Here is your Tuesday update, covering:

• Construction work has begun to build Roath Park Cycleway
• Portrait of Cardiff retail legend unveiled in Mansion House
• Cardiff Education: Collaboration and Federation Strategy

Construction work has begun to build Roath Park Cycleway

Building work has started on the first phase of Cardiff's Roath Park Cycleway.

As well as delivering a new cycleway within Roath Park Recreational Ground and improving the footpaths, the work will also see improvements to footways, highway junctions, and bus travel, as well as significantly increasing the capacity of the drainage system around Penylan Library and Community Centre which was prone to surface water flooding.

The new footpaths in the playing field will also include drainage measures which will address some of the existing issues where some footpaths flood and are impassable when it rains.

When completed the wider cycle route will run from the north of Roath Park, near Cardiff High School, to Newport Road, where it will connect with another cycleway (Cycleway 2) that will run to Rumney, Llanrumney, and then on to St Mellon Business Park.

The first phase of the new Roath Park cycleway scheme includes:

• A new segregated cycleway between Wellfield Road and Alder Road and improved footpaths in the playing field
• Improvements to Penylan Library and Community Centre car park
• Significant improvements to the drainage system around the community centre using sustainable drainage techniques and new collection chambers.
• Improvements to the junction of Wellfield Road, Marlborough Road, Penylan Road and Ninian Road to improve pedestrian waiting areas, junction capacity and bus travel
• A new cycleway crossing across this junction that will connect the existing Wellfield Road pop-up cycleway with the new Roath Park cycleway
• Replacing the priority narrowings on Ty-Draw Road with four ramped up pedestrian crossing points
• Improvements to bus travel, including a new bus stop travelling northbound on Ninian Road and building out some of the existing stops to improve access
• Improving the zebra crossing on Ninian Road at Pen-Y-Wain Road and building a shared footway for cyclists and pedestrians towards Roath Park Primary School.

Read more here

Portrait of Cardiff retail legend unveiled in Mansion House

For more than 150 years, James Howell's department store on St Mary Street was synonymous with the best retail experience Cardiff could offer.

The ambitious Pembrokeshire-born draper established his business in the city in 1865, building it up into a sprawling family-run concern based in a magnificent building that could rival anything London had to offer.

But did you know that Howell made his mark on Cardiff in another way? He built a magnificent double-fronted house on Richmond Road as a family home, for his wife and children. Originally called The Grove, it was bought by the old Cardiff Corporation in 1912 and a year later was officially opened as the Mansion House - the official residence of the Lord Mayors of the city.

While the Mansion House today is used by the Lord Mayor to host civic functions, James Howell's link to the Grade II-listed property has now been officially recognised thanks to the donation of his portrait.

The painting, by noted Victorian artist Parker Hagarty, once hung in the offices of Howell's store but when the store - by then rebranded as House of Fraser - closed in March 2023 it was given to the council in the hope it would be hung in his old home.

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Cardiff Education: Collaboration and Federation Strategy

A new approach to delivering education in Cardiff could see more schools working together through formal collaboration and federation, to deliver a highly effective and sustainable education system.

If agreed by Cardiff Council's Cabinet, the Collaboration and Federation Strategy would provide a framework to encourage more schools to come together through collaborative working, building on the achievements and success of partnership arrangements and formal federations already operating effectively across the city.

Research and practice has demonstrated the benefits of collaborations, federations, and other arrangements where schools are brought together to deliver education. This has included the Estyn thematic review (2019) and the Federation Process of Maintained Schools Guidance for Local Authorities and Schools (2023) which critically considered the research and concluded the following key benefits:

• Strong strategic leadership, governance and management structures to focus on teaching, learning and raising standards
• Broader learning and social experiences for learners
• Attractive recruitment opportunities and retention of staff
• New opportunities for staff to work together, increasing motivation, reducing workload through shared planning and activities
• The sharing of resources
• Shared responsibilities and accountabilities for children across communities
• Extended services across schools and a variety of activities, childcare, parent support and community access supporting community cohesion and helping to sustain education provision

The Collaboration and Federation Strategy would build on this evidence using the experience and knowledge of Cardiff Council and Central South Consortium (CSC) professionals, and headteachers who are skilled in collaborative working and that have a demonstrable ability to lead high-quality teaching and learning organisations. It recognises the role of strong leadership and governance in advancing educational outcomes for children and families, harnessing the skills and experience of Cardiff's most talented education leaders and highly capable governors.

Read more here