Talk of creating a Cardiff region (consisting of Cardiff and the local authorities such as the Vale of Glamorgan, Rhondda Cynon Taf etc) has been going on for some years. However nothing concrete has even appeared. Now it seems according to a report in the South Wales Echo it may not even materialize.
“he concept of creating a Cardiff City Region covering much of South East Wales appears to have been undermined in documents obtained by the Echo, it has been claimed.”
It seems that the Welsh Government was not interested in pursuing a cross authority plan on housing it wanted Cardiff to go head and plan for 44K new houses to be built by 2026 which is incredible.
“The Welsh Government’s head of plans Mark Newey said, according to the notes, other councils were so advanced in preparing their own LDPs that there was “no immediate prospect” of securing a cross-boundary agreement.
Mr Newey reportedly said the idea of Cardiff sharing its projected growth within the region “was not a realistic short-term option” and “referred to the need for Cardiff to prepare its plan now”.
The council warned the LDP would see thousands of homes built on greenfield sites, raise “serious political issues” and “was unlikely to receive support”. But the Welsh Government’s chief planner Rosemary Thomas reminded the council of its “responsibility as a capital city in delivering (an LDP)”.
It seems that the surrounding authorities want Cardiff to build build build, and they have a puppet in the new Labour administration who will defy the wishes of the the people of Cardiff as Professor Kevin Morgan put it
“Professor Kevin Morgan, a planning expert at Cardiff University, said planning future housing provision from a regional perspective was integral to a successful city region.
Prof Morgan, who was a member of the Welsh Government’s City Region Group, said: “If Cardiff is forced to accommodate its housing growth within the boundaries of the city it will be forced to build on green space.
“Some planners would say that is the right and proper thing to do, but that is not my view – I think if local politicians start to build on green space they will be toast.
“That is why I am a city regionalist. Part of this growth has got to be shared with neighbouring local authorities – you have got to engage them and come to a mutually beneficial position.”
I s he right, will they be toast?
Can we expect vision from second division politicians, I doubt it very much, and in Cardiff Bay its very much second division.
ReplyDeleteI think the pols at the assembly are the least of our problems, we have a more lethal foe, the planning inspectorate answerable to no one.
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