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Letter to Councillors PDF Print E-mail

The DCA Committee has written to our councillors regarding a number of questions concerning the building work northwest of Danescourt.  The letter is reproduced below.

 

Dear Peter and Sean

 

On Monday 16th May, the Committee had the first in person DCA meeting since before lockdown. Firstly, congratulations to you both and the DCA looks forward to working with you over the coming years.

 

The Committee has tasked me to write to you both on the following points. As you know the building work northwest of Danescourt has progressed at a pace and this has raised a number of questions:

 

1. The Committee is dismayed with the houses built opposite the garage due to their inappropriate height above those properties in Danescourt which back onto Llantrisant Road.  Also the over-powering development now being built in the former field in the apex between Llantrisant Road and Heol Isaf. The Committee would like to know what principles of planning were followed and why the Planning Committee approved these details.

 

2. We have heard various rumours that the percentage of affordable housing has been reduced.  The Committee would like to know what the original percentage was, and what it is currently planned to be.  If the rumours prove correct, we would like to know why the Planning Committee allowed this reduction and who benefitted from these changes.

 

3. The Committee would like to know why planning permission was granted for the development south of Llantrisant Road where inadequate drainage was evidently provided by the developer.  Having realised this inadequacy, the Council has found the need to avoid flooding occurrences by construction of the large attenuation pond on its parkland which has caused so much angst. There is also the matter of having set a precedent, with the implication that future planning applicants may be able to rely on the Council to solve their inadequate drainage proposals.

 

4. There are rumours that the ponds already built have not been constructed properly and are going to have to be replaced.  Does this indicate inadequate inspection/supervision, and if that is the case why has this occurred?  To cover these issues it would be very helpful if Simon Dooley could attend one of our meetings to give us an update and answer questions.  As Elected Members please could you arrange this, and also be in attendance at that meeting?

 

5. There is an area to the west of the railway line and north of the access tunnel that has been referred to as a “depression”.  This area is associated with the current proposal to build 36 houses to be served by a new road extension to De Braose Close. It has frequently been saturated during rainy periods and it is now being proposed as a water holding area in bad weather. This seems a ridiculous idea.  Please can you find out more about this and update us at the next Committee?  Also there is no evidence that Transport for Wales (previously Network Rail) has been consulted on this proposal.  Please can you determine whether consultation has taken place and what their response is?

 

6. There is a petition of some 2000 signatures against the ‘save our woods’ application plus more than 500 objections. There is a suspicion that reducing the affordable housing on the main developments, and by specifying affordable housing in the 'save our woods' application is an underhand and devious way of getting this application approved.  We would hope that the percentage of affordable housing in the main development can be restored to the original levels in the main development.  Please can you discuss this with the Planning Committee to reassure this is not the case, and report the outcome to our next Committee meeting?     

 

7. The Committee would like to know current progress re the housing targets proposed by developers during preparation of the LDP.  It is a legal requirement to report on progress. In particular, the Plasdwr development is claimed to be a garden city development, but there is no sign to date of the provision of any parkland, education, or community facilities, despite the number of houses already built.

 

8. Large planning developments are usually the subject of S.106 Agreements, often requiring the payment of significant sums of money to the Council for associated improvements. In recent years the Press has reported that a number of developers have avoided payment of these sums by claiming their developments had turned out to be nonviable.  The Council apparently accepted these claims, but it is not known to what extent they were examined or what evidence was provided to justify any of them. It is clearly important that all the S.106 Agreements in respect of Plasdwr should be paid in full, either on or off-site, and our Committee are keen to receive an assurance to this end, together with amount that these s106 agreements have generated.

 

9. Many of the problems with the developments along Llantrisant Road flow from the adoption of a flawed LDP - the responsibility of the Council's Cabinet, not its Planning Committee.  The fact that the Strategic Site allocations in the LDP were too large and not underpinned by a sustainable transport strategy was pointed out by the North West Cardiff Group (including DCA) during the LDP's preparation and at its Examination in Public.  However the developers were listened to while the well-informed "voice of the community" was not.  DCA thus implores you to ensure that the new Cabinet learns lessons from the LDP debacle, and takes a different approach during preparation of the Replacement LDP - one that gives equal weight to the views of the local community para 9 ...

 

Finally the Committee look forward to a considerable improvement in performance of the Council and its Planning Committee, who we hope will put Cardiff first as opposed to developers profits.  We are confident that you will represent both the interests of Danescourt residents and Cardiff as a whole as your top priority. 

 

 

Kind regards

 

Edgar Gibbs

Chair DCA

Last Updated on Thursday, 26 May 2022 17:06
 
Welsh Water Sewerage work at De Braose Close PDF Print E-mail

Welsh Water have built a track at the end of De Braose Close into the woods as they wish to install a sewage pipe that will connect to a Pumping Station in Hailey Park, so that the sewage will flow to Cardiff Waste Water Treatment Works as an alternative to Cog Moors Waste Water Treatment Works.

 

The pipe will be connected to a valve installed in the system and controlled via a cabinet placed at the end of De Braose Close. The pipe will pass deep underneath the railway and river and connect to an underground pumping station accessed by the lane to the Hailey Park changing rooms from Ty-Mawr Road.

 

This work is due to the Plasdŵr development, which will connect to the sewage pipe in Herbert March Close. Work is planned to start mid 2022. Further details are on the Cardiff Planning System here

The location of the De Braose cabinet and the Hailey Park pumping station are on this map.

Last Updated on Tuesday, 23 November 2021 19:26
 
‘Danescourt Park’ – Construction of 2 Ponds PDF Print E-mail
Cardiff City Council will start the construction of 2 Ponds in the ‘Danescourt Park’ – a green field / park bordered by Llantrisant Road (from the Radyr Filling Station to Heol Isaf), a path from Heol Isaf to Radyr Comprehensive School, and the Danescourt Estate. There are paths from Heol Isaf to Herbert March Close and Buckley Close .
Plan of proposed ponds
 
Click here to open the image full size
The double ponds are on the right hand side of this diagram near the gardens of Herbert March Close. The temporary vehicle only access situated within the precinct of a Toucan crossing on Llantrisant Road will be made permanent for Council Parks maintenance or emergency access.
The above diagram also shows the ponds around the Llantrisant Road / Heol Isaf junction that are part of the Plasdŵr surface water scheme managed by Redrow under Cardiff Council planning application  21/00645/MJR. This is the only information online about the Council ponds and is not part of any planning application.
Cardiff Council have stated that they are acting under their permitted powers to disperse the highway surface water as Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water sewers will not have the capacity to accept it. The ponds' capacity is stated as coping with a maximum rainfall event that occurs once in 100 years plus 40% 
About half the park has already been fenced off as a construction site, and the access road and ponds excavation will begin soon.
 
There is no information on the Council website other than the Redrow planning application for this scheme for Attenuation Ponds or Basin.
 
This Danescourt Community Association has posed 20 Questions formally to the Council and will be publishing their responses. Clarification has also been requested as to what permitted powers have been used for this scheme and why was there no consultation nor advance notice. 
Last Updated on Sunday, 25 July 2021 12:20
 
Consultation - Cycleway 4.2 Western Avenue to Llandaff PDF Print E-mail
Cardiff City Council have opened a consultation on a Cycleway route connecting with Cycleway 4.1 which connects the City Centre to Western Avenue. Cycleway 4.2 will extend this as far as the former BBC Llandaff vehicle entrance on Llantrisant Road, with the intention of extending the Cycleway to Plasdŵr and beyond in the future. The consultation document can be found here
 
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