sixteen calamitous decisions by Cardiff Council - and how they effect you

Cardiff Council is promoting plans to build a military museum on a children’s park in one of the city’s most deprived wards. People in Cardiff believe that Military museum is being dumped on them.

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 has green lighted the destruction of 23 acres of meadow, ancient trees, shrub and grassland at the Northern Meadows. Cardiff council’s co-operation with developers wishing to build on treasured green spaces is part of a pattern of behaviour across the city.

Cardiff Council has stood by and allowed the neglect of Cardiff’s proud industrial and dockland heritage. It allowed the Cardiff Coal Exchange to fall apart and to pass into the hands of businessmen with poor reputations

Cardiff Council give the strong impression that they don’t care about the cultural institutions of working class people. They stand back, as famous much-loved pubs are demolished and replaced. In one shameful example the council themselves were responsible for destroying an historic and culturally important community cafe - and refused to allow space for it in the replacement building.

Time after time in the last five years, Cardiff’s ruling group have prevented ordinary working people from living in new city centre housing schemes, by allowing powerful developers to get away with not providing any affordable accommodation - despite this being council policy

Under its current leadership, Cardiff has seen a huge increase in tower blocks in the city centre. Tower blocks have replaced parks and vibrant music venues and locally owned restaurants. Cardiff Council has deliberately encouraged these developments through special planning guidance, which is designed to encourage high rises.

Despite all its promises, Cardiff Council has failed in its promise to re-open the central bus station.

As a result, working people who rely on public transport have a far poorer service than before.

Cardiff Council’s current leaders have made it clear: builders’ profits are more important to them than tackling the nature crisis. They have consistently refused to introduce supplementary planning guidance which would protect ancient trees from being needlessly felled.

Cardiff Council’s Wellbeing Plan shows that, pre-pandemic there was a 22-24-year difference in healthy life expectancy (the number of years that someone lives in good health) between the least and most deprived areas of Cardiff. And looking at children, the plan notes that nearly half of children in Ely are growing up in poverty, compared to just over 5% in Rhiwbina.

It has not been shown that the investment of over £200m that Council will provide to Live Nation (US) the developers and operators of a proposed Arena in Atlantic Wharf, is the best use of public money at a time when many city services are stretched.

According to official Welsh Government figures, Cardiff has the lowest recycling rates in the nation. This is primarily down to the city council’s failure after many many years to introduce a system which allows residents to separate their waste sufficiently.

In March 2021, a council official, who should be neutral, celebrated when the planning committee voted in favour of a highly controversial plan for a new incinerator in Splott. This shocking behaviour made the national news and exemplifies the council’s attitude to residents

The council is unwilling to encourage real behaviour change by installing bike lanes along roads and instead has a policy of taking pathways in parks away from walkers.. Cardiff’s cycle lane network remains sub-standard in comparison with most northern European cities of a similar size and ambition.

The news that pollution is pouring from Grangemoor park, for which the council is responsible, into the river Ely, exemplifies their terrible environmental record and incompetence. It is an example of the council failing in their basic duty to keep residents safe.

Cardiff Council have removed the insulation cladding from three of its own tower blocks. However, it has not replaced the material with new safe components. As a result, council tenants are living in apartments which are more expensive to heat.