Campaigners say business park bid ‘bewildering’

How the Echo covered residents concerns about Hendre Lakes plan

Article featured in the South Wales Echo on 11 Feb 2022 by MARTIN SHIPTON, Political editor-at-large

OPPONENTS of a proposed business park on the border of Cardiff and Newport which could create 5,000 jobs say it would destroy a biodiverse wetland adjacent to the Gwent Levels and go against decarbonisation plans.

Hendre Lakes would include a £120m new mainline train station called Cardiff Parkway and a huge business district covering nearly one million square feet.

Plans for the project were submitted to Cardiff council.

Objections have been lodged by a number of bodies, including Cardiff Civic Society and environmental groups.

 Nerys Lloyd-Pierce, who chairs Cardiff Civic Society, said: “For Cardiff and Wales to contemplate destroying its richly biodiverse wetland Site of Special Scientific Interest, which hosts some of the UK’s rarest creatures and is effective in the fight against carbon and flooding is bewildering. It should be removed from Cardiff’s Replacement Local Development Plan.

 “The inappropriate scale of this development would lead to huge loss of biodiversity. Its implications for adjacent Gwent Levels cannot be understated.

 “Urbanisation of this peaceful semi-rural community, to be overlooked by commercial high rise, and with a congested fumy transport interchange, would see it become the car park of South East Wales. Health and well-being would suffer and precious landscapes would be lost forever, preventing benefit to future generations.”

 Ms Lloyd-Pierce added: “A railway station for east Cardiff is not dependent on a business park. It should be publicly funded. These applications should be separate. There is no proven need for this development.

 “The Welsh Government’s Covid recovery strategy seeks 30% working from home, supported by a digital strategy. Many are already working from home and more large employers are pulling out of commercial premises in favour of working from home. Even the Institute of Directors says that 70% of companies are not anticipating needing their office spaces to the same extent post-Covid.

 “There is already an over-provision of commercial space, nearby and citywide. The commercial property sector is in crisis following Covid. It’s high time to revamp empty buildings, not build new ones. Any pre-Covid assessment of need is outdated.

 “Many would welcome access to rail but not at such a huge environmental cost in this sensitive landscape – or with a development of the excessive, inappropriate and unnecessary scale outlined, that also attracts huge numbers of polluting vehicles into this semi-rural area.”

 The proposed train station would be 15 storeys high.

 Ms Lloyd-Pierce said: “If people say they want ‘the station’, this does not necessarily signal support for high rise as railway stations do not need to be 15 storeys tall, or even any taller than one storey.

 “In tackling the climate emergency and Covid recovery, the Welsh Government’s priority for ‘decarbonisation, cohesive communities, vibrant town centres and green infrastructure’ favours ‘town centre first’, using the many vacant spaces in city centres for significant new commercial developments, rather than ‘strategic employment sites’ – in other words large scale speculative business parks on sensitive land in the suburbs.”

 Ms Lloyd-Pierce also said the plan would destroy the site’s characteristic ancient wetland waterway features, aquatic plants, hedgerows and grasslands hosting rich species ecology, contradicting provisions in three pieces of legislation. The proposed mitigation, she said, was “totally inadequate”.

 She added: “How we manage biodiversity is critical in protecting human health. Only 3% of the UK is wetlands but they host 10% of our species. Destroying wetlands contradicts the Welsh Government’s Climate Emergency Declaration calling for ‘urgent action to increase the resilience of our ecosystems… to reverse the decline in habitats and species’.

 “Delicate habitats of rare, protected and threatened species would be lost since attempts to relocate species which are highly averse to humans, combined with development, represents a permanent loss of habitat.

 “To destroy an area of richly biodiverse wetland, hosting some of UK’s rarest creatures is bewildering and contradicts the Wellbeing of Future Generations Act 2015.

 “The inappropriate scale of this large development equals a huge loss of biodiversity. Its implications for the adjacent Gwent Levels cannot be understated.

 “It also contradicts the policy of ‘directing development away from areas at risk of flooding’. Wetlands naturally help protect against flooding. It makes no sense to remove them and develop. Sea levels are rising and the levels flooded in January 2021.”

 Comments on the application are now closed and Cardiff council’s planning committee will consider them at a future meeting.

Make huge savings when you subscribe to the South Wales Echo