As you will know we are concerned that Cardiff's Deposit LDP envisages the development of many houses along Llantrisant Road between Radyr and Creigiau without any provision for new or improved roads to deal with the extra traffic which this development will create.

We have joined forces with the Community Councils of Radyr & Morganstown, Pentyrch, St Fagans, the Llandaff Society, the Cardiff Civic Society and the Protect Creigiau Group to form the North West Cardiff Group in order to try to convert the LDP into a plan which might work rather than one that clearly will lead to problems. This NWC Group is representing about 25,000 residents, so hopefully it will prove to be a force to be reckoned with.

All the land that Cardiff wishes to see developed along Llantrisant Road lies in the ownership of the Earl of Plymouth Estates. If the Cardiff LDP is accepted as it currently stands, once it is adopted the Earl of Plymouth Estates will sell the land to various developers who will proceed to do their own thing at their own speed with all the resultant transport problems which would result. What we believe will be necessary is a phased approach to this development which ensures the anticipated transport problems will be addressed before any development goes ahead, but Cardiff's LDP will not deliver this. 

Also when the land is sold, because of its increase in value from agricultural land to developable land, the Earl of Plymouth Estates will gain at least £700 million from the sale.

Cardiff Civic Society has devised an alternative plan, which is attached as a Power Point presentation, which envisages the establishment of a New Town Development Corporation by the Welsh Government to manage the development of this land in an appropriate manner. The advantages of this approach are that it would not only deliver the necessary phasing of the development in that the transport improvements would be provided before houses are built, but also that it would gain the benefit of the increase in the value of the land. This would provide the Development Corporation with the necessary funding to construct the infrastructure and the income to Earl of Plymouth Estates from the land would be more in the region of £700,000 than the £700 million which it stands to gain from the Cardiff LDP proposal.

The development envisaged by the CCS plan would be a series of individual developments located along the rebuilt railway or tramway from Fairwater to Criegiau and beyond, which is a part of the Cardiff Metro proposals, each development to be centred on a railway or tram station but separated from the neighbouring developments by parkland. In this way a new 'garden town' would emerge.

Cardiff Council's intended LDP would see up to 11,000 new homes constructed between Radyr and Creigiau, which is a development that will be approximately the same size as the town of Carmarthen. Given that the traffic on Llantrisant Road heading towards Cardiff each morning peak period already seizes up every day, adding any additional volume of traffic to it from this development proposal will just considerably worsen this situation.

The North West Cardiff Group is not against the enlargement of Cardiff but believes that the proposed developments should only be allowed to go ahead after all the necessary infrastructure has been put in place. The term 'infrastructure' includes the provision of shops, schools, surgeries and other community services as well as perhaps more fundamentally the drainage, gas, electricity and water services and means of transportation. Cardiff Council's LDP does not include for the provision of any transportation improvements to accompany this new development and it is this lack of provision which is seen to be the most important by the North West Cardiff Group. The Group believes the LDP is fundamentally flawed without this provision and consequently neither sustainable nor sound. Representations to this effect have been made to all the Council's formal consultations for the LDP.

Mark Drakeford AM and Kevin Brennan MP are known to share the Group's concerns. The NWC Group has held a meeting with Mark Drakeford which resulted in a letter being sent to him dated 08 May (below) which seeks his assistance. Cardiff Civic Society has devised it's 'Parkland' scheme (also below) which is supported by the NWC Group and which it is believed would provide an acceptable way forward. The NWC Group also met with Cllr. R Patel, who is the Cabinet Member for Transport, Planning and Sustainability on 01 May and subsequently wrote to him to confirm the content of the meeting. (See letter dated 07 May below).

The NWC Group also held a meeting with Roger Lewis who has been appointed Chairman of the Cardiff Capital Region Board in order to discuss the importance of linking the development of the Cardiff Metro to the development proposal for North West Cardiff and the obvious need for alignment of these two proposals. (A note of this meeting is also below). Mark Barry is actually in charge of the Metro proposal and the group is thereore also trying to arrange to meet with Mr Barry.

To date all of this activity has not persuaded Cardiff to alter its draft LDP in any way or to recognise the need for any linkage between the development of the Metro and the development proposals for North West Cardiff. The Cabinet meets today 12 June to confirm the LDP and a copy of the report to Cabinet is below. Because of this situation the NWC Group also wrote on 09 June individually to each member of the Cabinet.

Use this link to down load copies of the documents referred to.

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