Plans to turn the site into a seven-storey block of flats withdrawn
THE planned demolition of the Roath Park Pub has been suspended after a planning application to turn the historic building into a seven-storey block of flats was withdrawn.
The application was originally scheduled to be heard at a committee meeting tomorrow but has already been withdrawn.
Ventura Developments, a property construction company from Wales, submitted the plans in September but has seen a major backlash from both from the local community and councillors.
The company stated it designed the building to “purposely contrast” with the Victorian architecture of City Road and cited the similarly styled City Heights, a student housing block.
Image: Richard Whitaker Architects Ltd.
But many people were unhappy with the demolition of the pub, which is nearly 150 years old, and worried that the planned design of the new building would further disrupt the architecture of the area.
Both Labour and Liberal Democrat councillors launched petitions against the planned development, with one petition reaching more than 300 signatures.
Image: Roath Local History Society
The plan also received an official objection from Cardiff Civic Society, which claimed that the building was “jarring in design” and would “adversely affect the character of the neighbourhood.”
Cardiff Council’s planning website also had over a hundred comments from residents arguing against the planning application.
One of these local residents was Sophie Adams, who said: “Yet another high-rise building on City Road is not needed”. Ms Adam said she believes that “sympathetic development of the existing building would be vastly preferable to this scorched earth approach.”
Rodney Berman, the Liberal Democrat councillor for Penylan, reacted to the news on Twitter, stating he was “pleased to hear developers have withdrawn the application” but warned that “an amended plan could well follow.”
The planning application was just one of many that has been criticised in recent months and campaigners argue that the planning system should be overhauled to better include local communities.
Reclaim Cardiff, a campaign that has staged a number of protests against similar planning applications, says it aims to “connect people in opposing destruction.”
The proposed Museum of Military Medicine is another application that has received many objections from residents, with a decision to be made on it’s future at a committee meeting on Wednesday 16 December.
The future of the Roath Park Pub remains yet to be seen but at the very least the current plans have been halted in a major win for protestors.
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