Cardiff Council approves LDP

Local residents ignored

Welsh Government can’t see our city for the houses

• Cardiff Council Executive must deliver an LDP acceptable to the Welsh Government (WG)
• WG has set out the LDP’s parameters including building 41,100 homes by 2026
• Without an LDP in place we are vulnerable to developers making pre-emptive applications to build houses anywhere in Cardiff - and this is happening
• Without protection from speculative development there is no time to draw up a proper plan taking proper account of the advantages of the proposed Metro
• A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to create a 21^st century city is being wasted.

This is the site for 6,100+ houses, schools, retail, community centres …

Can you see the traffic jams yet?

• 11,650 dwellings to be built in NW Cardiff by 2026
• The LDP’s transport plan assumes more people using public transport, bikes or walking: from 36% now to 50%, but
• Cardiffrefuses to delay development in the NW to wait for the Metro to make that shift possible.  They say a new bus service will do. 
• Cardiff agrees that the transport network is at full capacity and that existing hot spots will get worse, eg Ynys Bridge, Heol Isaf, Llandaff, St Fagans railway crossing. 
• Cardiffsays it will make road conditions worse to force people out of cars, eg policed bus lanes, but will not provide an alternative.
• We think the roads are too dangerous for cycling, the trains are full at Radyr, and the bus services are being cut.
• Early planning applications are already coming in: 1,500 new homes south of Creigiau; three applications for the land south of Radyr (and additional to the 6,100 above) are imminent.
• If we cannot open Cardiff’s eyes to the damage the LDP will do to NW Cardiff, what do we do next?  See below for details …

Countdown to a Planning Disaster

• Cardiff Council approved the LDP on 26^th June.  All the local County Councillors including Gareth Aubrey and Kirsty Williams spoke strongly against this and made the strong points articulated by local residents and the North West Cardiff Group (NWCG).
• Cardiff ignored all concerns and suggestions made by the NWCG, which represents 24,000+ Cardiff residents in Creigiau, Danescourt, Gwaelod y Garth Llandaff, Morganstown, Pentyrch, Radyr, and St Fagans
• The LDP goes before the Welsh Government’s Inspector between January and March 2015, with the Report due in August and the LDP expected to come into force in October 2015.          

We have worked hard on your behalf for the last 5 years. Danescourt Community Association alone and as part of the NWCG, has submitted responses on time at every stage of the process, but all these have been ignored. We have lobbied Mark Drakeford AM, Kevin Brennan MP and Roger Lewis, Chairman of the Cardiff Capital Region Board (which is responsible for delivering the Metro).  All have said they agreed with us.  Cllr Patel (the latest of several Cardiff Councillors responsible for delivering the LDP) does not.

We say:

There is no credible plan to cope with the demand for travel from over 11,000 houses (16,500 cars?) creating a place the size of Carmarthen on green fields and woodland between St Fagan’s, Danescourt, Radyr and Creigiau.

The assumptions Cardiff have made about the way people will travel from the new developments are ludicrous.  Would you be prepared to cycle down Llantrisant Road in the rush hour to get on an overcrowded train at Radyr?  Not even the residents of Lychgate Gardens in Radyr cycle to Radyr station.

We are not against sustainable development, but what is proposed in the LDP is not sustainable.

We have written to Cardiff’s Cabinet members in the hope that they would amend the LDP to meet our concerns.  They refused.

Congestion and air pollution in NW Cardiff, particularly Llandaff, Fairwater and Canton, will be intolerable if development is not managed properly.

We have consistently argued for transport and other infrastructure to be built in advance of development, but to no avail.

A tidal wave of major applications from house-builders is now hitting Cardiff before the LDP is adopted.  Separate developments outside the LDP risk creating suburban sprawl that will benefit only the developers and not the people of Cardiff. 

Developers are already trying to increase housing numbers beyond the LDP’s allocations.

We need more houses and an LDP, yes, but not at any cost!

What is our alternative?

We have joined with Cardiff Civic Society who have made a very sound proposal to integrate the LDP with the Cardiff Metro, linking Cardiff with emerging communities in Llantrisant and beyond.  It would also prevent a huge amount of money (from increased land values) leaving Wales, and provide a framework for the formation of proper future Communities. 

The details are:

• Cardiff Council should define areas for development in partnership with the Welsh Government and Rhondda Cynon Taf.
• Compulsory purchase of the land by a Development Corporation would keep hundreds of millions of pounds in Wales to help pay for infrastructure, including the Metro.
• This could pioneer a 21st century version of the garden city: communities clustered around Metro stations on the line from western Cardiff to growth areas around Llantrisant but physically separated from each other by extensive public ‘gardens’ in the form of parks or recreational facilities.

Cardiffsays this is not possible and that landowners would object to compulsory land purchase!  We say this plan is in the public interest and the LDP is not. The Welsh Government could set up a Development Corporation to take this action.

We are not NIMBYs.  We recognise that Cardiff needs more housing and that NW Cardiff is an inevitable target area.  However, housing which worsens transport problems will not be good for new or existing residents nor for Cardiff, and not even for SE Wales.  The only real beneficiaries are the owners of the land and the developers who together stand to make over a billion pounds out of planning gain.

We cannot stand back and watch our capital city ruined.  We want to change the future of Cardiff and SE Wales for the better. We will continue to argue for an amended LDP and will make that argument to the Inspector.

Will you join us?   Can you help?  The time for formal submissions to Cardiff Council has passed.  They have not listened to us.  We need to take back the initiative to prevent the impending disaster.

If you have relevant specialist knowledge, contacts or would like to help please contact: Edgar Gibbs on 20564850 or [email protected]

In any event please sign our petition to delay development in NW Cardiff on Change.org