The aviary in Stonefield Park is in line for a £15,000 makeover – if park users and people living nearby decide that they want to keep it in a forthcoming public consultation.
The £15,000 was allocated to sprucing up the aviary – which has certainly seen better days – in Stafford Borough Council’s capital budget for 2012/13, the element of a local authority’s budget that is funded by borrowing.
However, the council’s Community Scrutiny Committee will now be receiving a report on the future of the aviary and, as part of this process, park users and local people will be asked for their views. The renovation scheme will remain in the capital programme pending any recommendations that may be made in the report.
The issue split councillors at a recent meeting of Stone Town Council, with Jill Hood claiming keeping birds in an aviary is ‘barbaric’ and Geoff Collier saying the aviary should be kept, as reported in last week’s Newsletter.
Details of the consultation will be announced later.
What’s your view? Should the aviary remain in Stonefield Park?
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17 comments
Ange Arnold
My 3 year old and his friends get very excited at the prospect of going to the park to play on the playground and then see the birds. The aviary is a great learning experience for children about birds and the different types and colours. If this didn’t exist it would very difficult for the children to see them in their natural habitat which is often high up in the sky or trees.
The birds seem to be well cared for and I think that to get rid of the aviary would be very disappointing for a lot of children in the area. I agree that it needs updating and why not save some money and get the local students from Stafford involved to create the new aviary.
Richard Stevens
I am reluctant to enter this debate for fear of being accused of doing so for personal or political reasons – which I genuinely am not.
Whilst I would personally never keep a bird in a cage, the truth of the matter is that these birds are not wild nor native birds at all. They are bred to live in captivity. Provided they are well looked after and have sufficient space to fly (which these birds have) it is nonsense to allege that their conditions are ‘barbaric’. It is no different to keeping Koi Carp in a pond in your back garden.
These birds give so much pleasure to young and old alike. One of the treats my grandchildren always ask for when they visit us is a trip to the park to use the playground and see the birds.
For once Stafford Borough Council is proposing to spend £15,000 here in Stone – not Stafford! This should be a time for rejoicing! Instead of which we are hearing the voices of oppostion.
This money is for capital expenditure and it therefore misleading to suggest that it could be used to pay for a full time Ranger. It can’t – wrong budget! Nor can it be used to sort out the debacle of the crossings on Christchurch Way. It can’t – wrong council!
So whilst I don’t care for avaiaries, I am fully in favour of these avaiaries having money spent on them to ensure that the conditions in which the birds are kept are of the highest standards.
So stop ‘knocking’ the Borough Council’s proposals. If the avaiaries go, the attractions of the Park will be diminished. So I say let’s vote in favour of the refurbishment.
Brenda Tinsley
Let’s just close everything in STONE that that we pay our council tax for! it seem’s that’s what is happening LET’S NOT FORGET HOW MUCH SBC HAVE SPENT ON THE PARK AT STAFFORD
Jill Hood
This year live animal acts in Circus’s will be outlawed and as an animal lover I’m delighted.I spoke personally when I said keeping birds in the conditions they are kept in, in Stonefield Park is barbaric, The cages are too small and it’s heartbreaking to see the beautiful Golden Pheasant with barely enough room to turn around pacing up and down day after day with no outlook other than a toilet wall one side and a dense hedge the other. If it were dogs or cats in those cages there would be outrage, but because it’s birds it’s OK. Yesterday the park was left unmanned and children set fire to the stored toilet rolls, luckily there was no damage but it could have been disastrous. The money would be better spent on a Park Ranger permanently based in the Park rather than this cruel practice of caged creatures. I understand that some people enjoy seeing the birds but surely it’s better to see them in their natural habitat.
Little Bit of Stone
Hi Jill – many thanks for commenting here. I think many people will share your thoughts about aviaries, and many will disagree, which is why a consultation is very much in order! You raise a really important point about possibly using the £15,000 to reinstate a full-time park ranger service
M Bowler
Hello why not renovate the aviary as part of a community project who says it has to cost 15000? I work at Stafford college and I’m sure the wood and construction students would be interested in this as a project ? This council are an utter joke the wasted resources in Stone and they want to remove a piece of Stone that has been part of the town and the park for an eternity.The facility is a community one that has given pleasure to hundreds of people of all ages !
Sarah Weaver
I see your concern with having the park, unmanned but in the past having regular park keepers helped with anti-social behaviour and keeping the park in its beautiful setting.
Over the past few years the park has slowly become less and less of a concern for councillors and I understand that you feel keeping them in cages is wrong and cruel, but in the town at the moment there are more pressing issues that should be being focused on like traffic/road issues as well as alot of anti-social behaviour on our streets.
I do see that this issue should have been addressed years ago and that area of the park re-generated into somewhere more suitable for them to live but like I said in my other reply below, we are not Stafford otherwise we’d be having more money thrown at the project with newspapers covering it and a picture of the local councillors holding spades with happy smiley faces saying how wonderful the re-generation is for our community.
Sarah Weaver
The aviary has always been a popular area of the park for well over 25 years and I don’t see how something so popular is being threatened with being removed. I get that some think it is “barbaric” but over the years the birds have been well looked after, cleaned and loved by both park keepers and locals alike who live in the area.
Why not spend some on a shiny new living space for them to live in, and actually focus on more pressing issues that Stone has, such as the traffic problems around the one way system and money being wasted on ridiculous road changes that frankly weren’t needed in the first place.
Little Bit of Stone
Good point well made Sarah. I’d hate to see the aviary go but – like Jon says above – £15,000 is a hell of a lot of money
Sarah Weaver
I’m sure it wouldn’t cost £15,000 to do it all up surely, £5-6,000 would surely be enough, but then again it’s not as if the opinions of locals will matter in where the park is concerned.
I suppose if this were a park in Stafford we’d be having more money thrown at the project with newspapers covering it and a picture of the local councillors holding spades with happy smiley faces saying how wonderful the re-generation is for our community.
Sarah Weaver
Also I wonder if Stafford have an old aviary we could use? I mean its how they decide which christmas lights we have in the town, the ones Stafford no longer wants or don’t see as useful anymore.
Jane Proudman
A larger aviary would be lovely! What future for the birds if it goes? Another aviary? or the death sentence. They should be allowed to stay, people love to see them
Little Bit of Stone
Hi Jane. I’m not sure what the future would hold for the birds should the aviary go. They’ll probably have to be moved if a new aviary is built. Maybe they’ll take a short holiday to the aviary in Stafford park?!
Michelle Banks
If the birds are to be kept then it should only be in far better conditions than currently exists,including a far larger aviary
Little Bit of Stone
That would be nice to see Michelle. Let’s hope it happens
Jon Cook
I’ve never visited the aviary before but is that it? Why does it cost £15k to make over? Surely a third of that could see it knocked down and rebuilt all shiney and new!
Little Bit of Stone
£15,000 does seem like an awful lot of money to spend on a new aviary, especially given the current economic climate. It really is in need of some attention but, you’re right, I’m sure this can be done for a lot less than £15k