Frustrated residents have four years for new flats and now they are nearly ready
Frustrated residents have four years for new flats and now they are nearly ready
Councillors and council officials celebrated the topping out of a block of flats in Grangetown that residents have been waiting years to move into
The leader of Cardiff Council, Cllr Huw Thomas, said he understood the frustration of residents
(Image: Ted Peskett )
Key decision makers at Cardiff Council said they understand the frustrations of tenants in a council housing estate who have been waiting years for their new flats to be built. Cardiff Council's cabinet member for housing and communities, Cllr Lynda Thorne, and the leader of the council, Cllr Huw Thomas, made their comments at the topping out ceremony of a block of independent living flats at Channel View.
The flats are part of the first phase of a wider scheme to completely redevelop the Grangetown estate.
Residents living in the 13-storey block opposite were first told in 2016 that their flats would be demolished and that they would be rehoused, with many claiming they have been living in poor conditions since then. Never miss a Cardiff story and sign up to our newsletter here.
Cllr Thorne, who is also a ward councillor for Grangetown, said: "I was doing monthly surgeries and I felt as frustrated as they did.
"I guess we forget that we had Covid in between which delayed it all and then unfortunately we had issues with the... regulations, particularly to do with fire safety which delayed it further.
"Yes, I understand their frustration and I felt [it] too because I want to see it [the new building] coming out of the ground as well."
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Residents living in the old block claimed they experienced issues with mould, damp and leaks as they waited to see progress on the new flats.
It was reported in March 2024 that some residents had experienced plumbing issues that saw sewage appear in their toilets and baths.
Cardiff Council's cabinet member for housing, Cllr Lynda Thorne
(Image: Cardiff Council )
Cllr Thorne said she was "over the moon" to see the new building, block B, at its highest point in the construction process.
She added: "This is actually a replacement for the high rise and of course, since we took the cladding off they have been a bit colder and sometimes [there has been] a little bit of condensation in the flats which means they are all keen to move into their new flats.
"Although it doesn't address the housing crisis, it does address getting... particularly older people, in really good accommodation."
Cardiff Council has partnered with Wates Residential on the Channel View project.
Residents living in the 13-storey building opposite the new structure have been waiting years for progress on the Channel View project
(Image: Ted Peskett )
Block B will deliver 24 new energy efficient council homes for older people and the apartments in the six storey building are expected to be ready for residents next year.
The leader of Cardiff Council, Cllr Huw Thomas, was also present at the topping out ceremony.
The leader of Cardiff Council, Cllr Huw Thomas (left) at the topping out ceremony with regional managing director of Wates Residential, Edwards Rees
(Image: Ted Peskett )
When asked about delays to the project, he said: "Rome wasn't built in a day and I am really concious of how long it's taken to make a reality of this project.
"We first started talking about it and the need for it shortly after I became leader eight years ago, so it's a frustrating thing for everyone how long these things take to come to fruition.
"You've obviously in that period had issues like Covid, you had the disastrous mini budget that in turn affected interest rates and that has had a knock on impact on costs as well.
Block b of the Channel View redevelopment scheme is nearing completion
(Image: WalesOnline/Rob Browne )
"There are good reasons why it has taken so long, but I absolutely understand the frustration from residents.
"The council has tried to do what it can to support them... during that period and obviously for the residents living across there will be payments in terms of a relocation payment as well and disruption.
"We all acknowledge that it has not happened as quick as we would like, but it has also delivered some really good learning of how we take these processes through quicker and the irony is, and this is a UK challenge, the actual building bit doesn't take as long as the financial assembly and the planning process."
A second block of flats that's also part of the first phase of development at Channel View is scheduled for completion in 2027.
This building, called block A, will consist of 102 community living apartments, community facilities, a rooftop terrace and a cafe.
The whole Channel View scheme will eventually see the 180 existing properties there, originally built in the 1970s, replaced with 400 new homes.
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It will also seek to deliver improved connectivity for the estate, improvements to the public open space at The Marl, and the creation of a new public realm using green infrastructure and sustainable drainage systems (SUDS).
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I'm not referring to our southern European friends; various London restaurants have recently announced that they're opening reservation slots for later tables. Mountain, a Soho restaurant where I once tried tripe (not for me), is now offering punters the chance of a slot at 10.30pm. Tomos Parry, the co-founder and chef of Brat, a very trendy Shoreditch restaurant, says he's noticed late-night diners creeping back. If you fancy a plate of extremely spicy noodles, you can book a table at Speedboat Bar, an excellent Thai restaurant also in Soho, until 12.30am on Friday and Saturday nights. This has been hailed as a 'late-night dining revolution', which I don't remember Marx banging on about much. Restaurateurs are, naturally, delighted. Times are hard, getting punters in to eat is challenging, especially when everyone's on the fat jabs, so if they can keep throwing out plates until the wee hours for those who do want to eat, so much the better. Jeremy King, restaurant impresario, has recently unveiled a new late-night menu at his new-ish joints, The Park and Arlington. Book a table after 9.45pm and you get 25 per cent off. Notably, these are all fairly central London restaurants, and I wonder how many of their late-night clientele live reasonably close. Or at least only one zone away. Well-heeled sorts who don't baulk at the price of fillet steak and can totter home or hail a black cab for a fare under a tenner. Because if you book a table at 10.30pm, you're not going to be heading home much before midnight. The trains have stopped running back to my parts by then. There's the odd night bus if I don't mind two hours crawling southwards, or it'll be a £50 Uber. Bed by 1am, maybe, which isn't hugely practical if you have to work for a living, or have small children, or a small and unruly terrier who demands his first outing to the park at 6am. That's to say nothing of the potential digestion issues. I don't wish to be indelicate, but can one get a good night's kip if you hit the pillow with a stomach full of tripe after midnight? As Pepys himself once surmised: 'I did eat very late at night, which I perceive makes me feel heavy and sleepy.' Quite. Experts quoted in health articles constantly extol the health benefits of intermittent fasting, or restricting one's eating to an eight- or 10-hour window. But good luck with that if you're swallowing your last mouthful of crispy egg noodles after Cinderella's curfew. No more for you until at least lunchtime the following day. Many years ago, one late night as a teenager, I sat across a table from a boy I had a crush on in a restaurant called Vingt-Quatre on the Fulham Road. It had opened in 1995, London's first 24-hour restaurant, and the novelty was thrilling. The novelty of sitting near a boy, I mean, although the restaurant was pretty thrilling too. We shared a burger and the bill came with a small pot of Smarties, which seemed the height of ironic decadence. He paid and afterwards walked me back through the dark streets of Chelsea to put me on the N137 home to Stockwell, so it was a relatively chaste evening. Not the sort of thing that gets poets excited. But it felt practically Byronic to me – the late night, the Smarties, the slow meander to the Sloane Street bus stop. I swooned about it for months once safely back at boarding school. I understand it, in other words. I understand that late-night dining can be exciting, and romantic, possibly even a little dangerous if your alarm is going off soon. But my appetite for danger must have waned in the intervening 23 years because dicey behaviour these days means going to sleep after 11pm. Perhaps this is more to do with age than Covid. Or both. Still, if restaurants are increasingly catering for daredevils who wish to risk indigestion and trapped wind, those of us who prefer 7pm tables may stand more of a chance. Or maybe even 6.30pm. Could you make 6.30?
