Residents complain about poor quality of new housing estate

Ted Peskett, local democracy reporter

The housing estate of St Edeyrn’s Village in Cardiff could quite easily be mistaken for any of the other new communities that have cropped up across the city over the years.

Situated on the northern edge of Cardiff in Old St Mellons, next to the River Rumney, it’s hard not to see it as a site with the potential to be an idyllic suburb where anyone might want to buy their first home or raise a family.

However, when you look closer and speak with people who live there, not all is as it seems.

On asking residents what they make of St Edeyrn’s Village they spoke fondly of the community, but said they had issues with the quality of work on the estate itself.

They referenced poor quality and half-completed pavements, which some people had tripped over; a lack of facilities and issues with the homes themselves.

Bins

On a housing estate of more than 1,000 homes, there are only two bins. Residents have taken it upon themselves to place bin bags at certain points and carry out their own litter picks, but there are still issue with discarded rubbish.

One resident, Mike Payne, who is involved with the local litter picking group, described the mess that could be seen on some of the grass verges and pavements of the estate, adding that there was often “cans and paper everywhere, just thrown all over the shop”.

None of the roads on the estate have been adopted by the council yet and although the construction of homes has finished, work on the site itself is not fully completed.

When he talked about his own home, Mike claimed: “It is so shoddy.. I literally had to take out the toilets that were in my house and put them back and found a hair bobble – a woman’s hair bobble wrapped around the cistern and just covered in silicon.

“Using a hair bobble as a washer to try and stop the water coming out and when it didn’t, muggins here had to end up doing it because I was fed up of waiting for them [the developer] to respond. There is a whole chunk of people like that.”

Phases

Cardiff Council granted outline planning permission for St Edeyrn’s Village in 2014. The plans stated that the development would be built in phases. It includes commercial units, one of which is occupied by a SPAR shop, and a primary school which construction started on in 2018.

Residents said they were still waiting for the developer, Persimmon Homes, to deliver on a number of other commitments like an allotment, a community space and landscaping work.

One resident, Kay Nash, lives next to one of the empty commercial spaces in Church Road

“I have just moved in and over the years it is obviously getting more and more shabby,” she said. “When you look inside you can just see rubbish and spare parts and chairs stacked up, so I would just like it to be cleaned up.”

Kay also mentioned the lack of bins. Speaking about the bin opposite where she lives, Kay said: “It gets so overflowing and it just works its way over to us then and everywhere. It is such a shame. I like being here. It is really a nice place. Everyone is so nice, but they obviously have pride of place.”

Ian Harris, 46, said: “You have got the SPAR shop there which is great. You have got the units across the road there. I’ve been here for six years and they’ve always been empty.

“It seems a bit of a waste that there can’t be something there, even if it… is a community hall or a cafe or anything rather than see it go to waste really.”

Persimmon Homes has apologised to residents for any inconvenience and reassured them of its commitment to complete the development to a high standard by the end of the year.

Jordan Draper, 30, moved to St Edeyrn’s Village as a first time buyer. He also had some issues with his property. He said: “There has been a drainage issue on site which… caused me flooding where the waste pipe from the washing machine could not drain the water quick enough.

“It backed up, flooding my kitchen and front room needing all of the carpets replaced.”

Warranty

Luckily for Jordan his house was still under a two-year warranty and the issues at his home have been resolved.

“It’s not been what I imagined,” he added. “I know people do have issues, but I have just been rather unlucky at mine where I have had several.”

Jordan also said he had tripped over sections of unfinished pavement along Church Road. He said: “I have noticed the pavements could be a little better. Some of them are quite high where they haven’t laid the tarmac yet… that has been ongoing.

“Sometimes if you go to step off it, you can trip and I have actually done that further up the road. If I can do that, I wonder what the kids are like out and about.”

Some residents said they also woke up one morning to find double yellow lines outside their driveways which they did not expect. The double yellow lines on the north end of Church Road in the estate are painted on both sides of the road.

On this issue, Cardiff Council pointed out that the none of the roads at St Edeyrn’s were adopted yet and added that the width of the road meant there should be future parking restrictions.

A council spokesperson said: “The main spine road is 6.3 metres wide as approved by the planning process.

“For this minimum road width to support all future permissible movements including a two-way public transport service safely, it must be protected against parking.

“If yellow lines have already been put down on this section of road, it has been done by the developer. At this stage this isn’t illegal, as it is a private road.

“The process to introduce a Traffic Regulation Order will be instigated when the council adopts this section of the highway to facilitate access for public transport, refuse and emergency vehicles.”

Parking

However, residents’ concerns have not been allayed, with households wondering where visitors will be able to park and some cars already parking on whatever space they can find, including cycle lanes.

Cardiff Council ward member for Pontprennau and Old St Mellons, Cllr Peter Littlechild, raised concerns about St Edeyrn’s Village at a full council meeting on Thursday, January 30.

Cllr Littlechild asked: “Over recent years the St Edeyrn’s estate in Old St. Mellons has been left with no community facilities, no finished roads, pavements and play areas, allotments, river crossing and all while the developer (Persimmon) has been selling houses and profiting from local residents.

“Why are developers allowed not to deliver on the agreed planning and 106 projects?”

In response to his question in the council chamber, Cardiff Council’s cabinet member for climate change, strategic planning and transport, Cllr Dan De’Ath, said: “I totally get your frustrations, your residents’ frustrations around some of this.

“I think the picture on St Edeyrn’s is mixed. I understand progress is being made in respect of the allotment and community orchard which are now being built out.

“We expect that the adoptable section of the 38 road works will be fully completed in the next 18 months and we expect [the] community facilities… we understand Persimmon have completed their obligations specified in the section 106 agreement.

“There are ongoing discussions being held with the council as well as the headteacher to ascertain the time frame for their use.

“A substantial 106 contribution… on the bus service has been made by Persimmon and the 57/58 bus service at the site is [supported] fully by the Welsh Government Bus Network Grant, but I recognise that actually there are issues that haven’t been satisfactorily resolved, just the river crossing or the bridge.”

He went on to say council officers were set to visit Persimmon in the next two or three weeks for a “frank conversation” with them to try and get some “firm commitments and firm timescales from them”.

Cllr De’Ath added: “If they don’t provide those, we will think about taking decisive action including formal enforcement.”

Inconvenience

A Persimmon Homes East Wales spokesperson said: “We apologise to residents for any inconvenience and reassure them of our commitment to completing the St Edeyrns development to a high standard.

“A structured programme of works is well underway as part of our customary estate completion process, with our teams actively working on-site. We continue to engage with the local authority and residents to address outstanding matters and fulfil our obligations.

“We expect to complete all works on site by the end of the year, ensuring the development meets the satisfaction of all parties.”

Some residents at St Edeyrn’s said they were left wondering why they were paying council tax when none of the roads were adopted and they were already paying service charges to a private company.

St Edeyrn’s resident, Mike Payne, claimed: “We are paying at the moment into a pot for, in some cases, poor service, and in other cases no service.”

Many new housing estates in Wales are managed by private management companies. This is particularly the case when infrastructure, like roads and pavements, haven’t been adopted by the council.

At St Edeyrn’s, the management company is St Edeyrn’s Village Residents Management Company Ltd and the managing agent is Remus Management. The managing agent is appointed by the management company to handle day to day operations.

Mike complained that as well as residents feeling like they were not getting the service warranted by the amount being paid in estate charges, it could be difficult to deal with the managing agent and Persimmon when there was an issue on site.

“When you go to Persimmon and… [ask] ‘will you do this?’ they say it is Remus. You go to Remus and Remus say ‘no it is Persimmon because we haven’t taken responsibility for it… it hasn’t been handed over to us yet’.

“Residents have got to the point where they are almost at the end of their tether with being messed around with all of this.”

Another resident, Andrew Pearce, said: “It is actually a lovely place. There is a great sense of community and these things are not that complicated in order to fix.

“It is the frustration around being able to do that which is the key thing that we want to try and get across really. Any new development has a whole raft of issues that come with it. We get that and we are not different from any other in that sense

“The particular issue around the management company and around being able to actually work with Persimmon and Remus in order to… get things done is the particularly unique aspect of this for us which is the frustration.”

All of the directors of St Edeyrns Village Residents Management Company Ltd work at Persimmon Homes, according to Companies House.

A Persimmon Homes East Wales spokesperson said: “We want to be clear: this arrangement is neither our choice nor our preference, but a requirement by local authorities, which increasingly decline to adopt new developments due to financial pressures as highlighted in a recent CMA investigation.

“Currently, directors oversee the St Edeyrns Management Company as required during development, receiving no financial benefit while our staff provide their time and services free of charge; once the site is fully developed, residents can take full control of the company and its appointed agent.”

It is not just St Edeyrn’s Village where residents feel as though the model of private management companies operating at housing estates is not working.

The Welsh Government carried out a study into the practice of estate charges in 2020 which received 566 responses from homeowners and residents.

The study, published in November, 2020, stated: “It is clear from the evidence provided that the practice of estate charges does not work effectively for everyone under the current arrangements” and that “based on the large number of residents responding, this does demonstrate that significant issues are being experienced in relation to the charges”.

Data from the findings show that charges were reported between £50 and £500 per year, with 46% of respondents reporting charges between £100 and £149.99.

The findings also showed that the age of developments where charges were made suggested a significant increase in their use in recent years. For example, 72% of respondents indicated their properties were built between 2010 and 2020. Only one respondent’s property was built before 2000.

On top of this, 69% of respondents reported that their charge had changed over time, with the majority indicating that it had increased. A number of St Edeyrn’s residents said they ultimately wanted to see a review by the Welsh Government on how housing estates were managed.

When we put this to the Welsh Government, a spokesperson said: “We need more housing in Wales – both now and for the future. A key principle of our national planning policy is that the quality of development is not sacrificed as a result.

“We’re working with the UK Government and other devolved nations on the creation of a UK-wide statutory New Homes Ombudsman service, which will provide dispute resolution between purchasers and new build developers.”

Mike Payne said he was hopeful of a brighter future for St Edeyrn’s, but added that things needed to change.

He said: “We can get over 200 individuals across this one small estate that are prepared to come out every month and litter pick and are prepared to give their time to be part of a residents association.

“People are already asking ‘can we set up a neighbourhood watch?’ All of those things are all positives to help community cohesion.

“We are where we are as they say, and we just need to get Persimmon and Remus to sit around a table with us on a regular basis and start to deal with some of the issues. If they do that, then people will be a lot happier.”