18 January 2009

Caernarfon's Public Park

In the past twelve months certain councillors have been complaining in the press about the state of our park, yet, they have done nothing to address the issue (except complain in the press that is).

Caernarfon Online went into the root of the problem 18 months ago and explained that the main problem at the park was that because of the lack of running water going into the pond, the water was becoming stagnant and algae build up was inevitable.

Experts backed our conclusion with news that even though unsightly, the algae was a natural occurrence and tests showed that the water was free of contamination. Unfortunately to add to the problem some individuals use the park for binge drinking and then throw empty bottles into the pond. This can prove very costly for the council to clean (especially in this time of cut backs). Most towns are responsible for their own parks but this is not the case with Caernarfon at the moment.

Nevertheless work has been recently carried out at the park by Gwynedd Council to help free blockages which is disrupting the  water supply.

Mr Alun Wyn Jones Senior Municipal Officer at Gwynedd Council has been overseeing the work which involved some deep excavation into the culverts which were blocked. This work has now been successfully carried out which may help reduce the build up of algae this year.

 A worker for Cwmni GEWS uses an industrial disc to cut through large pipework

The problem seemed to lie with tree roots and other plant life restricting the flow of the water.

Councillor Roy Owen the Gwynedd Councillor for the Seiont Ward was pleased with the work which had been carried out. Councillor Owen would ideally like to see the park being overseen by the Town Council and is very concerned about the lack of responsibilities the Town Council addresses.

He told us, "The Caernarfon Town Council should take on some or all of it's previous responsibilities. Back In the early 70's the town council decided to ditch most of its responsibilities in favour of handing them over to the then Arfon Borough Council. But in these hard times our council should be doing more to secure these services once more. Other councils seem to have more responsibilities than ours and that cannot be healthy."

A large tree root is removed from the pipework.