CardiffWalesMap

Owen, thanks for tracking down those documents - Cardiff Council really know how to hide things away! The Sports Village plans are certainly bold and have the potential to be a significant improvement, providing that:
1. The architecture is high quality - in particular we must avoid all those "leisure facilities" from becoming a row of tin sheds.
2. The pedestrian square outside the ice arena, and the pedestrianisation of Olympian Drive will add up to a sizeable area - need to be careful it is not a lifeless and windswept expanse of paving.

DavidH71 wrote:2. The pedestrian square outside the ice arena, and the pedestrianisation of Olympian Drive will add up to a sizeable area - need to be careful it is not a lifeless and windswept expanse of paving.

That's my fear. The location is such that I think a very high proportion of visitors will drive in to use the sports facilities and then drive out. I don't see it as a destination that you spend time wandering around, so can't see a square of that size getting enough footfall to sustain activities (some stalls, kiosks) to avoid feeling windswept.

It would probably be better to go for a smaller paved area and have some grass/parkland, so it looks a bit less grey. Or move the development somewhat to the East, and use some of the land to the west for housing development.

A revised planning application has been submitted for Easy Bay Close with new DAS here, looks to be changing cluster rooms to studio rooms and increasing the number of rooms with a marginal increase in height with some exterior changes..

https://planning.cardiff.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=documents&keyVal=_CARDIFF_DCAPR_129050

RandomComment wrote:
That's my fear. The location is such that I think a very high proportion of visitors will drive in to use the sports facilities and then drive out. I don't see it as a destination that you spend time wandering around, so can't see a square of that size getting enough footfall to sustain activities (some stalls, kiosks) to avoid feeling windswept.

It would probably be better to go for a smaller paved area and have some grass/parkland, so it looks a bit less grey. Or move the development somewhat to the East, and use some of the land to the west for housing development.

I think this is one we can all agree on. It's in danger of being as lifeless as Callaghan Square. An events programme might help but I can't see organisers preferring the ISV to the Oval Basin, City Hall lawn or Cooper's Field.

The problem with Callaghan Square is that it hasn't been completed on the south side.

I don't think the grimy railway bridges help. As the rest of the area is spruced up it might look quite different

I think the problems with Callaghan Square go way beyond the unfinished south side.

The architecture is really poor. The first building (Eversheds) is nice but subsequent phases are very much out of town business park dross.

The scale of the buildings is also way too small for the size of the square.

The traffic layout is awful.

Really poor public art in the shape of the corporate off the shelf crap outside British Gas and the fountain in the middle of the roundabout. Again very much the type of stuff you would expect to see in St Mellons or Cardiff Gate.

There is absolutely nothing to keep anyone there after the offices shut at 6. It's a complete dead zone - even during the day. Rather than being part of the link between the city centre and the Bay it actually acts as a barrier.

I think that once John Street is completed things will improve. I'd like to see the road layout changed and I think a similar building to Eversheds facing it and making a much smaller square might work and produce a space that people other than skateboarders would want to visit.

Hopefully decent development southside will make it feel less windswept and more square like but I think it will be very difficult to make this anything other than area you pass through to get somewhere else (unless you work there).

I think this is probably the biggest missed opportunity in the recent (re)development of Cardiff.

DaveE wrote:A revised planning application has been submitted for Easy Bay Close with new DAS here, looks to be changing cluster rooms to studio rooms and increasing the number of rooms with a marginal increase in height with some exterior changes..

https://planning.cardiff.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=documents&keyVal=_CARDIFF_DCAPR_129050

https://businessnewswales.com/cardiff-s ... mmodation/
An article on this. Design looks slightly different than I remember. They start building after Christmas.

A 7.5% net per annum assured return for three years is high. As in speculative investing. This develop falls in the same category as some of the recent buy a hotel room schemes that have failed to the detriment of the people who invested. Especially if the student house bubble is (or has) about to burst.

I find the development rather odd. I thought student housing developers were moving away from expensive studios to cheaper cluster apartments - because people actually like to share a kitchen and dining space, and save some money.

I'm wondering whether this is them pre-empting a lack of interest, to have something that they can rent out as short-mid term lets for people visiting for a few days to a few weeks, and low cost housing for young single adults (non students).

I'm not sure I agree with the social housing standard being adopted for student housing in Wales - it will kill the market completely dead (and I think there still is some role for this type of product). But they should stop people going via the (student accomodation) backdoor to avoid the S31 and affordable housing obligations that come with private housing development. They should mandate compliance with S31 and affordable housing obligations. Where the developer claims that would be "unviable" - tough. They can go bankrupt, someone can buy it cheaply from the liquidators, and they can do it. The "viability" provisions and therefore negotiability of S31 and affordable housing obligations are what's really being abused.

https://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/news/ ... snt-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