Wales & West Housing plans to build a 7-storey affordable housing development in Riverside.
In December last year, the developer LRM Planning submitted an application on behalf of Wales & West Housing to demolish the existing buildings at 51–56 Cowbridge Road East and 2–8 Lower Cathedral Road to develop a 7-story building with 87 apartments.
Although the first two versions have been rejected by Cardiff council, the surrounding residents still think this is unreasonable.
Paul McFarland is the caretaker of the nearby Unite building. “I think it’s just absolutely unnecessary” he says.
Mr MacFarland says the traffic here is very busy and more development will make it worse.
In addition to traffic congestion, the surrounding residents are also worried about the pollution and noise generated during construction.
At the same time, if this affordable housing is completed, they say they can’t be sure what kind of people will live here.
David Webb has lived in the area for 12 years. He says, “It’s a type of people that move in, you’re gonna get some good, you’re gonna get some bad and that’s difficult for this area because it’s deprived anyway and there’s a lot of issues with mental health, drug, alcohol, and this could make it worse.”
And for small local businesses, this will also be challenging. If construction takes place here, it could take two years or more to complete, which might mean they would lose trade.
Wales & West Housing said it would continue to work with the Cardiff council to meet the needs of surrounding residents as much as possible.