Plans for east Cardiff ‘will be beacon for whole of Wales’
LONG-TERM plans to transform the east of Cardiff which will “be as big as Cardiff Bay” have been signed off.
Cardiff council’s ruling body has approved an industrial strategy aimed at boosting jobs and investment in the east of the city.
The 20-year plan involves new industry and business units, transport infrastructure such as a tramway, and opportunities for green energy generation. A proposed Cardiff Parkway railway station, planned at St Mellons Business Park by 2023, and the eastern bay link road to the A48, form part of the wider strategy to regenerate the area.
The strategy covers the east Cardiff wards of Rumney, Llanrumney, Tremorfa, Splott, Pen-Y-Lan, Trowbridge, Pentwyn and Pontprennau and Old St Mellons, which the council says have “major potential for industrial-related development”.
The east of Cardiff has some of the poorest wards not just in the capital but the whole of Wales – with a third of people aged over 16 having no qualifications and some areas being poorly served by public transport.
Councillor Russell Goodway, cabinet member for investment and development, told a cabinet meeting on October 10: “For far too long the point has been made that if the southern arc of Cardiff was a local authority in its own right it would be the most deprived area in Wales.
“Over the next 15 to 20 years we can start to put that right.
“I consider the publication of this strategy as a landmark moment for a part of this city that has been neglected.”
A link road between the east of Cardiff and the A48, leading to the M4, and improved pedestrian and cycling facilities in the area, form part of the plans to improve transport in the area.
Employment uses to be brought to the area include light industry, manufacturing and the creative industries.
There are also plans for renewable energy generation on historic landfill sites, similar to the recently approved 32,000 panels at Lamby Way.
Cllr Goodway told an Economy and Culture Scrutiny Committee last week: “We’re inviting the world to come to Cardiff to help us deliver something that is very special.
“We will not be closed to ideas from anywhere in the world.
“It will be a beacon for the whole of Wales.
“This is a 20-year project that will take that amount of time.
“This will be as big as the non-residential components of Cardiff Bay, except the barage.”