Campaigners are renewing calls on Cardiff council to protect woodland which it is trying to sell, as new details have been revealed.
The calls come in the context of a new council policy to plant thousands of new trees across Cardiff and protect existing woodland.
A huge sewer running beneath Flaxland Woods would restrict how many houses could be built on the woodland, while several mature trees there could be legally protected.
But despite that, the council has kept the woodland on its disposal list. Its policy agreed last month on protecting woodland is “not intended to protect against development”.
Flaxland Woods is a half-acre woodland that sits between houses in Gabalfa and the A48 Western Avenue. Residents say it acts as a buffer absorbing air pollution from the busy road. The council, which owns the land, has been trying to sell it since 2019, without success.
Friends of Flaxland Woods, a local campaign group, is calling on the council to remove the woodland from its disposal list, recently writing a letter to council leader Huw Thomas.
They revealed new details about how the sewer would prevent any building near or on top of it, and how many of the mature oak and maple trees—some a century old—would also make building on the site difficult, as they would likely be subject to Tree Preservation Orders.
Rachelle Trubey, chair of Friends of Flaxland Woods, said: “The presence of mature ecology in the western part of the site, combined with the constraints [due to the sewer] in the eastern part, would prove very difficult to overcome from a development perspective.
“In addition to the new information about site constraints, we are conscious that council policy and commitments have changed significantly since Flaxland Woods was initially earmarked for sale in early 2019.”
Last month, the council’s cabinet agreed a new policy on planting thousands of new trees in Cardiff and protecting existing woodland, part of the wider ‘One Planet’ climate agenda.
In ‘Let’s Make Cardiff Greener, Healthier, Wilder’, the council said trees have an important use in removing air pollution, preventing flooding, and absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. But it seems less so, if those trees are on land that could be developed.
The policy document states: “Land in council ownership that becomes surplus to council requirements and is suitable for development will continue to be considered through the current land disposal process.
“The council’s commitment to this motion is intended to provide appropriate new spaces for community activity. It is not intended to make land available to communities to protect against development.”
Despite the restraints and the new trees policy, the council said Flaxland Woods was still on the disposal list, and up to four houses could be built on the site. The council has offered to sell the site to the Friends group, for about £30,000.
A spokesperson for Cardiff council said: “The offer remains for the local community group to acquire the entirety of the site referred to as Flaxland Woods.
“If this is not taken forward, the council would seek to develop housing on a small section of the site, which would still leave two thirds undeveloped and available for public access.
“The council has always been conscious of the site constraints and has only ever proposed to build on a proportion of the site, which is why the guide price is so low.”
The Friends group said it has explored buying the land, but would face logistical and legal hurdles, and urged the council to rethink selling the land.
Ms Trubey said: “We believe this new information, and the direction of policy travel since the land was listed for sale, afford the council an opportunity to reflect and reassess the inclusion of Flaxland Woods on the disposal list.
“While recently announced tree-planting schemes are to be applauded, such schemes will take decades to deliver equivalent benefits to existing mature woodland in terms of avoided runoff, carbon storage and sequestration, wildlife habitat provision and air pollution removal.”
