Sixteen calamitous decisions by Cardiff Council

Destruction of mature trees – just to hike developers’ profits

Mature trees we owned destroyed, to hike greedy developers’ profits 

March 2022

Cardiff Council has co-operated with builders to destroy beautiful mature trees on public land - our land - with no good reason other than to help greedy developers make even more money.  

Cardiff Council planning committee, which is controlled by the ruling group, gave permission to a developer to fell two mature lime and sycamore trees in Llandaff Fields - valuable public parkland which was gifted to the people of Cardiff by the Bute family.  The reason the Council allowed this vandalism to take place was to give a ‘better view’ to the wealthy individuals who might choose to live in the luxury townhouses being built on the Rise on the corner of Cardiff and Penhill Roads.

The council is further responsible for these actions because the Rise was the site of a Victorian mansion which was in council hands.  Rather than maintain the property as a community asset, the council chose to sell the property and allow it to be demolished.

This is part of a pattern of behaviour on the council’s behalf - to sell valuable public land or buildings and then allow developers to despoil them for profit.  

Another scandalous example is Suffolk House in Canton.  This property was owned by the public of Cardiff through the council.  Again, rather than maintain and improve the property for community use, the Council decided to sell it to the highest bidder, a developer who chose to use the site for more luxury townhouses for the rich.  

As part of their plans, they decided they wanted to fell stunning mature trees, including a striking copper beech.  From studying the plans it would seem that the main reason for their decision was to squeeze more housing units and car parking into the site to increasing the money the developer could make. 

The planning committee, controlled with a majority from the ruling group, chose to ignore the fact that felling these trees was in breach of the council’s policy on protecting trees in a conservation area.  

Later, officials in the council appeared to co-operate with the developer to arrange a road closure to fell the trees without the correct permission from their own transport division.  

The same pro-developer, anti-tree approach, can be seen on other sites too.  For example, at Sophia Close, the council permitted the felling of a huge, mature tree – listed in the Woodland Trust’s notable trees compilation – to allow for an extra parking space.

Strategically, Cardiff Council are responsible for this consistent approach to felling trees for developer profit.  They could issue strong supplementary planning guidance in order to protect trees in this situation, but have yet to do so.  From their actions it would seem they prefer a system which favours builders’ profits over nature and the views of local residents.