Residents’ anger over council plan to gate alleyway

PEOPLE living on an alleyway have hit out at plans to put gates on the single track road.

Cardiff council is planning to fit gates in the middle of Partridge Lane, near Newport Road, to combat antisocial behaviour and worries about crime.

The lane is a narrow single-track road which houses from neighbouring Partridge Road and Oakfield Street back onto. But there are also two houses at either end of the lane – and they say the gates will block their road, and make it more unsafe outside their homes.

The council says the scheme has the support of residents and will reduce anti-social behaviour.

But the two households situated on the lane are opposed to the plans.

Jan and Martin Wylie have lived in the lane for 32 years.

“This is the fourth time this has happened,” said Mr Wylie. “The last two times we were assured that as it was residential it couldn’t be gated legally. That is why they have come up with the idea of gating a small area.

“Because it is a single traffic road, if a delivery driver came to us they still have to go through two gates or reverse up a narrow lane. So it exactly the same as if they had gated us in. This includes emergency vehicles.”

Cardiff council says 74% of those who responded to a consultation favoured the option to partially gate the lane.

Mr Wylie says these are not people who will be directly affected.

He said: “I would say it is the residents of Partridge Road and Oakfield Street who want this who don’t use the lane. The residents of Partridge Lane are unanimously against it.

“The two residential properties and the two businesses are completely opposed. When money is so tight I don’t know why they spend it on something we don’t want.

“We feel like we are being bullied. Every time we get assurances that it has gone away for good it comes back.”

Helen and Paul Horridge are strongly against the gate. Helen has lived in her house on Partridge Road since she was 12.

Mrs Horridge, 70, said: “My parents and now my grandchildren are here. We play in the lane and walk round the block every day with the dog. I find it a meditative space, this is personal to me. I feel like the city has been effectively taken off me.”

Mr Horridge, 72, believes the gate will not reduce anti-social behaviour. He said: “It might be true if the gates were placed at the end where they can be observed but they are not. ”

A council spokesman said: “Considering the impact of the restrictions on public access against the impact of ongoing crime and anti-social behaviour on the local community, the Council published a Notice of Proposal to gate the lane on June 28. Interested parties have until July 26 to make further representations and all feedback will be considered before a final decision is made.

“The location of the gates would not restrict the public right of way to any dwelling or business that is only or principally accessed from the lane. Keys would be available for all residents adjacent to the lane to enable through-access and signs would be erected at the lane entrance to indicate that there is authorised throughaccess only. Keys would also be provided to the emergency services.”