjoyment. The strategy of being so low key over the past years has been

1. because of the lockdown and health emergency, and
2. because tensions over potential future of the park created some anxiety in the town and we decided to focus on quiet conversations and lobbying, rather than public protest

This year we hope to send out more newsletters inviting people to be involved in more activities, around nature protection, recreation and community development. I’m just learning this week of plans to explore the possibility of some outdoor theatre performances in the Kymin later this year. It will be good to see community events returning to the park, and now that the Penarth Pier Pavilion is back in operation under new management after the Lockdown we have been suggesting that the Pier Pavilion sees the Kymin Park as its back garden.

It’s a pleasure and an honour for the Friends to be involved in this wonderful little piece of the earth’s crust. I urge you to enjoy it and share your enjoyment with others in ways that you feel are most appropriate and caring.

Richard

April 2019

More than 40 people attended a meeting in Penarth on Tuesday 9th April at Foxys Deli in Victoria Road, Penarth to discuss recent developments in the management and future of The Kymin Park, and Kymin House which stands in the grounds. Local resident Richard Parry told the meeting that as a result of conversations he had held with councillors and officials from both Vale of Glamorgan Council and Penarth Town Council he understood the current situation to be:

• The Kymin Park and Kymin House are owned by Vale of Glamorgan Council
• for many years Penarth Town Council have run the Kymin Park and Kymin House on licence from the Vale of Glamorgan Council
• Penarth Town Council have given notice that they will end their licence in March 2020
• The Vale of Glamorgan Council have said their view is, under the terms of the license, that Penarth Town Council are required to make the grounds available as "a public walk and pleasure grounds"

There was unanimous support from everyone attending the meeting that members of the public should continue to have access and enjoyment of The Kymin Park, now and in the future. The meeting also expressed a desire for clear, good information about council plans and responsibilities for The Kymin House which was closed on April 1st following many years of successful community use.

The meeting unanimously agreed to form a community organisation called "Friends of The Kymin Park" that could promote public enjoyment of The Kymin, be a source of good information about The Kymin, help any Council to undertake public consultation about The Kymin and to make good use of the high levels of goodwill and affection for The Kymin felt by the town community.

A large number of people unable to attend last night's meeting have also been in contact by email and phone to say that they support community moves to help maintain public access and enjoyment of The Kymin and the new group "Friends of the Kymin" seeks to establish itself quickly and provide some clear information for Penarth residents, visitors and anyone who is interested in public access to public space.

February 2021