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North East Cardiff - Taylor Wimpey development

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RandomComment

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North East Cardiff - Taylor Wimpey development

PostThu Aug 30, 2018 11:45 am

Walesonline is reporting that Taylor Wimpey are starting pre-submission consultation on 2,500 home (plus schools, shops, parks, etc.) between the planned Churchland's development (which is just to the east of Lisvane) and Pontprennau. It also seems to include some infill between Lisvane, Churchlands and the resevoirs.

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/plan-another-2500-homes-set-15087408

Very little detail in the article and I've yet to look for a website for it. But in general I'm supportive of theis kind of development as I think Cardiff needs more family homes. The city's economy would benefit from retaining more people in their 30s and 40s who move away to get a family home. Some move to the nearby valleys or Vale and commute in (although that means extra pollution from cars). But I think we lose people to other urban areas that have more suburban type homes (e.g. Bristol with the sprawl of South Gloucestershire). As people in their 30s and 40s are often more productive than those in their 20s, it could be a reason for Cardiff's low productivity.

Thought i'd have my usual moan about Walesonline at the same time. Their article rightly highlights how this will be next to Churchlands. And then in the "what else is being built?" it refers to the development near Creigau as Churchlands.

Can they not even get consistency within an article? (I'm aware they struggle with consistency between articles).
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Frank

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Re: North East Cardiff - Taylor Wimpey development

PostThu Aug 30, 2018 2:00 pm

I guess this is a no-brainer. My concern (which I've shared before) is that modern Cardiff suburbs often seem poorly designed. Lisvane seems okay but Thornhill, Pontprennau and new St Mellons?

We need more/better family homes but since the number of people living alone has kept increasing what about small terraced housing. Flats tend to be leasehold, with silly charges and are there really that many people who want to be paying an annual fee for an elevator? Small one or two bedroom terraced houses have been selling like hot cakes recently.
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Kyle

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Re: North East Cardiff - Taylor Wimpey development

PostThu Aug 30, 2018 3:08 pm

Frank wrote:I guess this is a no-brainer. My concern (which I've shared before) is that modern Cardiff suburbs often seem poorly designed. Lisvane seems okay but Thornhill, Pontprennau and new St Mellons?

We need more/better family homes but since the number of people living alone has kept increasing what about small terraced housing. Flats tend to be leasehold, with silly charges and are there really that many people who want to be paying an annual fee for an elevator? Small one or two bedroom terraced houses have been selling like hot cakes recently.


It is a no brainer, the city needs family homes.

I don't see the issue with annual fees though, if priced appropriately. They've been around for years and people are used to it. Someone has to maintain those elevators, stairs, corridors, main building entrances, car parks (if there are any) or any other communal area. Bigger towers in some cities also have communal facilities such gyms, maybe a pool, concierge and security. Someone's got to pay for all that. It's the cost of living in apartments I'm afraid, and some people like to live close to or in city centres, or like to have those facilities, or don't want a garden or any outdoor space to manage.

As for the design, yes, they tend to be bland. However, people are so used to that and they'll just be snapped up if people can afford them. If you think about the generations that have grown up in places like Pontprennau and Thornhill or other relatively new housing estates it'll be all they know so they'll just crave more unless they appreciate what the issues are. For me it's one for government, but if they keep earning council tax why the hell would they care?
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MattW

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Re: North East Cardiff - Taylor Wimpey development

PostThu Aug 30, 2018 3:29 pm

Many of these new housing developments also charge an annual maintenance fee for looking after the areas of open space as they are not going to be adopted by the Council to look after.

The Ely Paper Mill site has some fairly high quality terraced housing, was generally impressed by the whole scheme last time I popped my head in.
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Simon_SW17

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Re: North East Cardiff - Taylor Wimpey development

PostThu Aug 30, 2018 3:33 pm

As with every new development in Cardiff there is no decent public transport included, makes me mad, traffic is appalling now and will only get worse with tens of thousands of new residents.

Cardiff Council need to up their game and insist on transport solutions from developers. A bus route is not enough.

In London the Barking Riverside development was not allowed to go ahead until a train station and railway line extension was funded. No such sense in Cardiff.
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Frank

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Re: North East Cardiff - Taylor Wimpey development

PostThu Aug 30, 2018 3:37 pm

I get that service charges can be necessary but I've seen very small flats with virtually no actual 'services' charging about £1000 p/a. Clearly something like an elevator is going to have service charges involved my point is whether we need to be relying so much on blocks of flats. It might be a form of living that works for a few urban professionals but history suggests it's pretty awful otherwise. Like so much of our economy people sit on their backsides extracting rent. Terraces give you good density in terms of space. I honestly think the problem is that people still think flat = classy and terraced = poor.
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EvanRoberts

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Re: North East Cardiff - Taylor Wimpey development

PostThu Aug 30, 2018 6:12 pm

Frank wrote: I honestly think the problem is that people still think flat = classy and terraced = poor.

It is true that we have come full circle to some extent and modern flats are again aimed at the affluent classes, like the old pied-à-terre apartments of the victorian era. But for most of the last century flats were built for the poor as part of social housing, with the desire, especially under the Tories, that they should be built as cheaply as possible with little care for quality. Financial incentives to build high and lack of standards for access areas meant we ended up with lots of tower blocks of poor design, many of which have now been demolished (at considerable cost). As these flats were given to those most in need, often they became concentrations of extreme poverty and meant they became no go areas with high crime rates. Flats had achieved a negative association and the middle class and the better off working class in Britain wanted a semi-detatched house in the suburbs, or in London and other big cities - a victorian terrace house.

Admittedly here in Cardiff things seem to have happened differently, and we did not see neither the tower nor the slab blocks that you get in places like London or Glasgow. Much of the social housing seems to have been low density suburban post-war terraces like in Llanedeyrn. From what I can tell these terraces suffer both from poor build quality and over-dependance on a car. There are also the inner-district terraces of places like parts of Riverside and Grangetown, which are not properly offset from the street, lacking front gardens and therefore privacy. It is understandable then that in Cardiff terraces may have a pretty bad reputation. What matters is less the housing type, but build and design quality, and problems of extreme poverty creating ghettos.

Personally I live in a basic but decent standard low-rise walk-up flat of which in Cardiff is quite rare, and I think these flats provide the high density housing at good cost efficiency. In Europe they have worked well. If flats in the UK are now considered luxury, it is largely due to the insane property market, and the lack of newly built social housing for the rental market of a good standard and available for a cheap rent. Actually the space standards of these newly built 'luxury flats' are often worse than those of the last century, but with modern fittings and fancy finishes they look good in the brochures.

Most families want a garden, so I think a mix of flats and terraces should be built. Flats work well not just for young professionals, but also students and the elderly. An over concentation of children in apartment blocks can lead to anti-social problems, but this is a social question as much as a housing one. You can also have families in maisonettes at the base of apartment blocks, with their own access door and a private garden.

As for the high service charges I agree that they are often a con by greedy developers but this is not always the case. I pay a little over 100 pounds per month including ground rent, this includes water, basic maintenance plus a payment towards a sinking fund. I looked at the itemised cost breakdown and it all seems very reasonable. Not having a lift certainly helps.
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Ash

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Re: North East Cardiff - Taylor Wimpey development

PostThu Aug 30, 2018 8:06 pm

MattW wrote:Many of these new housing developments also charge an annual maintenance fee for looking after the areas of open space as they are not going to be adopted by the Council to look after.


The question of council's adopting green spaces and highways is interesting. There have been a number of examples recently of developers building estates in Wales with highways that aren't built to adoptable standards. This is shocking behaviour by developers who are using a loophole in planning regs to build sub-standard roads and then walking away. Persimmon are by far the worst offenders.

https://seneddhome.com/2018/02/its-a-real-war-right-outside-your-front-door/

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