Houses on a Cardiff estate have been boarded up and many have moved out as demolition work begins in a major redevelopment programme. Work began on Monday, February 20 to take down the first of 214 homes at the Channel View estate in Grangetown.
Many of the 56 houses set to be demolished as part of Cardiff council’s huge house-building programme are boarded up with developers at the site carrying out preparatory work. Of the 214 homes to be demolished 158 of them will be apartments.
Developers will replace the homes over several phases with 400 to be built. Cardiff council said its vision for Channel View is “to deliver affordable, sustainable homes for the existing residents, better links to public transport and the wider area and provide public spaces for the residents and wider community to enjoy”.
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Channel View was built by the River Taff in the 1970s, and many of the houses there suffer from subsidence, while the existing apartment tower has fire safety issues. The new homes will all be built to a low carbon standard, with better insulation, solar panels for electricity, and ground source heat pumps for heating.
But some residents living on the estate spoke in 2021 about their anxiety when they heard the news their homes would soon be destroyed. Neighbours Clare and Myrtle, who have lived on the estate for decades, shared their worries over the loss of community spirit, even though the council said it would rehome everyone on the estate if they wished to stay there. “When you move you haven’t got the same people by you," 89-year-old Myrtle said. "You could be miles away from someone you knew. You get to know your neighbours, you get to know anybody. If I know anything, I always phone my neighbour Clare. You can’t have that bond anymore."
Original plans stated that the first phase would see two apartment blocks built for people over 55 at the northern edge of the estate. One block will be 13 storeys tall with 57 apartments, and the other will be eight storeys tall with 24 apartments. A new cafe will be included on the ground floor of the northern block, facing the river Taff and the Marl park. Later phases will see 319 homes built across the estate.
Part of the new homes will be built on the southern and western edges of the Marl park, meaning the park will lose about nine per cent of its area. But councillors on the planning committee said this would be offset by “lots of little new parks” within the redevelopment.
Councillor Lynda Thorne said: “Our plans for Channel View will create a greener, more sustainable, more attractive neighbourhood for people living in the area, with high-quality community spaces and better connectivity to public transport, shops and local facilities. Phase one will provide contemporary, sustainable, flexible new properties suitable for people's changing needs as they age, to replace the existing block of flats.
"I know that many of the tenants in the high rise are already impatient to move into these new homes and they will be just as excited as me about today's good news. This will be just the first step in our exciting masterplan, the first piece of the jigsaw, that over the coming years will come together to create a thriving, desirable place to live in Grangetown, with a good mix of private houses and apartments as well extra council homes we need so much to help tackle growing pressures for good quality affordable homes."
Future phases will see houses knocked down on South Clive Street, to create through routes from the bottom of Channel View Road for a bus, and to the Ferry Road park for walkers and cyclists. To get more Cardiff stories straight to your inbox, subscribe to our daily newsletter here.
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