Cyngor Bro Morgannwg
Vale of Glamorgan Council

By signing up to the Placemaking Wales Charter, the Vale has made a commitment to develop ‘high quality places’ that ‘work for the benefit of local communities.’ The Placemaking Principle of People and Community prioritises ‘the health and well-being of all people from the outset’ and states that new developments should ‘protect or enhance a sense of community’ however when concerns were raised by residents about the impact on health infrastructure, no mitigation or assurances were given in the council’s response other than to state the council will be in discussion with the health board.
In the same way, the concerns about noise and air pollution for local residents (as well as increased travel times for people in surrounding communities) have not been adequately addressed in this response. This doesn’t build trust with us as a local community but instead appears to ignore our lived experience of living in an already-congested area with poor transport links. The council’s responses even go as far as to dismiss the STA modelling that they themselves have commissioned as too cautious; instead, there’s mention of greater reliance on existing bus routes which in reality are wholly insufficient. This leads directly into the Placemaking principle of Movement – where walking, cycling and public transport are prioritised to avoid dependence on private vehicles and well-designed and safe active travel routes connect to the wider public transport network and public transport stations… Despite this, the council’s response to residents’ well-placed concerns and experience of insufficient and unreliable public transport in and around Weycock Cross is simply to reference the existence of bus services B1, B2 and 304.
Of these, the B1 service only serves Weycock Cross once a day (at 5:18pm) while the B2 service does not pass until 9:42 in the morning. According to the report, these services connect us as residents to Barry station and beyond, but under greater scrutiny it is apparent that none of these bus services go near Barry station, nor indeed any of the other Barry train stations.
Likewise, the placemaking principle of Identity commits to value and respect existing places – their uniqueness, their heritage and their natural, physical attributes. As the Vale Council itself said previously when rejecting the last planning application –Weycock Cross is a sensitive location between urban and rural land with a defensible clear-cut boundary differentiating between urban Barry and the countryside beyond. This proposal in no way respects the rural, open landscape of the area, a feature that’s unique within Barry. Indeed, residents of the Weycock Cross area have historically migrated to the area precisely due to its location at this natural open boundary - Barry will no longer be a diverse mix of differing communities if everywhere becomes the same.