RMLDGroup – A Call for Action

The Radyr and Morganstown Local Development Group (RMLDG) is an independent group of local residents which has come together to be informed and take positive action on matters relating to the development of our Capital City. In particular, we have specific interest in the production of the Cardiff Council Replacement Local Development Plan (RLDP), and how it will affect both the area of Radyr & Morganstown and the whole of North West Cardiff.

Current proposals from the Council would see as many as 4,000 more houses built in NW Cardiff in addition to the 6,000 already proposed. This would mean:

• More and more cars as the inadequate transport system forces people onto the roads;
• Even more traffic congestion in the whole of the west of Cardiff as drivers seek out rat runs through local streets;
• Greater atmospheric pollution from these vehicles which could harm you and your children;
• Green fields, currently with public access via footpaths, lost to featureless housing estates built with no provision of services.

In taking action, we have joined forces with other groups in NW Cardiff, namely:

• The North West Cardiff Group
• St Fagans Community Council
• Danescourt Community Association
• Rhydlafar Residents’ Group
• The Radyr & Morganstown Association
• The Radyr & Morganstown Community Council

What have we been doing?

Our first action was to write this response to Phase 2 of Cardiff Council’s Revised LDP process. The consultation was at a high level, seeking views on the strategic options for future housing and jobs growth in Cardiff in the period 2021 – 2036. We also distributed this leaflet around NW Cardiff to alert everyone to the danger.

The are a number of applications for ‘Candidate Site status’ within NW Cardiff, totalling some 4,000 dwellings (on top of the 6,000 dwellings already agreed to be built in Plas Dŵr and elsewhere under the existing LDP).  The speed of development of Plas Dŵr is much less than planned and, with other changes affecting the Cardiff Area (not least Brexit and a likely much lower than forecast population growth), there is simply no need for more development sites to be added into the Replacement LDP.

Policy papers suggest that Cardiff Council has an aspiration to grow the size of Cardiff, even if the housing need suggests otherwise. This is because the planners feel that a lower range of population growth is not “a realistic basis for Cardiff as a Capital City.”  The 2021 Census figures, published in June 2022, demonstrated the lack of need for further housing in the RLDP. We lobbied Cardiff Council and, as result, the next stage of the RLDP consultation process (which will confirm the sites under active consideration ofr development) was put back from October 2022 to the New Year. 

We issued a press release on 22nd October 2022, which was published in the Western Mail and Echo, and this is Cardiff Council’s response.

How you can help now:

We want to use the period between now and the New Year to tell people about our concerns – not just for NW Cardiff but for the whole City. 

We have told you what we want you to tell them – in your own words – on our front page. Please do that.

North West Cardiff has a poorly developed transport system and even the improved train services through Radyr and Danescourt will not cope with the increased number of people from the houses already planned – let alone even more. There will never be enough money for building a Metro line through Plas Dŵr and bus routes through Llandaff and Cathedral Road are slow and unreliable, even with the bus priority measures being implemented. All the additional traffic must necessarily use the existing clogged-up road network.

And building on existing Greenfield sites forebodes potential environmental problems like flooding.

We are mounting a major campaign over the coming months with the Planners, Cardiff Council, our Senedd Members and MPs.

We will set up meetings with them to garner their support and we will publish more information on this website as it becomes available. We want Cardiff Council to realise that, far from creating an improved, bigger Cardiff, they are at risk of destroying what they and we already have.

If you are interested in what might be built in your local area, the community facilities or supporting transport infrastructure that makes our city connected, then join our group and get your voice heard in the consultation process.

Support a future fund-raising exercise to engage professional assistance

Keep in touch

If you wish to keep up to date with this campaign, please contact Louise Barnes on rmldgroup@radyr.org.uk to be added to our address list and/or WhatsApp Group, and also contact us if you have experience or knowledge to offer.

Follow us on Twitter: @RMLDGroup

Follow us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/RMLDGroup