A country park on land north and west of the very popular but not very extensive Hendre Lake Park in St. Mellons (Trowbridge Ward of Cardiff) offers huge opportunities for improving leisure, education and the environment and wildlife in east Cardiff.

A large area of land has been declared flood plain under the city's Local Development Plan and cannot be used as planned for decades for residential development and is unsuitable for commercial development too. The land, which was formerly under pasture and arable farming has not been so used for almost sixty years and thus may well have never been treated with agricultural chemicals.

It is criss-crossed by reens (drainage ditches) which support nationally rare and interesting flora and fauna (including otters). A new secondary school will open in September 2017 adjacent to this land and thus teachers will be able to use the country park as a resource to underpin the national curriculum. The currently existing small extent of Hendre Lake Park gets pretty crowded on nice days with dog-walkers, joggers, anglers and nature lovers all jostling over limited space and to some extent displacing timid wildlife. 

A country park in east St. Mellons (on the border with Newport) will attract tourists and day trippers, photographers and naturalists as well as families looking for something to do on a nice day, especially if some exciting proposals that the lead petitioner has in mind are included in the offer.