Council building student flats that nobody wants

A RECENT report in the South Wales Echo informs us that not being satisfied with abusing the people of Cardiff by running rings around planning laws by building student accommodation that nobody including students want, we are now informed that the speculators have decided to add insult to injury by reneging on the Section 106, (this is a legal bribe that usually helps to oil the wheels of planning law). This money is pretty negligible compared to the spend on the project.

The thing is that it seems it’s not just Cardiff, as a report on TV now tells us that out of £170m owed to councils via this system, £130m is still owed.

Councils take action against people who owe any part of their rates, saying that they are obliged to collect this.

Surely the council should ask these speculators to resubmit planning applications for flats and ask them to provide parking for those flats. Planning should be turned down where they cannot meet these guidelines.

If that means the speculator loses and has to replace the building, that seems fair, as they have had it their own way for to long.

The council needs to find out why students do not want this accommodation, before allowing any more of these buildings that look as if they were designed by a four-year-old using Lego blocks.

One good reason could be that there is no parking provision – after all, it looks as if most students residing in HMOs that used to be family homes bring their cars with them. But the councillors are following their own agenda and will ignore anything that doesn’t fit their ideas, hoping that people will do as they’re told. The problem is that politicians, including the local councillors and those in the Assembly, ignore anybody who does not share their views, even where those opposing views are in the majority.

Now we are informed that we will have to put up with our councillors for five years. Surely it would be fairer if we elected half the councilors every two years and let them serve for four years. We might then get councillors that listen to their constituents. Frank Spragg

Cathays, Cardiff

The council should find out why students do not want this accommodation Frank Spragg Cathays, Cardiff