Cyngor Bro Morgannwg
Vale of Glamorgan Council

Further to our conversation I am writing to ask if you can raise the concerns we spoke of regarding the ´Housing Growth in Barry’ consultation document to the Sennedd. As you know, we and a large number of residents in this north west area of Barry are very concerned about the ramifications that will ensue from a development of 370 new houses opening onto the already gridlocked Weycock Roundabout. This ´pinch point’ lies on a main route between emergency services (fire, ambulance and police) and the airport. Who in their right mind would put further pressure here?

TRAFFIC and AIR POLLUTION
will increase exponentially and the measures the council and developer are proposing will not properly address them. Extra (very narrow) lanes entering the roundabout and a few traffic lights will not stop the gridlock. In fact they could increase it. The backups would extend beyond the lengths of Pontypridd Road, Port Road and ‘Five mile Lane’. They already do - quite frequently - at the slightest traffic hiccup. Despite the council’s assertion that public transport is available, there is none from the roundabout to and from the railway station or town centre. They assert that there are buses. This is not true. If they can lie about this patent untruth, how can we trust any of their or the developer’s ‘studies’. Inevitably the new residents would use their cars to access all services, and walking or cycling from Weycock Cross to station or shops and back is not really feasible. It is a big climb back, and very few residents are capable of it.
The same lack of clear vision and honesty is true for the ‘mitigation packages’ proposed on other matters of serious concern to us:

SERVICES
GP and dental services are already at over capacity in our area. If health and wellbeing are important to this Labour administration, then increasing the load on overstretched services that we all know will not have capacity to meet that demand, would seem cavalier. There will also be need for a considerable number of school places, and those children will need to get to and from school. Secondary schoolchildren can walk if they can safely cross the roads. Traffic lights to enable this will of course cause even longer delays for road traffic. There are no easy answers. For primary pupils it is not walkable. This will mean more cars on the road at extremely busy times.

DRAINAGE and SEWERAGE for Pontypridd Road, St James Crescent and Nant Talwg Way is already inadequate, and tarmacking over a large area of ‘Green Wedge’ which currently helps to drain the heavier rains caused by climate change, will make things worse. Many of us already experience foul smells at times. The system is already failing.

The chosen developers, Persimmon, have shown themselves to be untrustworthy in honouring contracted commitments, as seen in relation to their buildings on the Barry Waterfront. They also have a dismal record on the quality of their construction countrywide. It is widely reported as shoddy. How can it be responsible for a Labour administration to even consider entrusting them not to cause real damage on what is a very sensitive site?

ECOLOGY and BIODIVERSITY
The arguments the council puts out for abandoning the Green Wedge at north west Barry would seem to be spurious, formulated to justify their own backtracking on the reasons upheld for the Wedge in 2015. The loss of green space that housing and hardcore will replace is unforgivable. There will be less uncovered land to drain the increasing heavy rainfall. The impact on biodiversity will also be felt. Loss of habitat is a main reason for the drastic decline in wildlife species countrywide. Bats, field mice, otters, owls, raptors, wood pigeons and skylarks inhabit these fields. Swallows skim them in summer for the plethora of insects. Wrens and other small birds nest in the scrub and hedges surrounding them. From my garden I hear the songs of robins, wood pigeons, blackbirds, dunnocks, tits and goldfinches. Skylarks nest in them all through spring and summer, their songs lifting up into the air above us as they rise. These are endangered red-listed birds. THIS is biodiversity. These Green Wedge fields act as a wildlife corridor, (essential for successful breeding and survival) between the country park and the further landscape. Take it away and it is gone for good. Yet more numbers of species will be lost. Wildlife is not just a luxury. It is the web that supports the health and wellbeing of all creatures on this earth, ourselves included.
(For me, as an artist and a gardener this aspect is close to my heart. Landscape, vegetation and wildlife are key inspirations.)

CONSULTATION
Others within our group, with far better digital skills than I have tell me that the data they offer is flawed and often self-contradictory. And it is here, that the real nub of our complaints becomes apparent. The quantity, complexity, inaccessibility and sheer chaotic organisation of the online consultation process makes it well-nigh impossible for the average resident to navigate and respond to. We struggle to ‘read’ or understand the thousands of pages of graphs and text. It is dispiriting and the cause of significant distress. In truth it is an information dump rather than a consultation. This makes a mockery of democracy and fairness.

I know this is a strong message, and I don’t enjoy having to write it. I and many of my neighbours, who are long time Labour voters, feel betrayed by Labour. This is desperately sad. It’s not the fact that they want to build more housing, we know that is needed, but this is not the right place for it, not for us, or the future people who would live in it. But most of all it is about how the council is so dismissively treating us.