We have a vacancy on the Community Council following the departure of one of our Morganstown councillors.  

The Notice of Vacancy in Office of Community Councillor is published today.  You can see the Notice here:

Notice of Vacancy in Office of Community Councillor    

Further to our earlier news item (Roadworks to continue for eight months), we thought you might like to see exactly what's being built along these roadworks. So here are some of the plans published in Cardiff Council’s North West Transport Corridor document. Click on each image to see a larger version.

We have posted on here before about the fact that the road works on and near the junction of Heol Isaf and Llantrisant Road are likely to continue until summer 2020. You can read the previous story here.

Recently, we received this message from Plasdwr, which we share with you:

From Plasdwr:

The works around the Llantrisant Road junction with Heol Isaf are complex and will therefore be ongoing until summer 2020. They include road widening to incorporate a bus lane and cycleway, totally new utility infrastructure, drainage works and then the permanent traffic lights.

The associated traffic management systems in place during the works will vary according to what is being done at the time. We are working closely with Cardiff Council to get the work done as swiftly as possible given the inevitable disruption which, we understand, is very frustrating for road-users. 

These are part of a wider plan for Llantrisant Road and the next phase of works will be between Clos Parc Radur and Goitre Fach including road widening for the new bus lane and the construction of two new junctions.

The reasons for these roadworks are rooted in Cardiff Council’s strategy to ensure that people can choose to walk, cycle and use public transport rather than drive. In line with that, the network within Plasdŵr has been planned so that walking, cycling and public transport will be the easiest ways to get around. For existing, neighbouring roads, we are delivering transport improvements also in line with that strategy as part of our community contributions, and the works on Llantrisant Road are part of those. 
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For more information on the full scope of works for Llantrisant Road, please see Cardiff Council’s North West Transport Corridor document here.

Radyr and Morganstown Community Council has written to planning consultant, Philippa Cole, who is undertaking a pre-planning application consultation on behalf of Taff Housing Association, for 45 new homes in an area which is currently a woodland.

Although outside our administrative boundary, the land involved is an area of woodland used by Radyr and Morganstown residents.

In our response to Philippa Cole we argue that the woodland, and the paths that run through it, are much enjoyed by walkers from Radyr, Morganstown, Danescourt and Llandaf. They provide part of a continuous, natural route, free of traffic, through woodlands, all the way from Radyr to the centre of town (including alongside the river at Llandaf, behind the Cathedral and through Bute Park).

In a densely populated city, having such a facility is rare and precious - and should be maintained at all costs.

We also argue that the proposed development is unnecessary, because there are already 6,000 homes being built very close to this area (the Plasdwr development). Plasdwr is removing enough open, green space. This new proposal would remove even more of our natural environment - from an otherwise densely populated location - which would mean that the loss of this woodland would have a heightened impact.

You can see our letter to Pippa, here.

Here is a satellite image showing the land as it is at present (the houses you can see are part of the Danescourt estate). The proposed housing would, more or less, lead to the removal of the bottom half of the woodland - as you can see from the second picture.

And here are some pictures of some of the paths that run through the woodland:

You can read more here:

 a) Philippa Cole's consultation (where you can submit your views)

​b) Campaign group website.

Do you support this development? Or would you prefer to keep the woods as they are? Take part in our survey, here - and let us know!

Readers may recall that we asked Eluned Morgan for help in making this website fully bilingual. She has funding to support the development of Welsh language technology. So we asked her to support a project that would enable community councils (and other, small organisations) to publish bilingual websites.

The project would produce a system similar to ConveyThis, which enables readers to 'toggle' between Welsh and English pages - and, importantly, provides a super-convenient and efficient way to edit translations generated by Google Translate, or by Microsoft's Bing translate. But ConveyThis comes at a cost.

Without such a system, we have to rely on Bing translate. This, however, takes the reader to a seperate browser page - and to the site's home page (away from the page that the reader wanted to read). In addition, Bing translates the entire site every time a reader uses it - so we have no control over the accuracy of the translation (which is far from satisfactory).

The Welsh Government would not rely on a system that produced inaccurate translations!

We calculated that this project could save Wales' community councils a total of £1.4m per annum (compared to the cost of ConveyThis) - and enable all of them (and ​other, small organisations) to have bilingual websites. 

Even so - Eluned Morgan has refused to fund such a project. 

​Her initial response referred us to her aim of delivering the priorities set out in her Welsh Language Technology Action Plan. When we pointed out that those priorities included 'improving computer assisted translation' and 'facilitating the proactive offer of Welsh language choice in services and interfaces' her second response simply repeated her aim of delivering the priorities set out in her plan. Nothing more.

She offered no comment about the merits, or otherwise, of developing a project that would enable community councils (and other, small organisations) to publish bilingual websites - whilst saving community councils £1.4m per annum. Nor did she indicate that she may consider funding such a project in future. 

There can be no doubt that many people, including the 15% of people in Radyr and Morganstown who can speak Welsh, would argue that this was an unsatisfactory response from Eluned Morgan, Wales' Minister for International Relations and the Welsh Language. 

So we continue to use Bing translate, which is not entirely satisfactory.

​You can read the exchange of correspondence below:

Our first letter.
Eluned's first.
Our second.
Eluned's second.