moyceyyy wrote:I visited Cambridge (supposedly the most prosperous city in the UK - outside London) last month - had a good look, and it doesnt seem anywhere on the same scale as Cardiff.
Just look at all those cranes!
I'm in Cambridge quite often, so I see the progress that's being made over there. The area around the train station has been completely transformed in recent years, not to mention all the science buildings and Addenbrookes site. The Cambridge West site is quite big too. A lot of housing is also being proposed in the area, around Cambridge West and the airport. These links give you some idea on a couple of the projects that the University is investing in:
http://www.westcambridge.co.uk/http://www.nwcambridge.co.uk/Cambridge is benefitting signficantly from a number of things. First, all the investment in the University's facilities, which never really stops. Then there's the spin-off businesses which comes out of the University's research programmes, particularly in computers, pharmaceuticals and bioengineering. That pumps money back into the University and also attracts businesses. Basically, what Cambridge (and Oxford with their Didcot site) are doing is what Cardiff University is trying to do with the compound-semi conductor stuff, only they're 20+ years behind.
The other thing that Cambridge benefits from is it's excellent transport links to London and its proximity to Stanstead, which is 30mins away on a direct train. Businesses are finally wising up to the fact that it's close to London (but still cheaper, only just) and has a regular turn-out of high-quality grads, many of whom want to stay.
One crucial thing to remember, is the population of Cambridge was approximately 123,000 in 2011, which included around 24,500 students! It's a quarter of the size of the city of Cardiff and it's not a capital city!
Crane counting is great, but it's not always the best indication as to how a city is really performing or its direction of travel. It's also not that exciting when the majority of our recent developments are student accomodation buildings! Or when the few new office developments involve established businesses simply relocating from other locations within the city.
Yes, there are a lot of exciting things planned for Cardiff, but at the moment a lot of it is still just talk! We need to start seeing some more action!