Student flats application includes ban on nearby parking

A NEW student development would ban its residents from parking their cars within a mile and a half of the buildings.

Any students who broke the rule would lose their deposits, according to the developer.

The claim is made in planning documents for five blocks containing 361 flats in the Mynachdy area of Cardiff.

The proposed site is between Western Avenue and North Road and has been vacant for a long time, says the application.

It says students would not be allowed to park within a 1.5-mile radius of the site. The only parking on site will be 22 disabled spaces.

This will be “policed” by student wardens. Any students breaking the “no car and no parking” rule will lose their deposits.

There will be a travel plan to advise students how to get about.

The development would also include a new community centre and boxing club on the site of the original Mynachdy Community Centre.

Developers Mederco (Cardiff Ltd) say that the new centre would be a “valuable resource to the community”.

Access to the new development would be by Radyr Place, with pedestrians using Mynachdy Road.

To create a sense of local history, images of five historical themes would be superimposed on the outside of the building.

The themes are the historic rural hamlet of Gabalfa; the neighbourhood where lock-keepers, masons, carpenters and boat-builders lived; the Taff Vale Railway; Cardiff as a garrison town; and Maindy Stadium.

“The connection of old and new attempts to pay tribute to the historical importance of the area. The images will also differentiate the blocks,” says the application.

The developer asked the council to be allowed to build 411 rooms in this plan but “feedback received” was that it would be too overdeveloped.

In 2012, permission was given for six blocks including 249 rooms at the site. Alterations have been made to those plans as the needs of students have changed.

Now, the plans are for studiostyle apartments.

The five buildings would be built alongside each other in a linear formation along the railway.

In the planning application submitted to the council, the developer says that the “comments were... positive” at a drop-in event at the existing community centre.

“The main concerns related to parking, pedestrian access and security.”

The plans can be viewed at www.cardiff.gov.uk