Why Cardiff residents are up in arms at the city’s ‘studentification’
Imagine living in the same residential street for decades. You understand that living in a central student area means there will be noise, it will be difficult to park and it will be messy.
You have accepted this as part of living in a vibrant and growing city.
This is the case for residents of Maindy Road in Cathays, Cardiff. The street is tidy and tree-lined, with small gardens in front of well-kept terraced houses. Despite being a student heartland, the area has a good balance of students, young families, professionals and older long-term residents.
At the end of the street there are three commercial units containing a gym (a recent tenant), a window supplier and a car garage that has been there for 40 years.
To the horror of the people living on the street, Cardiff Council has just granted permission for the units’ owner to demolish them all and build a six-storey building comprising 143 student flats.
Does this sound familiar? It should. The Welsh capital is currently in the eye of a student flat-building storm.
There are a huge number of major developments either open, under construction or being considered for permission across the city, 13 of which are within about 250m of each other around the Newport Road/City Road junction. In total, this adds up to more than 6,000 beds in Purpose Built Student Accommodation (PBSA).
Following the Maindy Road application back in December, dozens of residents have objected to it.
“This is not student-bashing,” said Lynn Glaister, 56, who has lived on the street for almost three decades.
“I chose to live in a student area. I have lived here since 1990 and know what kind of area it is. I like the vibrancy and I do like the students, but I do not like the landlords.”
This is at the heart of the objections. The residents are not anti-student, they simply think a six-storey building on a residential street will change the area beyond recognition in terms of traffic, noise, mess and appearance.
“When is this going to end?” said environmental officer Georgina Taubman, who recently moved to the street.
“Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against students – they come to the city, they spend their money and help the local economy. However, the developers’ need to accommodate them in newly-built complexes is causing an irreversible impact on the residential streets of Cardiff and I just can’t understand why the council keep enabling these developments to happen.
“Some are being built in newly-developed areas, such as that in front of Central Station – these I can live with as it’s just another high-rise building to add to the list in that area. However, when these developments start to affect normal residential streets, I believe this is unreasonable. However, the council doesn’t seem to care.
“I realise this seems a bit ‘nimby’ [not in my back yard] but my street is just one illustrative example of how student accommodation is taking over.
“In the case of Maindy Road, where are these students going to park [no parking is designed for the development]? What about the noise and increased footfall down the street? It just feels like they are taking over.
“We already have the huge Liberty Living at Cambrian Point complex backed on the street, which extends along the majority of the street – it feels like Maindy Road is being suffocated with student accommodation.
“I can only feel for the poor residents who will be living in the shadow of the building as well as the three established companies who will be evicted against their will as a result of the landowner selling their land to make way for this development.”