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Cardiff Parkway Station and New Business Park Approved

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Cardiff Parkway is a new railway station proposed within the Hendre Lakes development, St Mellons, has been awarded planning permission and is expected to welcome more than 800,000 passengers a year.

There are also plans for a neighbouring business park with 90,000sqm of commercial floorspace, which could include buildings up to 15 storeys tall. It’s unclear when construction will start but the station is due to open in 2024.

The new train station would mean journey times into the city centre massively cut, with services taking just seven minutes into Cardiff Central, as well as mainline train services to Bristol, London and beyond. Neighbouring communities will be connected to the development and the railway station by new cycle paths and walking routes. Bus facilities will make it easier for local services to call at the station and there will be parking and drop-off facilities. The station will run 8 trains every hour to Cardiff and Newport.

The station would be built privately, by father-and-son team Nigel and Andrew Roberts, under the name Cardiff Parkway Developments Ltd, with backing from the Welsh Government.

Nigel Roberts, Chairman of Cardiff Parkway Developments, said:

“We are delighted to have gained a positive outcome at planning committee today for this transformational project. Our proposals are for a sustainable, well-connected business district with public transport and active travel at its heart. We have worked hard with key stakeholders for a number of years and this decision brings forward a key recommendation of the South East Wales Transport Commission and the Union Connectivity Review.

“The project will bring investment to an area of Cardiff that needs it, create new employment opportunities, and better connect people in this region of south east Wales. We are aiming to deliver convenient and quick services, with a high-quality customer experience, particularly for public transport and active travel, to encourage sustainable transport to become the obvious choice. We are looking forward to progressing the scheme.”

Cardiff council granted the planning permission at a meeting on Wednesday, April 4, but councillors have raised concerns as the site is on the edge of the Gwent Levels

Cardiff Council Planning Committee from Business News Wales on Vimeo.

Councillor Iona Gordon said:

“I'm 100% behind the railway station, but it's at a huge cost.

“We need and want a station but this is at the cost of massive development of tall buildings on the flat Gwent Levels and I'm really concerned about the impact this is going to have.”

Throughout the area runs a network of ecologically-important narrow watercourses called reens and the plans include conditions to maintain and protect them, as well as to replace tress cut down with newly-planted ones, and to create wildlife corridors for protected species.

A new park would be created, as well as several footpaths and cycling routes.

Business News Wales