Welcome to the last COVID-19 update of the week from Cardiff Council.

Tonight: a chance to read again the plans for marking VE Day in Cardiff; Council Leader and Cabinet Member ask you to share the message: ‘stay home, stay safe';  funding support announced for Cardiff care homes; changing the city's public space to improve safety; and Welsh Proms Cymru cancelled due to coronavirus.

The Cardiff Council COVID-19 update will return on Monday. In the meantime, have an enjoyable Bank Holiday weekend, but above all, stay safe.

Thanks for reading.

Cardiff marking VE Day

Click here to see again how Cardiff is marking VE Day tomorrow:

https://www.cardiffnewsroom.co.uk/releases/c25/23802.html

Follow Cardiff Council throughout the day on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram for lots of special VE Day content, including a video message from the Leader of Cardiff Council, Huw Thomas; brand-new colourized versions of photos taken in Cardiff on VE Day, 75 years ago; and a selection of photos from our archives.

Share the message: ‘stay home, stay safe'

Dear Cardiff Resident,

As you will know, Cardiff's parks have remained open throughout the ongoing public health emergency and we are keen to ensure that they remain open, so that residents who are not fortunate enough to have their own outdoor space can enjoy the mental and physical health benefits of exercising in the city's green spaces.

In general social distancing is being maintained, but with the approaching bank holiday and good weather forecast for at least part of the weekend, we are expecting the city's parks to be busier than we have seen previously.

We would therefore ask you to help protect our key workers by sharing the message, and continuing to stay home, stay safe and to maintain a safe social distance of two metres if you have to use the city's parks for your daily exercise.

Over the 3 day bank holiday period staff from our parks team will work approximately 45 individual shifts, carrying out joint patrols with South Wales Police in the seven police sectors across the city, and will also cover our four cemeteries.

As well as ensuring the security of park facilities such as children's play areas, sports courts, skate parks and multi-use games areas, our parks team are there to support the police and educate park users on correct social distancing.

The responsibility for enforcing social distancing lies with the police and they have taken action against people using our parks inappropriately.

If you see people not complying with the rules on social distancing, these incidents can be reported to the Police by calling 101.

Kind regards,

Cllr Huw Thomas, Council Leader

Cllr Peter Bradbury, Cabinet Member for Culture and Leisure

Funding support announced for Cardiff care homes

Cardiff Council and Cardiff Nursing and Residential Homes Association (CNARHA) are working together to ensure that care homes in Cardiff have what they need in order to meet the challenges of looking after people with COVID-19.

Following a joint consultation carried out to detail the costs to care homes associated with COVID-19, Cardiff Council has secured part of a £40m grant from Welsh Government.

This will ensure care homes across the city are supported during the current pandemic and continue to operate, as well as providing support to other essential adult services.

The Council will administer the fund, which will see each care provider receive an £80 extra per week per bed bought by the Council, for eleven weeks, until the end of May. This will be back dated from the beginning of the crisis in March and is in addition to agreed placement fees.

You can read the full story here:

https://www.cardiffnewsroom.co.uk/releases/c25/23818.html

Re-modelling the city's public space for safety

Extending pavement space into the road, creating temporary cycleways, removing street furniture, carrying out a speed awareness campaign and re-designing public space around neighbourhood shopping centres are just some of the ideas being put forward by Cardiff Council immediately as part of the ongoing COVID-19 response.

With lockdown restrictions expected to be eased next week, Cardiff Council has been working hard behind the scenes to bring forward a number of pilot schemes designed to keep the public safe and able to socially distance in public spaces.

Cllr Caro Wild, Cabinet Member for Strategic Planning and Transport at Cardiff Council said: "With social distancing expected to be the ‘new normal' for some time to come, this does pose a significant challenge both for residents and the local authority.

"The pavements in the city were not designed to allow a two metre distance between other people, so public space will have to be adapted to ensure social distancing can be maintained as the city gradually starts to re-open for business."

The first neighbourhood shopping area which will be adapted for safety reasons is Wellfield Road in Plasnewydd. Plans have been drawn up to remove car parking on either side of the road to ensure that the pavement can be safely extended into the highway for the public to use.

Cllr Wild, added: "It is important everyone understands that the city can't be transformed overnight to ensure social distancing guidelines are followed. This is a significant task and we have to be confident that any temporary measures we do put in place are safe for the public to use.

"Wellfield Road is the first neighbourhood shopping area pilot scheme which we are looking to adapt. Once these measures are in place and the necessary assessments are carried out, we will look to bring in other schemes in different areas of the city and work is also underway on creating a ‘safer city centre' too. We will be working with partners in the city centre to ensure any methods we introduce can work for businesses, residents and people travelling to work."

Other road traffic schemes are also being looked at in the city including bringing forward agreed Clean Air proposals in the city centre on Castle Street.

Cllr Wild said: "Before the COVID-19 outbreak, the council published and consulted on our 10-year strategic transport vision for the city. This included Clean Air plans for Castle Street.

"We will now bring forward some of these schemes which will help ensure the safety of the public during the recovery period. First up is the traffic lane next to the Castle on Castle Street which will be removed so that the walkway can be extended into the road for both pedestrians and cyclists to use. This will run from the Cathedral Road/Cowbridge Road junction, over Canton Bridge, along Castle Street, Duke Street and up to the North Road-Boulevard De Nantes junction.

"We will also be bringing forward the agreed transport improvement scheme in Wood Street and Central Square which will involve pedestrian safety improvements, restrictions on through traffic while ensuring and access is maintained for residents and businesses, as well as the development of a new cycleway on Wood Street."

Further schemes are also being devised to ensure that people can safely use sustainable transport to get around the city during the recovery period and further details will be given on these schemes in the weeks ahead.

Welsh Proms Cymru cancelled

Due to the ongoing situation with COVID-19, the Welsh Proms Cymru at St David's Hall (Saturday 18 - Saturday 25 July 2020) has been cancelled. 

The National Concert Hall of Wales is still closed to the public in accordance with government guidelines about social distancing, which means hosting concerts is not possible.

It is hoped that the same exciting programme will be staged next year, but as the dates and orchestras are not confirmed yet, the venue are providing refunds for all Welsh Proms Cymru 2020 bookings. You will be automatically refunded if you paid by credit or debit card. Please call the Box Office on 073 9179 1934 between 9.30am - 4pm Monday - Friday if you paid by cash or gift vouchers.

At this busy time of postponements and cancellations, please allow the Box Office 10-14 days to finalise refunds. Also, please do not text this number or leave voice messages as they cannot respond to at present.