Preparatory work has started on the next development at Plasdŵr, Cardiff’s 900-acre, £2 billion garden city taking shape to the north west of the capital.
Called Cwrt Sant Ioan after St John’s Church in Danescourt, this new development is part of a wider 16.5-acre site, consisting of homes and green space, situated south of Llantrisant Road bordering Radyr, Danescourt and Fairwater, where lead Plasdŵr developer, Redrow Homes, will start work on 69 of up to 235 homes in the winter.
After securing outline planning permission in 2016, Redrow has submitted the first of three detailed planning applications for the site, this one for 69, three to five-bedroom homes. Development will be completed at the site over the next three to four years.
Up to 15% of the homes at Cwrt Sant Ioan will be affordable housing with a mix of one to three-bedroom apartments and houses planned for its third phase.
The site entrance is currently being prepared, then ground works are due to start in the autumn ahead of construction, with the first residents expected to move in around Summer 2019. There’s likely to be temporary traffic lights along Llantrisant Road during the construction period, and any additional highways works will be shared ahead of time.
During the construction, hedgerows will be replanted or replaced and there will be areas of public open space to the east, south and west of the site including ponds and retained existing woodlands.
The first sections of new footpaths and cycleways will be created through Cwrt Sant Ioan and will eventually run through Plasdŵr and connect to the existing Ely and Taff trails.
Cwrt Sant Ioan is the fourth site within Plasdŵr’s first phase, with its first residents already living in some of the 126 Redrow homes to the north of Llantrisant Road. Bellway is due to start work on 120 homes in the Autumn also to the north of Llantrisant Road, and Redrow is building up to 290 homes to the south of Pentrebane Road in the St Fagans ward.
Plasdŵr is identified in Cardiff’s Local Development Plan as key to the city’s economic growth, with up to 7,000 homes planned over the next 20 years at the site bordering Radyr, Fairwater, Pentrebane and St Fagans. It will have four distinct centres of individual character, each with a central square and primary school. There will also be a secondary school, shops, offices, health and leisure centres, pubs and restaurants.
Plasdŵr project director Wayne Rees, said: “With each new development at Plasdŵr we’re laying the foundations of a world-class sustainable community.
“This development will bring contemporary homes, public open space, sustainable transport routes and play areas.”
Described as a 21st Century garden city, Plasdŵr has been modelled on the original garden city movement’s principles of “fresh air, sunlight, breathing and playing room”, designed around the natural landscape and will be characterised by green open spaces which will account for up to 40% of its entire area.
Plasdŵr holds regular community-drop in sessions in the local neighbourhoods to update local residents and answer any questions. The next sessions are at the New School Rooms in Radyr on 6th September 4-7pm and Danescourt Primary School on 26 September 3-7pm.