Bus station plan changed again

PLANS for Cardiff’s long-awaited bus station have been changed again. The capital has been without a station since 2015 and the multi-millionpound project has been subject to long delays.

Several different plans for a transport interchange have been put forward and scrapped over the past six years, but work finally started in December.

Now the plans have been altered once more. The developers, Rightacres, have submitted a planning application to extend the offices above, remove a retail unit and make the office reception bigger.

The application to Cardiff council is to add two floors of offices on the south side of the bus station. The extra 3,700sqm of space is “to meet the requirements of the preferred future office occupier”.

More parking spaces for bicycles and ultra-low-emissions vehicles are also being included.

The developers also want to remove one retail unit to provide more space in the bus station.

The plans are recommended to go ahead, but a number of groups have objected.

Councillor Keith Parry, Cardiff Civic Society, Cardiff Cycling Campaign,

and Cardiff and Vale Bus-Users Group all object on various grounds, including how the additional height will cause strong winds in the area.

The planning application says that detailed wind-tunnel testing, and details of measures to help the wind for the western edge and south-west corner of the building, will need to be submitted within six months of permission being given.

In the second half of 2022, Rightacres will hand the building over to

Transport for Wales. There will then be a six- to nine-month fit-out to get it ready for passengers to use from spring 2023. The Welsh Government has spent £15m buying land for the bus station and will pay £15m to fit out the building.

The bus station funding is part of a wider redevelopment of the whole Cardiff Central public transport interchange.

The council’s planning committee is due to meet today.