General Developments

https://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/news/18008166.newport-will-focus-regional-growth-investment-welsh-government-plan---cardiff-isnt-happy/

Some very important decisions here on the long term plan for Cardiff and South East Wales.
Honestly have mixed feelings on this, but does seem there will be a shift of investment & development from Cardiff to Newport

They say Cardiff cannot expand indefinitely without an impact on the environment? But surly if Newport grows then the impact is the same.

This is the problem with Wales, it dont like to think big... why Cant Cardiff grow, take in some areas in eventually like Penarth and Barry and grow the city centre with surrounding high rise quality flats like they have in New York

Why does it have to be Cardiff is too big, when it is tiny in comparison to medium sized cities in England and elsewhere in the world.

Why build in other areas of Wales which are also protected green areas shouldn't we be building our city areas up and making these the concrete jungles that cities are.

It is a rather bizarre statement to make. I’ve never seen a government actively throttle the development of its own capital city. This surely is just a political stunt to appease the people of Newport which, to be fair, has been left to deteriorate. The Friars Walk development is nice, but in the main high street just behind, most units are either vacant or are a pound shop, bookies, etc.

It’s no secret that Newport has had it rough, but is this really due to lack of government support? And do they think Newport will suddenly turn into the next place-to-be overnight? I’m not so sure. I certainly don’t agree that a government should ever state that one of its own cities, let alone its capital city, should not develop any further.

What would investing in Newport achieve ?
It's hard enough to get big companies to open offices in Cardiff, let alone Newport.

Drakeford's already throttled potential investment anyway with his M4 decision.
This seems to be part of his agenda to drive commuters onto public transport with talk of the Metro.

South Wales isn't the same as London - we can't all jump onto a Tube train every couple of minutes.
A lot of people use their cars because there's very little alternative.

How can Cardiff become "too big" ?
It's a decent sized city by British standards at around 50 square miles, but New York is 500, and London is more than 600. Cardiff will never approach any metropolis for size.
It's going to grow anyway, if projections are to be believed, with a population heading towards 500,000 within a couple of decades.

I'm all for spreading the cash a bit, but I'd really fear for the Welsh economy if future projects focused on Newport at the expense of Cardiff.

I'm scratching my head over this a little.

If what they mean are things like improving connectivity between Newport and Cardiff and detoxfying and remediating brownfield sites then I see no problem with it. Newport could take some of the housing pressure off Cardiff and there is an awful lot of derelict land. The Glanllyn development on the Llanwern steelworks site is a good example of that kind of re-use of a brownfield site.

If, on the other hand, they're going to try and divert private and inward investment from Cardiff to Newport it's self defeating and likely to fail.

Could only see this from a distance but there seems to now be a tower crane in site for the student tower to be built on the corner of Park Place and Stuttgatter Strasse.

Yes you're right. It's been there since last week. It's quite tall and I can see it all the way from Canton on my cycle to work which suggests that the building (for better or worse) will be quite striking on the skyline.

You can see it rise in all its glory via this webcam

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5UUQy0m7Q ... dex=4&t=0s

Are they still actually building new student accommodation even though they can't fill what has already been built??

I've seen some worrying stuff regarding the funding of student accommodation. I'm not saying 'subprime' but it does worry me. There was also a major university that was said to be in major financial difficulty and had to get support from the government.

Is there the correct incentive in place for universities to borrow responsibly?

Anyone know what is happening to the old 'Loop' nightclub on St. Mary street?
Signs saying under offer are up outside it