Fairwater/Pentrebane do seem to be getting double shafted compared to other wards with little to no consultation from residents though, I'm glad they're getting a chance to be a nuisance even if that is all they manage.

The city definitely needs expansion and road travel is horrendous, but the lack of clarity on development strategy from the council isn't helping to stem grievances either.

Here you go, Cambo Dire. The Daily Wales' take on this. How is London, by the way?

"Cardiff’s Local Development Plan (LDP) has been put under scrutiny after residents of the Fairwater district voted overwhelmingly last night to hold a local referendum on the adoption of the plan. The referendum, which will be the first in Cardiff since 2010, will ask electors in the Fairwater ward if they agree that the council’s deposit LDP should be taken forward.

The LDP, which is the master plan for Cardiff’s development until 2026, proposes that between 41,000 and 45,000 new homes will be needed in the city by 2026. Controversially, 19,000 of these new homes are earmarked for green field sites around the fringes of Cardiff. These green fields, which are currently used for farming, would become vast new suburbs.

Opponents of the plans to build on green fields have a number of objections to the LDP. They claim that the council has over-estimated how much the population of Cardiff will grow between 2006 and 2026 and that this over-estimate has meant that the council has planned to build far too many homes.

Furthermore, opponents believe that the loss of irreplaceable agricultural land is short-sighted and will put pressure on food supplies, and that the loss of green spaces at the fringe of the city will have a negative effect on amenity and well-being.

Perhaps the most serious concern for the residents of Cardiff is that by building an extra 45,000 homes by 2026 (there are currently about 135,000 homes in Cardiff) the council will put terrible pressure on the city’s already overstretched infrastructure. Cardiff and Vale University Health Board had the highest bed-occupancy rate in Wales according to recent figures and many of the city’s schools, dentists and GP surgeries are full.

However it is Cardiff’s transport infrastructure that may be put under the greatest pressure if the LDP is adopted. Bottlenecks along Newport Road, Penarth Road, Caerphilly Road and in Llandaf could cause widespread gridlock with even a small increase in traffic. But with the proposed increase in population and housing, Cardiff could grind to a halt.

To avoid ‘Carmageddon’ the council has pinned its hopes on a South Wales Metro to ease pressure on the roads. Unfortunately, neither the Labour government in Cardiff or the Tory/ Lib Dem coalition in Westminster seem keen to fund the electrification of the rail network, which would be vital to the proposed Metro. Cardiff council has plans to introduce Rapid Bus Transit between a new north-west suburb and the city centre. This would exclude most other traffic from Cowbridge Road East, resulting in cars and trucks being displaced onto other routes such as Lansdowne Road and Cathedral Road.


Residents of Fairwater have perhaps the most to lose if the LDP is adopted as at least 5,000 homes are proposed to be built on the green fields between Fairwater, St Fagans and Radyr. Instead of living on the edge of the countryside, with relatively easy access to the city and the M4, residents would find it difficult to travel from their homes by car. A proposal to re-open the rail line between Fairwater and Creigau could, if adopted, see many homes demolished.

The meeting at Ysgol Gyfun Plasmawr attracted hundreds of electors and they voted by 241 to 20 in favour of holding a referendum. Fairwater councillor Neil McEvoy (Plaid Cymru/Party of Wales) told the Daily Wales that dozens of would-be voters were locked out of the meeting due to the limited capacity in the hall.

The referendum result will be non-binding but in the event of overwhelming opposition to the LDP the council may be forced to rethink its proposals. Each of the 22 local authorities in Wales has produced an LDP and there is considerable opposition to the plans throughout the country. Fairwater may be the first of many communities to challenge what opponents of LDPs say is over-development by councils and profiteering by house-builders."

Your bigoted attack on the people of Fairwater will make it into the Daily Wales next time you or the Tax Advisory Group are mentioned in any other media.

Or maybe the Daily Wales will do a piece on you sooner than that and show our thousands of readers just how bigoted London can make a son of the Valleys.

I was being tongue-in-cheek, re-writing the Echo headline in the kind of language they use (full of emotive terms and grossly simplifying reality). I was being purposefully provocative. However, I stand by the main thrust of what I was saying.

Report me for what? Suggesting that the Daily Wales run a story on the bigoted comments of a man recently appointed to a public body? There's no mileage in that. I think the public deserves to know about David Phillips' bigoted comments on the elderly and Fairwater residents.
His impartiality, being a Labour supporter, has always been in doubt. Unfortunately for bigots, there is no law against any media outlet reprinting their public comments.

Can we keep things civil, please?

I have some sympathy with both sides in this arguement but threats and invective don't make either point of view look good.

The residents of Fairwater are legaly entitled to hold their referendum. The chance of it changing the council's mind on the basics of the LDP and the Metro plan are pretty slim but describing people who are simply excercising their democratic rights as "hundreds of selfish old residents with too much time on their hands" is beyond the pale in my view.

Similarly, people post here anonomously. Assuming you know who a poster is and then making threats, however mild those threats are, doesn't look good.

in what way is he a bigot? he is exercising his right to express his opinion. Perhaps you need to appreciate that people are perfectly entitled to disagreed with the nonsense (and it is nonsense) that you post. by all means attack his post, but leave out the emotional outbursts and personal attacks.

He is a bigot because he said:

"Hundreds of selfish old residents with too much time on their hands, and little consideration for younger people struggling to buy a house close to where they work, rushed to a meeting to ensure that people are forced to commute to work from further, that there is more pollution, or jobs go elsewhere and Wales is left worse off".

That is quite a bigoted view about the elderly. Do you understand or do you need me to explain it more thoroughly?

Do you realise the irony in you telling me that people have the right to express themselves and not suffer personal attacks, and then calling what I write "nonsense"?

I'm guessing that you don't understand irony.

it's far from bigoted. it's suggesting that, based on the empirical evidence of the photograph, that the majority are old and that considering they are only interested in their own little fiefdom rather than the city region as whole, then yes they are selfish. as has already been explained, it was said tongue in cheek.

it would help if others appreciate houses need to be built and they need to be built somewhere. it is easy to say don't build any more when you already have a residence, but perhaps you need to also consider the needs of those who currently don't have anywhere to live.


you will have to explain as it is lost on me. your post was nonsense, in my opinion. that is not a personal attack on you the poster. perhaps you aren't able to differentiate between the two. if that is the case I apologise.

you keep on guessing as its pretty much all you've been doing thus far.

my final point. anyone who owns a car cannot ever complain of traffic. perhaps if these harry hardlucks and sally sobstories spent as much energy on a bicycle or shank's pony as they do in bellyaching about how miserable their existence is, then they'd appreciate travel across Cardiff using something other than the velocipede that their arse is inexplicably glued to is actually possible.

You manage to combine nonsense, gibberish and gobbledygook in a way that is utterly depressing. Nothing I wrote was nonsense.

Just how elderly people, parents or the disabled should manage to get around hilly Fairwater or Pentrebane, or anywhere else for that matter, without a car seems to be beyond your very limited understanding.

I suggest that you google the phrase 'cocaethylene and brain damage' before you embarrass yourself any further.

Exactly do we really want more welsh speakers moving to Cardiff, us English speakers need to protect Fair-water, from the welsh speaking nationalists