Progress on Allensbank House parking

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Wed 6th Aug 2008

Cllr. Ed Bridges and his Lib Dem colleagues have been working to address parking congestion in the area around Allensbank House on Clodien Avenue.

Lib Dems in Gabalfa ward and Heath ward have been working hard to address local parking congestion.

For several years, residents in the area around Allensbank Road and Clodien Avenue have experienced significant parking congestion, caused partly by tenants from the student halls at Allensbank House parking on surrounding residential streets. This is despite tenants of the site being prohibited from parking in the area under the halls' planning permission.

A recent Lib Dem petition about the issue attracted hundreds of signatures from the local community, and called on Unite (who run the halls) to work with the council to address the problem. It also called on the Welsh Assembly (who granted planning permission for the site) to take action.

As a result of the petition, a meeting was convened last month to look for a way forward. Representatives from Unite met with council officers and local councillors and, as a result, several key points were agreed to address the parking congestion issue:

• Unite have agreed to look at making more on-site parking spaces available to their tenants on a trial basis. The aim would be to allocate on-site parking to tenants whose university course unavoidably requires them to own a car.

• The council will be contacting the universities in Cardiff to ask them to avoid allocating students to Allensbank House if their course is likely to require them to have a car.

• Unite have agreed to meet on a regular basis in future with council representatives so that progress on the issue can be monitored.

• Unite have re-affirmed that local residents can report any problems with Allensbank House tenants parking on local streets to the Manager of the halls, and that they will do all they can to take action when this happens.

Lib Dem councillor for Gabalfa, Ed Bridges, said: "This represents progress on the issue, and we were pleasantly surprised by Unite's willingness to engage with the problem. It also demonstrated that our petition which so many local residents signed had an important impact on the responsible authorities.

Cllr. Fenella Bowden, who represents Heath & Birchgrove, added: "We will continue to work on behalf of residents to address the issue of parking congestion around Allensbank House. We believe strongly that the problem can be solved if the relevant bodies and the local community work together."

Sadly, the Welsh Assembly chose not to attend the meeting and to help local residents on the matter. Lib Dem Parliamentary spokesman for Cardiff North, John Dixon, said: "We had written to the relevant Assembly Minister, explaining that planning permission for the site was granted by the Welsh Assembly and that many residents felt the Assembly had a moral obligation to address the parking problem. However, the Minister (Labour's Jane Davidson AM) wrote back to say that she 'did not consider it would be appropriate to attend'. We were disappointed by that attitude, and feel it shows a contempt for the problems residents are experiencing."