Decision due on major redevelopment in Grangetown

Alex Seabrook, local democracy reporter

A decision is due on approving plans for a major redevelopment of hundreds of homes in Grangetown in Cardiff.

The plans would see 319 new homes built in seven phases on the Channel View housing estate, while 56 houses and 158 flats will be knocked down.

Cardiff council is planning to redevelop the estate due to concerns including subsidence and fire safety on the Channel View apartment tower, although some residents fear gentrification.

The council’s planning committee will likely vote to approve planning permission on Wednesday, December 15.

Several of the houses on the estate have now been boarded up. Residents living there will be moved out of their homes in stages, and the council has promised everybody on the estate can remain there if they wish. Some residents however previously voiced concerns they would be forced to leave the estate after the redevelopment, which the council denied.

The first phase of the works will see 81 apartments for elderly people, built in two blocks on the current site of several two-storey terraced houses in the south-eastern corner of the estate.

These blocks will include a community hub or cafe facing the river and the Marl park. The first block will be 13 storeys tall with 57 flats, and the second will have eight storeys and 24 flats.

The next phase would see three houses at the bottom of South Clive Street demolished, to create a new connection from the bottom of the street to Channel View, allowing buses to turn around and form a circular route. Another later connection will be made further up South Clive Street, by knocking down three houses for a link to Ferry Road.

Footbridge

A future phase could see a footbridge built over the river Taff to Hamadryad Park, although this will form part of a separate planning application in future.

The new homes will be more sustainable than the existing ones on the estate, with much better insulation, solar panels, heat pumps instead of gas boilers, and a possible future connection to a district heating network.

At least 60 per cent of the new homes would be available for rent from the council, or for sale as part of its assisted home ownership scheme.

The Channel View scheme is a major part of the council’s wider housing development programme that is seeking to deliver 1,000 new council homes by 2022 and up to 2,700 new council homes in the longer term.