The news that Cardiff music venue Gwdihw is to close in January is one that should concern us , not only because of the loss oaf a music venue , but it reflects the continuing saga of demolishing Cardiff's Past to build soulless tower blocks. Espically those intended for Student Accommodation which do not have to meet full planing regulations.
According to Walesonline
I am once again loath to quote "Welsh" Ukip leader Gareth Bennett but just as a broken Clock may be right twice a day , a far right populists, should not be ignored for his loathsome views if he or she raise relevent issues
It has now emerged that landlords are not renewing the lease because they want to demolish the entire block.
The application has gone into Cardiff council while the local authority is consulting on a proposal to give the area conservation status to protect it.
It is not yet known whether the demolition application will be able to go through Cardiff's planning processes before the city council can officially give the street Conservation Area protected status.
Two longstanding city restaurants Thai House and Madeira are both also in the same block and are being forced out by the landlord.
The owner of Thai House said they were devastated and had begged the landlord to let them stay.
The landowner is a firm called Rapports which owns a significant amount of property in the city centre.
The application submitted to Cardiff council is to demolish number 1-6 Guildford Crescent.The application has been made by Denstream Ltd and its associated companies.Their application says that the plan is to demolish the existing buildings "ready for redevelopment to commence".All tenants have been informed, according to the demolition statement submitted to Cardiff council, and their leases expire on January 31, 2019, and the site will be fully vacant from February 1, 2019.
The neighbouring Grade II Listed Masonic Hall which neighbours the site will not be affected.
At the moment, the small crescent is one of the few remaining original streets left in the city centre.
Just across the road on Bridge Street is one of the city's tallest buildings, nearby an already crowded and towering Churchill Way.
Cardiff council last month launched a consultation to make the crescent a conservation.
It would give the council the power to refuse demolition, alterations or development.
At the time, the council said it was "important to preserve the city's heritage".
The document reads: "Guildford Crescent is one of the few blocks unaffected by wholesale redevelopment, particularly within the south east of the city centre."It is understood that the consultation has now finished and Cardiff council is considering the responses.
Council leader Cllr Huw Thomas, said: “This council is committed to supporting live music in the city and it’s important to me that we do everything we can to help venues like Gwdihw, which play a huge part in our city’s thriving independent and cultural scene, to survive.
Diolch, Llywydd. There have been a number of successful planning applications recently for student accommodation in Cardiff. Some people have observed that virtually every major housing block granted planning permission for central Cardiff in the past 18 months has been for student accommodation. At the same time, we have a second so-called student block considering applying for change of use so that it can let its rooms to non-students, due to lack of demand from the student population. We also have a large block in Newport that is no longer being used exclusively for students. If there is a lack of demand for the blocks that have already been built, why are more student blocks being built, I wonder. Is the Welsh Government aware of this issue, and what are you doing to regulate this area?
Minister Rebecca Evans replied
Thank you for the question. I’m certainly aware of the issue, in terms of there being a large number of student accommodations within Cardiff that aren’t being occupied by students. There’s a particular difficulty in terms of changing those accommodations into non-student accommodations, of course, because my understanding is that the regulations surrounding the different types of accommodation are different, so there is an issue there in terms of space, and so on. I know this is an issue that the Minister with responsibility for planning is also very much alive to. But my advice to local authorities, certainly, would be to look very closely at their local housing needs analysis, and to be organising their planning and decision making around planning in accordance with those local housing needs.
Bennett carried on after the Ministers reply..
...Thanks for that response. I’m glad you are aware of the issue. I think there may be a need for perhaps closer involvement at Welsh Government level in this area, because the local authorities—certainly in Cardiff and Newport—may not be doing enough about it. I think that we may be heading for over-supply of student accommodation. Certainly we know that the expansion of higher education cannot go on forever; there will not be an endless supply of more student members in Cardiff, Newport, or probably anywhere else in Wales. I think what we may have here is something of a scam. It may be that the universities are deliberately creating an over-supply of flats for the student market, so that they can change their use by the back door, and use them subsequently to let out commercially. We know that there are less stringent rules applied to student flats than to commercial developments, for instance, which you alluded to in your answer. Are you aware that the universities could be duping the local councils into allowing these developments of student blocks, which the university chiefs know full well may be used subsequently for commercial letting?
Should not more respectable Welsh Politicians particularly from Cardiff in particular be raising these concerns over this .
it would be a tragedy if the Bad Guys , should destroy our Capitols herritage, because it is being defended by another Bad Guy.
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