Council planners hold site visit six years after recycling centre was closed
CONTROVERSIAL plans for the site of the former recycling centre on Waungron Road will be debated by Cardiff councillors next week following a site visit yesterday.
The proposal includes a new bus station, space for shops and 44 council flats across a block of four, five and seven storey buildings.
The site has been empty since 2014, when the centre was closed after the council declared it could no longer afford to run it.
“I am pleased the site is being redeveloped. It’s a brownfield site close to transport links and it has been derelict for a long time,” said Sean Driscoll, councillor for Llandaff and member of the planning committee.
“However, these plans are out of context with the area and an overdevelopment of the site and that it will have a major impact on the road network.”
In 2016, plans were approved for a bus interchange. The plans were delayed due to various complications, including a developer withdrawing.
The project is now being led by the council’s housing team and the plans were redesigned entirely in February 2021.
The new proposal, incorporating council housing and shops alongside the bus interchange, met with disapproval from many residents.
Plans were altered in June, reducing the number of flats from 50 to 44. Some blocks were reduced in height, but one block remains seven storeys high.
A council spokesperson said: “The council has already made several changes to the planning application following pre-application public consultation with residents in the area.”
Many residents are opposed to the site being used for council housing. Half the flats would be used as temporary accommodation.
A woman from Fairwater, who worked in social rehabilitation, but did not wish to be named, said: “There are many reasons I am against this ill-considered plan. Pollution and traffic are just the start. Aesthetically it is a huge eyesore and is not in keeping with other buildings in the vicinity.
“Most importantly, the council housing aspect is not fit for purpose. Cramming vulnerable people together in an area where there are no resources nearby is irresponsible.
“If the council leader and his family wouldn’t want to live there, why should anyone else?”
Mrs Evans, of Fairwater, who did not want to give her full name, said: “I would support a transport hub but not the current proposal. This needs to have a local impact assessment.”
She added: “The site is not best suited for more flats or homes as access is an issue – it is already a heavily congested area for traffic and a number of incidents have occurred in the last few months.
“Having temporary accommodation in here is not ideal as it’s over a kilometre to the nearest GP and pharmacy for support. It is also far from the Hub in Fairwater where residents can get financial support and prepare to apply for jobs.”
The plan has no parking spaces, and future residents are expected to have low car-ownership rates. Residents on nearby streets feel their already busy roads will not have capacity for any overflow parking visitors may need.
“A parking survey confirmed that the local residential street network can accommodate any potential increase in car parking that can be reasonably anticipated.” said developers Powell Dobson in planning documents.
The plan crosses the boundary between Fairwater and Llandaff, so residents in both wards would be impacted.
When the proposal was introduced, only a limited number of homes close to the site were delivered notices of the consultation.
Mrs Evans said: “I’d like to see the councillors in Fairwater, Llandaff, Canton and Ely engaging in matters where there are planning applications across boundaries.
“They also need to communicate with residents on the boundary. I’ve got family living in Davies Place, technically Fairwater, but they have not received any communication from Councillor Driscoll in Llandaff on the Waungron Park proposals which will impact them.
“Their garden is on the community boundary. To compare with my in-laws living in Fairwater Grove West, they received letters from the council about the plans.”
A council spokesperson said: “The Waungron Interchange could play a key role in reducing traffic flow, linked as it will be, to train, bus, cycling and walking routes.
“It will help service a key route for commuters coming into the city from the west, which is one of the busiest routes into Cardiff.”
Coun Driscoll warned that the transport report being used is outdated and not a true reflection of the situation as it is today.
The remote planning committee meeting to debate the plans will take place next Wednesday (December 15). Any member of the public can attend.
