New pictures revealed of controversial redevelopment in Grangetown

Alex Seabrook, local democracy reporter

New pictures have been revealed of the designs for a controversial redevelopment of a council housing estate in Grangetown.

Cardiff council wants to redevelop the Channel View estate by knocking down houses and a block of flats before building about twice as many homes in their place.

Some residents on the estate have previously raised fears the redevelopment could lead to gentrification, with current residents priced out of their homes and forced to leave the area.

Phases

But the council insisted everybody who lives there currently will have a place to live on the new estate, which will be built in phases meaning nobody should have to leave.

Now planning consultants working for the council are asking the public for their views on the redevelopment, ahead of applying for planning permission. As part of this pre-application consultation, full designs and pictures of the new houses and flats have been revealed.

Full details can be found on the website amityplanning.co.uk/channel-view. Anyone wanting to respond should do before May 23, by emailing [email protected].

The first phase involves the area to the south-east of the estate on Channel View Road, closest to the river Taff. This phase will see 79 flats be built, with one or two bedrooms, for people aged over 55 years old.

Future phases would see 66 houses with a mix of two, three and four bedrooms; and 211 flats with one or two bedrooms. In total 356 new homes will be built.

The wider works include knocking down houses to build new routes for buses and bicycles: from the bottom of Channel view Road to the bottom of South Clive Street; and from halfway up South Clive Street through to Ferry Road Park.

Some of the Marl park will be built on, but most of the park will be kept. A footbridge over the river Taff connecting the Marl with Hamadryad Park is also planned, but will form 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.