What we said at the planning meeting 28.02.2013

Ann Bennett

SOLD FOR A CAULIFLOWER!

Ann Bennett - local resident

Pant Marsh runs along the river Clun, between Talbot Green and Pontclun, and is one of the very few natural marshlands left in Wales. It is a valuable open space, and part of what makes Pontyclun a good village to live in and to bring up children.

But at a meeting on the 28th of February, RCT planning and control committee approved the development of a new town retail centre at Talbot Green. This, despite some very sound objections raised by me and many others including your own councillors M and P Griffiths. The eventual decision was obviously a foregone conclusion, and nothing was going to impress them. Councillor after councillor spoke for the development, one councillor in particular made the comment that she and her neighbours wanted to be able to buy a fresh cauliflower at Sainsbury, hence the heading.

What I find seriously bizarre and unreal is the article in RCTs newspaper OUTLOOK, the article headed "town centre transformation" where the same people crow about the huge sums of money invested, about 11 million in all, in regenerating both Pontypridd and Aberdare, and at the same time rationalizing the reason for allowing Valad’s development to go ahead, is that it will stop money leaving the valley's to shop in Cardiff and divert it instead to Talbot Green. The thinking being that will generate wealth within the valleys.

WRONG. What impact is that going to have on both the existing Talbot Green complex, and on Pontypridd, Aberdare and all the little villages and towns in between?
RCT has spent our time and money on a "shop local” campaign to keep villages functioning, there is a blinding contradiction here, don’t you think?
Valad has no interest in our little valley, they have profits to make, but I expected more from the people I knocked doors for to get them elected.

The lack of long term joined up thinking beggars belief.

I and others have asked the Welsh Government to "CALL IN” this development, in a last attempt to save us from this monstrous development.

I am very fond of Pontyclun, I just wish it had the representation it deserves,
and a bit more fizz in its pop to realize the price of a cauli is not worth risking the things that make Pontyclun worth living , as the telly tells us "because we’re worth it ".

I have resolved never to give my hard earned cash to line Valad's pockets, despite the fact that I love the cinema, I will shop local and try and get our own cinema in Pontyclun. Why not ? Cowbridge has.

Claire Williams:

 

I am a resident of Pontyclun village and a representative of the Pontyclun New Town Centre Working Group.  The Group was formed in response to Valad’s announcement of their plans for the development of a “New Town Centre” at land on the A473.

The Groups public meetings were attended by well over 100 residents, and the mailing list is subscribed by xxx people, who keep in touch with the progress of the Group and the Developers application by way of newsletters and published minutes of the Groups meetings.

I request that the council does not approve the application today.   I ask for further considerations to be made, for a number of reasons:

·       The scale & size of the proposed development;

·       The impact on the existing road network; and

·       Whether the application fulfils the RCT’s guidelines of a “New Town Centre”.

1.     My objections are based on key differences between the approved LDP and the current application. 

The LDP states “total additional non-food floor space of between 24,350 and 28,850m2 net” for Rhondda Cynon Taf... with the “largest proportion of the proposed additional floor space at Talbot Green”.   The applicant is seeking approval of 35,522m2 gross of non-food retail floor space. 

The LDP further states “The Retail Capacity Assessment (2007) indicates that there is a quantitative need for 2,507m2 net convenience retail floor space in Rhondda Cynon Taf”.   The applicant is seeking some 11,000m2 gross for the Sainsbury’s application.

I ask whether its the developers intention to confuse anyone trying to interpret and compare the stated floor space allowances within the LDP which are net figures by submitting the design and access statements in gross figures?

Further clues however can be gleaned from the Design & Access Statement for Phase 1 (which is not part of today’s discussions) which states that floor space for Sainsbury’s will be 11,000m2, of which net sales areas will be 7,230m2 (further split between food and non-food)  The non-food space figure of 4,130m2 is well in excess of the approved LDP figures of 2,507m2.

Is this an indication of the space creep being proposed for the whole development?

2.     My second point is that the proposal does not comply with RCT’s own LDP guidelines.  The LDP states that the purpose of the New Town Centre is primarily to divert economic migration from other shopping areas (i.e. Cardiff) to this new town centre, indeed the application requests some 2,360 car parking spaces to accommodate these new visitors.

As RCT’s ambition is to capture visitors who are migrating to other areas to shop there will be an increase in the traffic to the area.  The proposal does nothing to mitigate the traffic impact that these diverted visitors will make to the site. 

Indeed the application states that there will be no impact on the road network. Further that the Design and Access Statement (September 2012) seems to rely on classing this development as “unique” and therefore doesn’t need to address the issue of adding to the already over congested highways.  At 6.7 the Statement claims that the application “has no detrimental impact on traffic flows on the A473”.

The current adult population of the Pontyclun, Llantrisant and Talbot Green is approximately 13,000.  Current shopping developments in the immediate area of the proposed development provide approximately 1,579 spaces.  With the addition of the proposed 2,360 spaces a total of 3,939 car parking spaces will be available. 

If the development is intended to meet the needs of the immediate areas of Pontyclun, Llantrisant and Talbot Green, surely parking provisions which will allow almost a third of all residents to be parked at any one time across the new and existing shopping areas is excessive.  This demonstrates that this is no more than an out of town retail park, which wishes to encourage people from outside the area and to arrive by car.

I would refer to RCT’s own Traffic Assessment Report, which was commissioned in 2007 and carried out by Hyder Consulting, which says that the A4119 is already at over capacity, and that any development on this land would require extensive improvements to this key road network. Indeed it states that impact could be felt as far out as the M4 should the necessary road improvements not be made prior to any development of the nature and scale proposed be carried out.

3.     What is being proposed and presented as a “New Town Centre”, is nothing more than another out of town retail park, of which this area has sufficient provision already. 

It bears no resemblance to RCT’s guidelines on New Town Centres, which notable states that (in Policy AW5 – New Development) “The site layout and mix of use maximising opportunities to reduce dependence on cars” and “the development would have safe access to the highway network and would not cause traffic congestion or exacerbate existing traffic congestion”.

It is reasonable for most people to consider a Town Centre to be the centre of communication with public transport hubs, town halls, museums and libraries.  Town Centres are symbolic to settlements as a whole and often contain best examples of architecture, main landmark buildings, statues, and public spaces.  (Wikipedia definition of a Town Centre).   The current proposal offer very little in this regard, with the vast majority of the space given over to retail.

If this is to be a true New Town Centre to be proud of, then the size, scale, mix of use and increase of traffic is out of proportion to the existing needs of the local communities of Pontyclun, Talbot Green and Llantrisant.

If this to actually be an Out of Town Retail Park, then proper plans and proposals to support such a scheme should be submitted, with the correct and proper upgrades to the road network put in place prior to any such development proceeding.

The Design Commission for Wales’s Design Review Report dated 25^th March 2011 (to which I cannot find further more up to date reports) states that “before any detailed designs can proceed strategic decisions need to be made on access points and pedestrian connections and crossings... at present the project could hardly be less connected in terms of pedestrian and cycle movements... the proposals seem likely to deliver a project that is entirely car oriented...if this proposal is to be more than an edge-of-town retail park, it is vital to address issues beyond the site boundary.”

Finally, I must query whether the process has been a meaningful consultation?

·       there has been a lack of response to correspondence;

·       concerns of the community have not been considered in the addendums to the application; and

·       addendums have been overly long and technical which the ordinary person would find it hard to interpret (e.g. 2 weeks given to respond to the latest traffic addendum which was 197 pages long).

I would urge you therefore not to approve the current proposal.  Thank you.”

 

Len Arthur:

 

Thank you for the opportunity to speak to your proposal

I’ve been involved with the Pontyclun group mentioned in your report from the start.

I share your concerns to develop the economy of RCT and, in particular, provide additional sustainable work.

Also, as mentioned in your report, the Pontyclun group undertook a survey of residents in Pontyclun and Talbot Green and held a number of public meetings.

The main outcome was that about 30% totally opposed the development and about 10% totally in favour.

In between that figure, residents were more supportive of a Sainsburys store and supporting the retention of Leekes, but less increasingly less supportive of the other proposals.

Within our remit from local residents I would like to address the fundamental assumption in the proposal before you.

That it will attract new and existing RCT shoppers and create sustainable employment.

The intention is to demonstrate that new shopping trends have appeared since the original LDP and consequently need to be taken into account.

Thus ensuring a development that will achieve both objectives but in a different way.

In 2011 BIS published a survey showing that between 2000 – 2009 town centre retail stores fell by 15,000.

A trend that is accelerating with 10,000 further stores being lost since 2010.

Indeed in January of this year retail sales fell 0.6% but online trading increased by 8%.

Deloitte, in a report published in 2012 entitled the Changing Face of Retail stated that retail had reached a ‘tipping point’ and it was expected that stores would decline by another 30 – 40% over the next five years.

It is not just these figures that are significant for your consideration but the four mechanisms driving the changes identified by Deloitte, which are:

Consumer spending remaining weak

Business costs, especially fixed continuing to rise

The internet profoundly changing shopping patterns

 

Intensified competition

Basically – costs are rising and traditional town centre shopping demand falling.

This new situation needs to be taken account of.

What I would suggest

·        Give yourself the flexibility to consider the impact of these trends

·        Don’t lock yourself into this plan by approving the whole outline planning permission today.

·        Support Sainsburys and Leekes on the brown field site as phase 1.

·        Then review other possibilities for the rest of the brown field area.

Such as

·        an extension of the successful Coed Kilay industrial centre

·        and work with Royal Mail to develop their existing  provision into a 24 hour pick up and return depot for internet shoppers with supporting facilities.

The second suggestion would be a first and genuinely unique.

Thus, getting ahead of the new and emerging shopping trends.

Sustainably achieving your twin objectives of attracting local shoppers and providing sustainable employment.

The danger in supporting the plan today is that you provide the developer with enhanced property value which will be rapidly realised by selling on.

But RCT will be left irretrievably committed to this proposal which at worse, could end up not being realised, such as the Westfield town centre development in Bradford which has remained a hole in the ground for the last seven years.

End