Campaigners share concerns about proposed new business park

Ted Peskett, local democracy reporter

Campaigners hope the approval of a new business park in Cardiff will mark the “last hurrah of damaging development” at one of the city’s protected sites.

The Welsh Government announced in January 2025 that it was giving the go-ahead to plans for a new railway station and business park on land south of St Mellons Business Park.

A decision on the Cardiff Parkway development was a long time in the making with two separate planning hearings following initial Cardiff Council approval in April 2022 required to determine the future of the scheme.

Local councillors argued the project could be transformative for east Cardiff but people opposed to it questioned its viability and said it went against national planning policy.

‘No business case’

Co-chair of Friends of the Gwent Levels Dr Catherine Linstrum said: “There is absolutely no business case for it.

“Even if the business ends up being a flop, which it may well be, the chances are… it will turn into warehouses in the end. It will be lower-end stuff.

“There isn’t the need for it because there is all that space in the centre of Cardiff still. Nobody has ever given a convincing argument.”

The development will consist of a 900,000 sq ft business park and a four-platform station.

Local councillors said Cardiff Parkway will create jobs and investment in an area of the city that has some of the highest levels of poverty in Wales.

Rolls Royce

Rolls-Royce is one company that has so far expressed an interest in the business park.

The proposed railway station is also seen as a chance to improve connectivity.

There are currently no railway stations in any part of Cardiff east of the Rhymney River.

The idea of a new railway station was something campaigners said they could get behind but not at the expense of developing on top of land rich in biodiversity.

Part of the application site includes the Rumney and Peterstone site of special scientific interest (SSSI).

The protection of SSSIs is something Planning Policy Wales now places greater importance on since it was updated in 2023.

Dr Linstrum said: “The amount of green space, particularly in south Wales, that has the potential to be fantastic, which is what this land is like… is very small and getting smaller by the minute.

“This is going to wipe out another section of potentially fantastic nature right next to where the people of St Mellons live.

“How about making sure that the people of St Mellons have got a beautiful piece of nature to stroll around in… rather than a business park where people are going to land on the platform from London and everywhere else… work in a swanky office and then disappear again?”

Mitigation

A number of measures have been put forward by the developers, Cardiff Parkway Developments Ltd, in mitigation of the potential environmental impacts of the scheme.

One of these includes the offering 4.4km of field ditches to the south of the railway development to replace the 3.96km of field ditches that will be built over.

Planning Policy Wales states that “development in a SSSI which is not necessary for the management of the site must be avoided”.

However a development on a SSSI can be considered acceptable in certain circumstances where it is “not likely to damage a SSSI” and where there is “broad and clear agreement for mitigation and enhancement as part of a development plan”.

The Welsh Government’s planning inspector overseeing the Cardiff Parkway development acknowledged it would result in an 8% loss of the the Rumney and Peterstone SSSI but he ultimately recommended its approval on the grounds that the loss would be outweighed by the perceived benefits of the scheme.

These included the potential creation of 3,000 jobs, the “wider sustainable benefits” of the provision of public transport, and the proposed mitigation measures.

The Welsh Government recently published a study looking at the impact of development on the Gwent Levels over the years.

Legislative requirements

A report on the study, titled Gwent Levels Post Construction Monitoring, cautions that many of the developments being looked at pre-date a number of the legislative requirements now in place.

However in its concluding remarks it goes on to add: “One of the most significant conclusions from the assessment work was that performance in relation [net benefit for biodiversity] was better at the pre-construction phase (when development proposals were being considered) than performance post-construction.”

Dr Linstrum said: “The Senedd has recently published a report examining the effects of development on the Gwent Levels, and the minister for economy, energy, and planning, Rebecca Evans, has issued a statement which suggests that the Welsh Government is taking the plight of the Gwent Levels seriously.

“The policy is already in place to protect the fragile and complex ecosystems of the Gwent Levels.

“The Hendre decision ran directly counter to those policies but we very much hope that it was the last hurrah of damaging development and that the fragile and complex ecosystems of the Gwent Levels will be allowed to flourish in the future.”

A Cardiff Parkway Developments spokesman said: “Cardiff Parkway has ambitions to become a sustainable, well-connected business district with public transport and active travel at its heart, which will bring opportunities to an area that has long suffered from underinvestment.

“Although we now have outline planning permission we are only part of the way through the development process and we will work closely with important stakeholders to ensure that Cardiff Parkway delivers on its commitments, including to preserve, protect, and enhance the local environment.”