At a planning meeting a few weeks ago the planning committee met objections from Whitchurch Councillor Linda Morgan with petitions from local residents and another when from when Jonathan Morgan was AM. Current AM Julie Morgan also made some comments which can all be read on the Friends of Forest Farm website.

A decision was made for a site visit which is happening this Monday, January 30th at 1.15pm starting at the Hospital entrance on Park Road.

The planning report suggests that 300 new houses will create a “28 peak time vehicle movements” and that the traffic on Park Road and Pendwyallt Road has been on a steady decline since 1991.
I’m not sure what planet they are on but it must be on a planet where you don’t have to drive through Whitchurch to get to it as the whole highways system in the village is at breaking point at any time of the day.

Friends of Forest Farm have got an email of support from BBC Nature presenter Iolo Williams and are urging members of the public to attend the meeting on Monday to show their support to the campaign.

This is just another example of Cardiff County Council trying to steam-roll a major development without proper research and public consultation.
The council say 270 letters were sent out to surrounding streets – less than 3% of the population of Whitchurch and it is quite obvious that a development of this size will impact all the residents.
One might also ask the question where the children of the new homes might go to school….but as we know that’s a whole other story.

Links:

www.forestfarm.org.uk
Planning Report (pdf)
Julie Morgans Objections
Email from Iolo Williams

Residents accept that that this piece of land must be developed, but they are unhappy at the way the Council has handled the case. A complaint has been submitted to the Ombudsman and a legal challenge is being considered. Residents believe that the Council has acted unreasonably and with bias. The Council’s Estates Department advertised the site for sale before the application had been considered by Planning Committee. The advert stated that the land was due to come to market with the benefit of outline planning permission for residential development. The application did not get a fair hearing and this is one of the major grounds for complaint. Between June and November the Council ignored 5 letters of complaint and ignoring requests for information.

We understand that the Council is currently considering bids to use the land as a either a care home or for residential purposes. Such a use would be very similar to the previous use as an older people’s Resource Centre. We consider that this would be a more appropriate use of the land, avoiding parking problems and peak hour traffic pressures down the very narrow access lane. There is also a serious shortage of care home places, both in Whitchurch and in the City of Cardiff. At the very least, we believe local residents should have been consulted on these options.

You can discuss this development over in the forums.
Please email us urgently with your views on this to WHAG99@gmail.com. This will also enable us to send you updates.
If you are interested in helping with this campaign please let us know – especially if you have legal, planning or communications expertise.

To celebrate this change, there is a Launch Event happening right here in Whitchurch on Thursday November 17th at Whitchurch Community Centre in the hope of gaining new members and new Watchgroups.

There are many active Watches in Cardiff but there are equally some groups that are in decline and at risk of becoming dormant.
With the support of South Wales Police and National Neighbourhood Watch it is hoped that residents all over the city can work together on a street by street basis and look after each other and the surrounding properties.

The launch event is open from 3pm until 7pm and anyone can drop in during these times for a friendly chat and see why Neighbourhood Watch is so important and what they can do to make sure they get the maximum benefit for their street. People can come and talk to current NHW Co-ordinators, PCSO’s and officers from all over Cardiff and representitives from National Neighbourhood Watch.

To coincide with this event, a new website has been launched for the association: www.cardiffnhw.org.uk with the aims of helping existing NHW groups and to provide a platform for anyone interesting in joining a Watch group or if none currently exists in the area, starting up a new one.
Bringing Cardiff NHW into the 21st century they are embracing social media with a facebook page and a twitter account which should help keep members communicating on a frequent basis.

Neighbourhood Watch on the web:

www.cardiffnhw.org.uk
Cardiff NHW Facebook
Cardiff NHW Twitter
www.ourwatch.org.uk – National NHW website
Our Bobby

These are provided by South Wales Police

Present:
Chairman Pete Ryan
Cllr Tim Davies
Cllr Brian Griffiths
PC Stuart Cozens
PC Paul Tebbutt
PCSO Emma Bowden
Bill Farnham (neighbourhood watch)

This was my first PACT Meeting since before the summer and I was pleased to see 18 members of the public arrive for the meeting, two were student journalists writing on crime prevention in Cardiff.
One gentlemen had brought a large kitchen knife with him…..he’d found it laying on the ground at Whitchurch Common and handed it over to the police.

An update from the Hollybush estate was given, several arrests and warrants issued, mostly drugs related.

There was no update on the non-emergency number 101 as there had been confusion at the last meeting on what sort of incidents should be raised to 101 or the Council after 101 had referred people to Connect2Cardiff who were then referred back to 101.

Some residents from Old Church Road questioned what could be done about the on-going graffitti problem at the back lane of their houses. The lane which exits at the rear of the car park has previously had bollards installed (which have now been damaged and vandalised) but residents were asking if the exit of the lane could be blocked off completely. Councillors will look into this and update at the next meeting.

Bill Farnham gave the Neighbourhood Watch update outlining the recent change of name from Cardiff West NHW to South Wales NHW, Cardiff and also the new NHW group recently launched at Whitchurch Rugby Club for Samuels Crescent.

And that’s about it. No soapbox moments or anyone telling their life stories.

The Next PACT Meeting is Tues 6th December at the International Hotel, Tongwynlais at 7pm