ALL ABOARD!
FINALLY WE’VE GOT A FULLY-FUNDED PLAN FOR NEW BUS STATION – AND WORK COULD START NEXT MONTH
WORK on Cardiff ’s new bus station is set to finally begin after a decade of delays and false dawns.
Cardiff’s bus terminus on Wood Street was closed and demolished in 2008 and since then there have been years of frustration for commuters with several plans promised but never delivered.
But now Cardiff council is seeking approval from its ruling body for a reworked proposal that would enable works on the site in Central Square to begin as early as April.
City leaders had previously indicated that the bus station project, which will include offices and flats, would take two years to complete.
They will now hold an extraordinary cabinet meeting next Wednesday where they are expected to sign off plans to finally get the development underway.
Developer Rightacres Property Ltd will shortly be submitting a planning application for the final plans, which will include: a 14-stand bus station; 10,000 sq ft of retail space on the ground floor;
300 apartments fronting Wood Street; and
80,000 sq ft of prime offices fronting Saunders Road.secur
The proposed cycle hub will be moved out of the ground floor area of the bus station to a stand-alone kiosk style building north of the railway line. The exact location of the cycle hub is to be confirmed.
A new funding model for the bus station has been proposed between Cardiff council, the Welsh Government and Rightacres, known as the Metro Delivery Partnership.
As part of the arrangement Cardiff council is handing over its leasehold interest in one part of Central Square, the exact site of which has not been made public, to the Welsh Government.
The Welsh Government is in return buying the old Saunders Road car park site, where the bus station will be developed, and transferring the freehold to the city council.
The development of the bus station will now be funded on “on a commercial basis given that Transport for Wales is now prepared to enter into an operator lease”.
The papers say: “This, in effect, reduces the council’s financial exposure by £15m to £20m.”
The Welsh Government will fund the development of offices above the site, which will be “sold to an institutional investor once a tenant has been secured”.
Rightacres is currently negotiating with two main contractors and will be able to appoint a firm to carry out the work once the funding from Welsh Government and the operational lease with Transport for Wales are both agreed.
It is hoped a contractor will be appointed to deliver the bus station by May or June this year. In the meantime Rightacres will start early site works in April.
Councillor Russell Goodway, cabinet member for investment and development, has previously said the bus station could be built in two years.
Speaking yesterday, he said: “Through the arrangements that have been put in place since May, the new bus station will now be built on a commercial basis.
“Cardiff will have a new bus station and the Council will recover the lion’s share of the money spent on the scheme to date. Bringing Welsh Government and Transport for Wales in as partners has enabled the Council and the developer to get to a position where the construction will now be delivered on a fully commercially basis without any further need for council investment.
“Importantly, the Welsh Government’s involvement has secured offices as part of the final mixed-use scheme which means we still have a good chance of securing the major inward-investment project we have been working on together over the past 12 months.”
“This project has always needed to be affordable to the council, hence the delays in bringing it forward.
“We needed to make changes, but we are now confident we have a scheme and a partnership that will make it happen, and we are hopeful that works will start on site next month.”
In a report to the full council on Thursday night, Mr Goodway said: “Significant progress has been made in the past month in connection with the creation of the Metro Delivery Partnership and, following and extraordinary meeting of the Council’s Cabinet on March 28, the leader of the county council will make an announcement on behalf of the partners regarding the commencement of works.”