BUS STATION DECISION DUE
PLANS for Cardiff’s new £100m bus station could finally be given the goahead this week.
Cardiff council’s planning committee will meet tomorrow to decide whether or not the transport interchange in Central Square should go ahead.
Council planning officers have recommended the scheme, which will also include 305 apartments, a six-storey office block, a car park and commercial units, should be approved.
The plans include a 14-stand bus station within a concourse area of more than 10,000 sq ft, a cycle hub for 144 bikes, seven retail units at ground floor level.
Buses would access the station from the north via Wood Street, and from the south via Saunders Road. The bus station would be designed to accommodate double decker buses and coaches, but not articulated buses.
The private rented flats would be in a 22-storey tower in Wood Street, and a nine storey block in Marland Street, and would be made up of 16 studio apartments, 172 one bed flats, 103 two beds and 14 three beds.
There would also be 249-space private car park, mainly for the BBC headquarters next door. No car parking is provided for the apartments.
It is hoped the bus station would be ready in 2021, a report to the committee says.
Plans for the bus station has attracted some objections - that it’s too small and would add to pollution and congestion in the area.
Cardiff Civic Society welcomed the likelihood of the city getting a bus station again, but said the number of bays “cannot adequately accommodate the services the old bus station catered for, never mind the huge increases in bus patronage the city council is relying on to achieve it’s 50/50 transport mode target”.
“It is suggested that inter-city bus travellers cannot be accommodated in the planned interchange, unlike the old bus centre,” the society’s statement added.
“This does not support the city council’s aspirations for Cardiff to become a ‘World Class European Capital.’”
The civic society also said it can envisage a “chaotic situation” inside the corridor in the interchange at peak periods “where long queues in the centre bays will block access for passengers trying to access the bays at either end”.
Nearby business The Royal Hotel has also previously said the design could cause a “pollution hell hole” pointing out that toxic levels of nitrogen dioxide have exceeded legal limits in Westgate Street consistently for at least the past seven years.
Council officers have said the bus stands will at most accommodate seven buses per hour during peak times, and a transport assessment shows the bus station design has the required capacity.
They said the station has not been designed for articulated buses as that would limit the number of services that could use it. Not all services would use the new bus station, with some continuing to use existing on-street stops.
Pollution from the interchange could be reduced if the council takes up cleaner hybrid or electric vehicles, the council’s report says.
The development would be delivered by a partnership of Cardiff Council, the Welsh Government, Rightacres and Network Rail.
The bus station will be operated by Welsh Government’s transport body, Transport for Wales.
If planning permission is approved, the developer would be asked to provide £1.7 million towards public realm works on the wider Central Quay, £50,000 towards bicycle hire facilities and £10,000 towards air quality monitoring.