Community has remained a key focus for the Plasdŵr development team throughout 2019. Over the course of the year we’ve continued to meet with members of our neighbouring communities at seven drop-in sessions, five community council meetings and two PACT meetings.
This year we welcomed 143 families as they became Plasdŵr residents and went along to resident events on the Parc Plymouth and Cae St Fagans developments including the electric bike event which attracted both Plasdŵr residents and those from existing communities. Meeting with our new Plasdŵr residents and supporting the growth of our new community is key to its success, and we’ve been helping facilitate resident initiatives like walking school buses. We’re looking forward to welcoming more families in 2020.
There continues to be a lot of interest in Plasdŵr from local schools. This year we arranged 13 lessons at schools in our neighbouring communities to teach pupils more about the development and what it will be like. Weather permitting, some pupils also had an opportunity to visit the developments and talk to the site managers about their roles. Earlier in the year we became members of the Cardiff Commitment, an initiative to encourage businesses in Cardiff to offer careers advice and work experience to local schools, and went along to Open Your Eyes Week 2019 to talk to pupils about careers in the construction industry.
Transport understandably continues to be a key issue for local residents. Throughout the year we’ve been in regular contact with the Radyr Road Safety Group and attended community council meetings to answer questions about traffic, and specifically the work taking place along Llantrisant Road, giving as much information as we can about the plans and timescales. While cars will have their place at Plasdŵr, our hope is that more residents will choose to walk, cycle and use the bus. This year we distributed 27 £50 cycle vouchers to Plasdŵr households to be redeemed at The Bike Shed in Pontcanna. We’ve also been working closely with local schools to support the creation of their active travel plans – every school in Cardiff will need to have one in place by 2021.
In 2019 we became members of Cynnal Cymru, to demonstrate our commitment to sustainability. For Plasdŵr this means more than just being environmentally conscious, it’s also about creating a place where people can live, work, go to school and shop locally without having to leave Plasdŵr. We also launched our upcycling initiative which donates leftover construction materials to community initiatives. So far we’ve helped Cylch Meithrin Pentrebaen create a new outdoor space for the nursery and donated materials to the archaeological dig currently taking place in Llandaff. As members of the Parc Radur playground regeneration group, we’ve continued to attend meetings and do what we can to support the park’s reopening. This has proven to be more complicated than we originally thought due to unforeseen drainage issues, but we’re hoping to make good progress in the new year.
Throughout the year we supported 13 community events or initiatives and attended the Radyr May Festival, Radyr Parish and Pentrebane Zone Christmas events. We’re in regular contact with local community councils as well as Cardiff councillors to make sure we’re on top of any local concerns and issues, which we do our best to address in our regular blogs and monthly e-bulletins. We’re looking forward to building on these relationships in 2020 and continuing to find positive ways to work together.